Luke 10
Seventy missionaries return from their mission, a lawyer receives a story about a Samaritan who stops, and two sisters host a guest.
Summary
Jesus appoints seventy others and sends them ahead in pairs to every town and place he plans to visit. The instructions are familiar: carry no purse, no bag, no sandals; greet no one on the road; eat what is set before you; heal the sick; announce the kingdom. Towns that receive them receive Jesus; towns that reject them will fare worse than Sodom at the judgment. The seventy return with joy — Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name — and Jesus responds with the vision of Satan falling like lightning from heaven and the assurance that he has given them authority to tread on serpents and scorpions and nothing will harm them, though the reason for joy is not that the spirits obey but that their names are written in heaven. Jesus then praises the Father in a prayer of thanksgiving and addresses the disciples privately — blessed are the eyes that see what you see.
The exchange with the lawyer is one of Luke's most carefully constructed scenes. The lawyer asks how to inherit eternal life; Jesus asks what the law says; the lawyer recites the Shema and the love commandment; Jesus tells him he has answered correctly. The lawyer, wishing to justify himself, asks who counts as his neighbor. The parable of the good Samaritan that follows does not answer the question as asked. It does not define who is a neighbor to the questioner. It describes a man beaten and left on the road, a priest and a Levite who pass by on the other side, and a Samaritan who stops and provides comprehensive care at personal expense. Jesus then asks which of the three proved to be a neighbor to the man who was robbed. The answer is forced: the one who showed mercy. The parable's move is to change the question from who is my neighbor to which kind of person do I become. The chapter ends with Jesus at the home of Mary and Martha in a village — not named here as Bethany — where Martha works at serving while Mary sits at Jesus's feet and listens. Jesus defends Mary's choice against Martha's complaint.
- Luke 1Chapter 1 opens with a formal literary preface — Luke addresses a certain Theophilus and claims to have investigated everything carefully, setting himself apart as a self-conscious historian among the gospel writers.
- Luke 2Chapter 2 contains the nativity scene that dominates Western cultural memory of the gospels: the census under Quirinius, the journey to Bethlehem, the birth, the manger, the swaddling cloths, the angels appearing to shepherds in the fields at night.
- Luke 3Luke situates John's ministry with extraordinary chronological precision — the fifteenth year of Tiberius, the governorship of Pilate, the tetrarchies of Herod and Philip and Lysanias, the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas.
- Luke 4The Spirit drives Jesus into the wilderness for forty days, where the devil offers him bread, political authority over all the kingdoms of the world, and divine protection — and is refused at each turn with a quotation from Deuteronomy.
- Luke 5By the Lake of Gennesaret, the crowds press against Jesus and he steps into Simon's empty boat to teach.
- Luke 6The chapter opens with two Sabbath controversies: the disciples pluck grain as they walk through fields, and Jesus defends them by citing David's eating the showbread when his men were hungry.
- Luke 7Three distinct episodes give chapter 7 its range.
- Luke 8Chapter 8 moves quickly across a range of narrative modes.
- Luke 9Chapter 9 is a turning-point chapter.
- Luke 10Jesus sends out seventy (some manuscripts say seventy-two) in pairs ahead of him into every town and place he intends to visit, with instructions similar to the twelve's but addressed to a larger group and a longer journey.
- Luke 11The chapter opens with Jesus praying in a certain place; when he stops, a disciple asks him to teach them to pray as John taught his disciples.
- Luke 12With ten thousand pressing around him, Jesus addresses the disciples first: beware the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.
- Luke 13Some report to Jesus about Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices.
- Luke 14Jesus goes to eat at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees on the Sabbath, watched carefully by those present.
- Luke 15The Pharisees and scribes grumble that this man receives sinners and eats with them.
- Luke 16Chapter 16 contains two of Luke's most difficult parables.
- Luke 17The chapter opens with warnings about causing stumbling — better to have a millstone around your neck and be thrown into the sea — and the obligation to rebuke and forgive a brother who sins seven times in a day and repents each time.
- Luke 18Jesus tells the parable of the persistent widow to teach that they ought always to pray and not lose heart: a widow in a city where a judge neither fears God nor respects people keeps coming to him demanding justice against her adversary; he eventually grants it not because of justice but because she is wearing him out.
- Luke 19Jericho contains the Zacchaeus scene, unique to Luke: a chief tax collector who is wealthy and short climbs a sycamore tree to see Jesus over the crowd.
- Luke 20Chapter 20 is a series of confrontations in the temple.
- Luke 21Looking up at those putting gifts into the treasury, Jesus observes that a poor widow puts in two small copper coins — the smallest unit of currency — and says she has put in more than all of them, because they gave from their abundance and she from her poverty gave everything she had.
- Luke 22Satan enters Judas Iscariot and he goes to the chief priests to discuss how to betray Jesus.
- Luke 23The assembly brings Jesus to Pilate, accusing him of perverting the nation, forbidding tribute to Caesar, and claiming to be king.
- Luke 24Very early on the first day of the week, the women — Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and others — bring spices to the tomb and find the stone rolled away.