Jesus · c. AD 29
Chapter 37
The Good Samaritan
He answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.”
For parents
James and John ask Jesus whether to call fire down from the sky to destroy a Samaritan village (Luke 9:54). The Story recalls how a king once sent two captains, each with his fifty men, to order Elijah down from a hill, and fire from the sky burned them up (2 Kings 1:9–12). In the story Jesus tells, robbers strip a man, beat him and leave him half dead (Luke 10:30). Jesus also warns that Capernaum will be brought down to Hades, the place of the dead (10:15).
The days were coming near when would be taken up, and he went toward with his mind made up.
He sent messengers ahead of him, and they went into a village of the to make things ready for him. But the village didn’t welcome him, because he was traveling toward Jerusalem.
When his and saw this, they said, “Lord, do you want us to order fire to come down from the sky and destroy them, as did?”
Long before, a king had sent a captain and his fifty men to order Elijah down from a hilltop. Elijah called fire down from the sky, and it burned up the captain and his fifty. Then the same thing happened to a second captain and his fifty.
But Jesus turned and scolded James and John. “You don’t know what kind of spirit you have,” he said. “The didn’t come to destroy people’s lives, but to save them.” Then they went to another village.
On the way, a man said to Jesus, “I want to follow you wherever you go, Lord.”
Jesus told him, “The foxes have holes, and the birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”
To another man he said, “Follow me!”
But the man said, “Lord, let me go and bury my father first.”
Jesus said to him, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead. But you, go and announce God’s Kingdom.”
Someone else said, “I want to follow you, Lord, but first allow me to say good-bye to the people at home.”
Jesus said to him, “No one who has put his hand to the plow and keeps looking back is fit for God’s Kingdom.”
After this, the Lord appointed seventy others too. He sent them two by two ahead of him into every city and place he was about to come to.
He told them, “The harvest really is plentiful, but the laborers are few. So pray to the Lord of the harvest, and ask him to send out laborers into his harvest.
“Be on your way. Look, I send you out as lambs among wolves. Don’t carry a purse or a bag or sandals. Don’t greet anyone on the way.
“When you go into a house, first say, ‘Peace be to this house.’ If anyone there is a person of peace, your peace will stay with him. If not, your peace will return to you. Stay in that same house, eating and drinking what they give you, because the laborer deserves his pay. Don’t go from house to house.
“When you go into a city and the people welcome you, eat what is set in front of you. Heal the sick who are there, and tell them, ‘God’s Kingdom has come near to you.’
“But when you go into a city and the people don’t welcome you, go out into the streets and say, ‘We wipe off against you even the dust from your city that clings to us. But know this: God’s Kingdom has come near to you.’
“I tell you, it will be easier for on that day than for that city.
“ to you, ! Woe to you, ! If and had seen the mighty works that were done in you, they would have long ago, sitting in and ashes. But it will be easier for Tyre and Sidon in the judgment than for you.
“And you, , who are lifted up to heaven, will be brought down to .
“Whoever listens to you listens to me, and whoever rejects you rejects me. Whoever rejects me also rejects the one who sent me.”
The seventy came back full of joy. “Lord,” they said, “even the obey us in your name!”
He told them, “I saw fall like lightning from heaven. Look, I give you authority to step on snakes and scorpions, and authority over all the enemy’s power. Nothing will hurt you in any way. Even so, don’t rejoice that the spirits obey you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”
In that same hour Jesus rejoiced in the . “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth,” he said, “that you have hidden these things from people who are wise and understanding, and shown them to little children. Yes, Father, because this was what pleased you.”
Turning to the disciples, he said, “My Father has handed everything over to me. No one knows who the Son is, except the Father, and nobody knows who the Father is, except the Son and anyone the Son wants to reveal him to.”
Then he turned to the disciples and spoke to them privately: “Blessed are the eyes which see the things that you see. I tell you, many and kings wished to see the things you see, and didn’t see them, and to hear the things you hear, and didn’t hear them.”
Then a stood up and tested Jesus with a question: “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
Jesus said to him, “What is written in the law? How do you read it?”
The lawyer answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.”
Jesus told him, “You have answered correctly. Do this, and you will live.”
But the lawyer wanted to show that he was in the right. “Who is my neighbor?” he asked Jesus.
Jesus answered, “A man was on his way down from Jerusalem to , and robbers attacked him. They took his clothes and beat him, and then they went off and left him half dead.
“As it happened, a was going down that way. When he saw him, he passed by on the other side.
“A did the same. When he came to the place and saw him, he too passed by on the other side.
“But a Samaritan on a journey came to where the man was. When he saw him, his heart went out to him. He went over and bandaged his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them. He set him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him.
“The next day, as he was leaving, he took out two , handed them to the innkeeper, and told him, ‘Take care of him. If you spend more than this, I’ll pay you back when I return.’” A denarius was a day’s pay for a laborer.
“Now which of these three,” Jesus asked, “do you think turned out to be a neighbor to the man the robbers attacked?”
“The one who showed him mercy,” the lawyer said.
Then Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”
As they went on, Jesus came into a village, and a woman named welcomed him to her house.
Her sister sat at Jesus’ feet, listening to what he was saying.
Martha, though, was distracted by all the serving. She came up to him and said, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister left me to serve alone? So ask her to help me.”
“Martha, Martha,” Jesus answered her, “you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is needed. Mary has chosen the good part, which will not be taken away from her.”