This is Spoken Gospel.

We’re dedicated to seeing
Jesus in all of scripture.

In each episode, we see what’s
happening in a Biblical text

and how it sheds light
on Jesus and his gospel.

Let’s jump in.

Jesus sends out
seventy-two new disciples.

That number refers back to Genesis 10 where
seventy nations are listed after the tower of Babel falls.

It’s Luke’s way of signaling that the
gospel of God’s kingdom is for
all nations, not just Israel.

Contrary to James and John, who wanted
to pray down fire on a Samaritan city, Jesus

promises that it will be Jewish cities that
face a fate worse than the foreign city Sodom.

The seventy-two return, rejoicing that even
demons obey the name of Jesus on their lips.

Jesus calls them to rejoice even more
that they, as symbolic representatives of

formerly hostile nations, are now
written into God’s book of life.

Anyone, not just Jews, who loves God and
loves their neighbor will be written in.

But a lawyer, wanting to justify his
privileged place in God’s book of life,

asks Jesus to clarify
who his neighbor is.

He expects Jesus to respond with something
like, “Your family, friends, and fellow Israelites”.

Being a lawyer, he had
ample evidence for each.

Instead, Jesus responds with a story.

Robbers leave a man for
dead on the side of a road.

A priest and Levite are unneighborly compared
to the generosity and compassion of a Samaritan.

The Samaritans were
religious and ethnic outsiders.

That’s part of the reason James and John were
so willing to burn one of their villages down.

So, when Jesus casts a hated minority as the
hero, he’s revealing that citizens of the
kingdom of God can come from anywhere.

Anyone who loves God
and neighbor can come in!

This is why our passage
ends with two women—

one anxiously shuffling around and
another sitting and listening to Jesus’ words.

Sitting at the feet of Jesus, Mary recognized what
Martha, the lawyer, and so many Jewish cities did not.

Jesus was not just a teacher of the word
of God, but the Word of God himself.

Sitting at Jesus’ feet was to love
God, and to listen to Jesus’ words

was to honor him like the
Samaritan loved his neighbor.

This is good news for all of us—
whether Jew, Gentile, or Samaritan.

Jesus does not require exhibits A-Z of
good deeds like the lawyer had ready.

Jesus does not require our service
like Martha anxiously offered.

Jesus requires neither purity
of blood nor religious pedigree.

What Jesus requires is choosing
to sit, listen, and obey him.

We can rejoice because all names and
nations are written in heaven on that basis,

not based on our own
busyness or self-righteousness.

No person and no nation is beyond
the reach of Jesus’ ability save.

May the Holy Spirit open your eyes
to see the God who saves all nations.

And may you see Jesus as the one who invites
everyone to sit at his feet and hear his good news.