Seventy ordinary disciples get sent out two by two with nothing, and come back stunned by what they were able to do in His name. A lawyer, trying to justify himself, asks a question meant to narrow down exactly how few people he’s obligated to love — and gets back a story that makes the very people his own nation despised the hero of it. And in a quiet house in Bethany, one sister is running herself ragged serving a meal while the other simply sits on the floor and listens — and Jesus, asked to settle the dispute between them, takes the side nobody expected.
A study in Luke 10 · Arthur Baldwin · StandUp4Jesus.Org · 24 min read
I Send You Forth As Lambs Among Wolves
“After these things the Lord appointed other seventy also, and sent them two and two before his face into every city and place, whither he himself would come. Therefore said he unto them, The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest.”
Luke 10:1-2
“As He had sent out the twelve, so He ‘appointed seventy others, and sent them two and two before His face into every city and place, whither He Himself was about to come.’ … These disciples had been for some time with Him, in training for their work.”
Ellen G. White · The Desire of Ages, p. 488
This mission comes immediately on the heels of the rejection at the Samaritan village in the previous chapter. It would have been easy for Jesus to grow cautious after that reception. Instead He doubles the size of the mission and sends the seventy first to the very region that had just refused Him.
“Though Christ had just been repulsed by the Samaritans, His love toward them was unchanged. When the seventy went forth in His name, they visited, first of all, the cities of Samaria.”
Ellen G. White · The Desire of Ages, p. 488
“And the seventy returned again with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name. And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven.”
Luke 10:17-18
“The scenes of the past and the future were presented to the mind of Jesus. He beheld Lucifer as he was first cast out from the heavenly places. He looked forward to the scenes of His own agony, when before all the worlds the character of the deceiver should be unveiled.”
Ellen G. White · The Desire of Ages, p. 490
Seventy ordinary disciples cast out devils in Jesus’s name, and He responds by describing a vision that spans from eternity past to Calvary itself — their small victory in a Galilean village connected, in His own mind, to the fall of Lucifer and the cross still ahead.
“Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven.”
Luke 10:20
“In that hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit, and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes: even so, Father; for so it seemed good in thy sight.”
Luke 10:21
Only Luke records this brief prayer of thanksgiving, and only here does he show us Jesus “rejoicing in spirit” — an emotion this Gospel is careful to note precisely because it is so rare in the record of a life largely marked by sorrow.
Who Is My Neighbour
“And, behold, a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? He said unto him, What is written in the law? how readest thou? And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself. And he said unto him, Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live.”
Luke 10:25-28
“The Saviour’s commendation of this answer placed Him on vantage ground with the rabbis. They could not condemn Him for sanctioning that which had been advanced by an expositor of the law.”
Ellen G. White · Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 377
The lawyer had already answered his own question correctly. What he had not done was let the answer touch how he actually lived — which is exactly why he pushes further.
“But he, willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbour?”
Luke 10:29
“Among the Jews the question, ‘Who is my neighbour?’ caused endless dispute. … Whom should the priest, the rabbi, the elder, regard as neighbor?”
Ellen G. White · Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 376
The question was not naive curiosity. It was a live theological controversy of the day, and every rabbi had a different answer for exactly where the circle of obligation stopped.
“And Jesus answering said, A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. And by chance there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side.”
Luke 10:30-32
“He was convicted of what he ought to do, but it was not an agreeable duty. He wished that he had not come that way so that he would not have seen the wounded man. He persuaded himself that the case was no concern of his, and he too ‘passed by on the other side.’”
Ellen G. White · Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 379
Both men who fail this test are professionally, publicly committed to God’s law. Neither is a stranger to compassion in the abstract. Both simply calculate, in the moment, that helping will cost more than they want to pay.
“But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him, And went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him.”
Luke 10:33-34
This is the same despised people from the very village that had just refused Jesus a night’s lodging in the previous chapter, and the same people two of His own disciples had wanted to call fire down on. Luke has arranged his Gospel so that the reader meets the worst-case Samaritan first, in anger, and the best-case Samaritan second, in mercy — deliberately refusing to let either story stand alone as the final word on an entire people.
“He showed that our neighbor does not mean merely one of the church or faith to which we belong. It has no reference to race, color, or class distinction. Our neighbor is every person who needs our help.”
Ellen G. White · Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 376
“Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves? And he said, He that shewed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise.”
Luke 10:36-37
“He had not overcome his national dislike sufficiently to give credit to the Samaritan by name. When Christ asked, ‘Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbour’ … he answered, ‘He that showed mercy on him.’”
Ellen G. White · Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 380
The lawyer had asked “who is my neighbor,” trying to draw a line around the smallest possible circle of obligation. Jesus’s question at the end — “which of these three was neighbor” — quietly reverses the whole premise. The point was never to identify who qualifies for love. It was to become the kind of person who does not need to ask.
Mary Hath Chosen That Good Part
“Now it came to pass, as they went, that he entered into a certain village: and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus’ feet, and heard his word.”
Luke 10:38-39
“This was the time of Christ’s first visit to Bethany. The Saviour and His disciples had just made the toilsome journey on foot from Jericho. Martha was anxious to provide for their comfort, and in her anxiety she forgot the courtesy due to her Guest.”
Ellen G. White · The Desire of Ages, p. 525
This is the same household — Mary, Martha, and their brother Lazarus — that this site’s own study of Mark’s fourteenth chapter has already told more of. Here, this early in their friendship with Jesus, the family is meeting Him this intimately for the first time.
“But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to him, and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me.”
Luke 10:40
“And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things: But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.”
Luke 10:41-42
“The ‘one thing’ that Martha needed was a calm, devotional spirit, a deeper anxiety for knowledge concerning the future, immortal life, and the graces necessary for spiritual advancement. … The cause of Christ needs careful, energetic workers. There is a wide field for the Marthas, with their zeal in active religious work. But let them first sit with Mary at the feet of Jesus.”
Ellen G. White · The Desire of Ages, p. 525
Jesus does not tell Martha that her work is worthless, and He does not tell Mary that sitting still is always the higher choice. He tells Martha, gently, that she has the order backward — that the service His house needs most is not withheld from those who first learn to sit down and listen, but perfected by it.
