I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Luke 10-11.

    This is the only place in the New Testament where we get an idea of the number of people who were following Jesus on a regular basis. Here Jesus chose 72 (or perhaps only 70, some manuscripts have the smaller number) out of a larger group of followers for a special mission. Jesus gave similar instructions previously when He sent out just the Twelve, but He goes into more detail here (or, at least, Luke recounts more detail here). I think we should take note that Jesus instructed the 72 not to spend time in towns which did not welcome them. This teaching is definitely one we should keep in mind when missionaries go forth to preach the Gospel, but I am hesitant to make too much of it because of the stories I have heard and read of missionaries who spent years with little to show for it, where suddenly something changed and the floodgates opened and people began to accept the message.

    The story of the Good Samaritan and Jesus’ teaching on prayer are important to read, but I am going to finish up by talking about Jesus’ criticism of religious teachers. We should interpret this passage in light of the story of the Good Samaritan a few verse earlier. For that matter, we should interpret this in light of the other things in between that story and this account. There are at least two aspects of Jesu’s condemnation of the religious teachers. First He condemns them for showy acts of righteousness performed for public acclaim. They did things which could be measured and which would cause others to be praise them and hold them up for acclamation. On the other hand, they could not be bothered with actions which, while they would help others, would not benefit themselves. The second aspect concerned identifying sins without taking any action to help the individual overcome the sin. An example I would give of this sort of behavior would be the anti-prostitution crusader who spends lots of time in front of the camera declaring how terrible prostitution is without spending any time helping those who practice prostitution find another way to support themselves.