After this the Lord appointed a further 72 and sent them on ahead in pairs to every town and place he was going to visit himself. He said to them: "The crop is heavy, but laborers are scarce; you must therefore beg the owner to send laborers to harvest his crop. Be on your way!
"And look, I am sending you as lambs among wolves. Carry no purse nor pack, and travel barefoot. Exchange no greetings on the road.
"When you go into a house, let your first words be, 'Peace to this house.' If there is a man of peace there, your peace will rest upon him; if not, it will return and rest upon you. Stay in that one house, sharing their food and drink-- for the worker earns his pay. Do not move from house to house.
"When you come into a town and they make you welcome, eat the food provided for you; heal the sick there, and say, 'The Kingdom of God has come close to you.' When you enter a town and they do not make you welcome, go out into its streets and say, 'The very dust of your town that clings to our feet we wipe off to your shame. Only take note of this: the kingdom of God has come close.' I tell you, it will be more bearable for Sodom on the great Day than for that town.
"Alas for you , Chorazin! Alas for you, Bethsaida! 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. So it will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon at the Judgement than for you. And as for you, Capernaum, will you be exhalted to the skies? No, brought down into the depths!
"Whoever listens to you listens to me; whoever rejects you rejects me. And whoever rejects me, rejects the One who sent me."
1 comment:
This, I would guess, is what an "insertion" looks like. We don't have 'Jesus' anymore; we've got this guy called "the Lord." & he's got 72 representatives, but they're only covering places he can make it to in person... But undoubtedly he did send out people to spread the word!
By now, everybody knows what's going on. Nobody's going to ask, "Jesus who?" So anyone familiar with his message can go even to a tiny village and say, "This is what the kingdom of God looks like. Which side are you on?"
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