Luke 10, 11

Luke 10, 11

Overview:  Jesus sends out 70 on a mission in pairs.  They come back excited about what they are able to accomplish in their time in the field.  Jesus responds to a question with the parable of the Good Samaritan.  Jesus teaches the disciples the Lord's prayer and has some back and forth with the Phrarisees.

Jesus sends out seventy folks on a mission project.  The text says a couple of interesting things.  First, he sends them as advance prep teams to places he intends to go.  Jesus is not randomly walking around and showing up places.  This points to a strategic approach - the advance team goes in and gets the lay of the land and prepares the town or village for the time when Jesus will arrive.  Second, he sends them in pairs.  He doesn't send them out alone - he sends them with a companion.  Stan Ott, the person behind the Acts 16:5 Intiative for church vitality, has something he calls the "with me" principle.  Stan says we are far more effective when we do things with someone else then when we set out on our own.  He points to texts like this one to demonstrate that Jesus saw the value of mutual support and encouragement.
Luke 10 ends with the wonderful story of Mary and Martha.  Martha, who is sure that Jesus will back here in taking her sister Mary to task, and instead is gently told that she is the one who is distracted and that there is "need of only one thing" - the thing Mary has chosen to place herself in the presence of the Lord.  I can read this story again and again, because I need to hear it and internalize it again and again.  There is one thing that is needful.  And it's not the busyness of all the tasks that need to be done and all the tasks clamoring for attention.  The needful thing is to place ourselves in the presence of the Lord.