Luke 10
v.2
He told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.
v.3
Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves.
v.6
If a man of peace is there, your peace will rest on him; if not, it will return to you.
v.11
‘Even the dust of your town that sticks to our feet we wipe off against you. Yet be sure of this: The kingdom of God is near.‘
v.13
“Woe to you, Korazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes.
v.20
However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”
v.21
However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”
v.29
But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
The only way to justify oneself is to limit the extent of the law’s demand and consequently limit one’s own responsibility. This maneuver not only fails but has an opposite effect. Jesus will change the man’s very words (“Who is my neighbor?”) from a passive to an active sense (v.36).
v.32
So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.
v.36
“Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”
The NT parables aim to lead one to a decision; Jesus’ question in v.36 forces the “expert in the law” to voice his decision. In his question, Jesus focuses on the person who loved, the Samaritan who made himself a neighbor. This reversal of the “expert’s” question (v.29) provides in itself the key to the meaning of the parable and to Jesus’ teaching on love. Love should not be limited by its object; its extent and quality are in the control of its subject. Furthermore, love is demonstrated in action, in this case in an act of mercy, and it may be costly. There is a striking reversal of roles here. The Jewish “expert” would have thought of the Jewish victim as a good person and the Samaritan as an evil one. To a Jew there was no such person as a “good” Samaritan.
v.39
She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said.
It is Mary, however, who takes the place of a disciple by sitting at the feet of the teacher (v.39). It was unusual for a woman in first-century Judaism to be accepted by a teacher as a disciple.
v.40
But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”
v.41-42
“Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, 42but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”
The preceding narrative and parable establish the importance of priorities in the Christian life—i.e., heeding the commands to love God and one’s neighbor. Martha must now learn to give the Lord and his word priority even over loving service. There are important human needs, whether of the victim in vv.30-35 or by Jesus himself. But what is most “needed” goes beyond even these.