Year 1, Day 219: Luke 10

Okay, in Luke 10 I am going to divide the chapter up into three major divisions.  The first division deals with the 72 disciples (Luke 10:1-24).  The second division (Luke 10:25-37) deals with the Good Samaritan.  The last division (Luke 10:38-42) deals with Mary and Martha.

The 72

We begin with the first division.  Forgive me if what I am about to share is known to you, but it is honestly brand new to me.  It comes largely from having just spent a large portion of time in the Old Testament.  Anyone remember at least one reason why the number 72 is important?  I’ll give you two.  In Exodus 24, God has 72 elders come with Moses part of the way up the mountain to worship Him.  This is primarily so that the covenant can be confirmed between God and His people.  Another significant place of remembrance is in Numbers 11:16 where we have the story of the 72 elders appointed to assist Moses as judge over the people.

Both of these remembrances are significant. 

1. First, Jesus sending out the 72 disciples is slightly different than God calling them up the mountain to worship Him.  In one case, God sends people out.  In another case, God calls people in.  However, the similarity in purpose should not be missed.  In both cases the point of the activity is to confirm what God is doing so that the message can go through God’s people about God being at work.  The 72 people that Jesus sends out do this very thing.  The go forth teaching, proclaiming, healing, and even casting out demons!  The 72 are proof that God is at work.
2. Second, Jesus sending out the 72 is similar to Moses appointing 72 helpers.  In every way these 72 sent throughout Judea are helping Jesus.  They are helping Him in ministry, helping to spread word of Him, helping to draw attention to what God is doing.

 So in this first division of Luke 10, we can see that Jesus calls those who follow Him to do the work that He has set before them.  It is good to follow Jesus and be in His presence.  But Jesus calls us to do more than sit at His feet and learn (although at the end of this chapter we shall see that sitting at His feet is still important work!).  Jesus calls for us to take what we learn and spread it thickly around the community to which we have been called.

However, notice that Jesus is very much a realist.  Jesus tells the 72 to go and proclaim.  They are to stay with those who receive their proclamation.  In fact, Jesus talks about this in terms of peace.  If someone receives the teaching they learned from Jesus – the peace from God – then they are to stay as long as possible and teach as much as possible.  But there is another reality.  There is a possibility that a person will not receive the teaching.  Jesus tells the 72 that their peace will return to them.  Jesus specifically tells the 72 to not spend time worrying about them.  They are to walk away knowing that such people are not rejecting them alone but the God who sent them.

It is interesting to note that Jesus also tells these 72 to pray for laborers.  Jesus doesn’t tell the folks sitting on the sideline to pray for laborers.  Rather, Jesus tells the laborers that He is sending out to pray for more laborers!  Jesus doesn’t want people who are unwilling or uninterested in working to pray for people who are willing to do the work.  Jesus wants those who are participating in the kingdom of heaven to pray for more people to join them!

But there is still more to this story.  I love how Jesus ends it.  The 72 disciples come back amazed at what happened.  Jesus tells them an even more amazing story about how Satan was cast out of heaven and how power was given not to Satan but to the repentant sinners who follow God instead of Satan.  Yet above all of this Jesus tells them to rejoice at something even more amazing than power and supernatural warfare.  Jesus says that the most amazing thing is that their names are written in heaven.  God had every right to condemn this world and let us be dominated by Satan.  But He did not – and does not continue to do so.  Instead, God loves us.  He comes to us, receives us, heals us, helps us, and welcomes us into His presence.  That is an amazing thing indeed.

Good Samaritan

Before we get to the story of the Good Samaritan, we should be a little careful about how we perceive this lawyer.  Many Bibles translate the Greek verb describing the lawyer’s motivation as “putting Jesus to the test.”  That is an accurate translation.  However, there are two ways this word can be used.  The first way is to put something to the test as if to find out its true nature.  Chemists do this all the time when they do spectrographic analysis of substances that they find.  They put the substance to a test to find out its true nature.  The second way this word can be taken is to try and trap someone in their words.  Boards of review do this kind of work all the time when they listen to a person to try and determine if they are genuine to what they are saying or not.  So when we look at this lawyer, we should not jump to the conclusion that the lawyer was trying to trick Jesus.  The lawyer may have simply been trying to determine Jesus’ true nature like a chemist doing spectrographic analysis on an element. 

In either case we can be certain that the lawyer’s questions are motivated towards self-righteousness.  Verse 29 tells us this much.  So while the lawyer may or may not be trying to set Jesus up, he is definitely trying to manipulate Jesus’ answer to make himself look good.  But when I put it that way, how many of us aren’t guilty of doing the same thing with God’s Word?  Have I ever searched through God’s Word to make me right?

Now let’s get to the parable.  Any Sunday School age kid can tell you the point of this parable.  God desires mercy above right practice.  Jesus desires neighborly behavior rather than keeping tradition.  Stop and think about that for a second.  Jesus desires godly behavior over tradition.  Do we live that way?

The priest and the Levite had every good legal reason for avoiding contact with a potentially dead body.  They had every good common sense reason to consider how to avoid the possibility that this is a trap set by rogue highwaymen.  Yet the Samaritan is the one who is praised.  God wants us to care for those around us, not establish walls to keep them and their sinful ways out.  A few days ago I mentioned one of my favorite quotes from the Minor Prophets: Hosea 6:6.  This seems like a great time to bring it up again: “For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.”

Mary and Martha

The last story in this chapter is about Mary and Martha.  Simply put, this story is about worship.  We can be anxious about many things in life.  Our life becomes full rather quickly.  Mary takes time to worship at Jesus’ feet rather than occupying herself with the tasks of the world.  Now, certainly Jesus is not telling us to do no work and force those around us to pick up our slack.  But Jesus is telling us that worship – true worship – of God should take precedence over the tasks of the world.

I love the words that Jesus uses regarding Martha.  “Anxious/Apprehensive.”  “Troubled/Emotionally Upset.”  Luke tells us that she was “overburdened with distractions.”  Sounds to me like she was living in modern culture!  The truth is that every person can have their life filled up in any age.  There are always things to occupy our time.  Is truly worshipping God and being Christ’s disciple one of them?

Today we learn three things about being Jesus’ disciple: 

1.    We are to go, do, and rejoice that those who follow Jesus have their names written in heaven.

2.   God desires us to be merciful rather than bound to traditional expectations.

3.   We are to prioritize worship of God and being a disciple of Christ above the tasks of this world.

Not bad lessons if I may say so myself.  God’s peace.

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