Luke 10 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.

After this, the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them out ahead of him in pairs to every town and place he was about to visit.

He told them, "The harvest is massive, but the workers are few. So ask the owner of the harvest to send out more workers into his fields."

Now go. I'm sending you out like lambs into a pack of wolves.

Don't bring a wallet, a travel bag, or sandals. And don't stop to make small talk along the road.

When you enter a house, first say, 'Peace to this home.'

If someone there is open to peace, your peace will rest on them. If not, it will come back to you.

Stay in that house, eating and drinking whatever they give you, because a worker deserves to be paid. Don't keep moving from house to house.

When you enter a town and they welcome you, eat whatever is put in front of you.

Heal the sick who are there, and tell them, 'God's kingdom has arrived — it's right here, right now.'

But when you enter a town and they don't welcome you, go out into the streets and say,

'Even the dust from your town that sticks to our feet — we're wiping it off as a warning to you. But know this: God's kingdom has come close to you.'

I'm telling you, on judgment day it will be more bearable for Sodom than for that town.

How terrible for you, Chorazin! How terrible for you, Bethsaida! Because if the miracles done in your towns had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have changed direction long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes.

But on judgment day, it will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon than for you.

And you, Capernaum — will you be lifted up to the heavens? No, you'll be thrown down to the grave.

"Whoever listens to you listens to me. Whoever rejects you rejects me. And whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me."

The seventy-two came back thrilled. "Lord," they said, "even the demons submit to us when we use your name!"

He said to them, "I watched Satan fall from the sky like lightning.

Look — I've given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overpower all the force of the enemy. Nothing will hurt you.

But don't be happy that the spirits submit to you. Be happy that your names are written down in heaven."

Right then, Jesus was overwhelmed with joy by the Breath of God and said, "I praise you, Father — Lord of heaven and earth — because you've hidden these things from the intellectuals and experts and revealed them to children. Yes, Father, because this is exactly what you wanted."

"My Father has handed everything over to me. No one really knows who the Son is except the Father, and no one really knows who the Father is except the Son — and anyone the Son chooses to reveal him to."

Then he turned to his students privately and said, "What a gift that your eyes see what you're seeing.

Because I'm telling you — many prophets and kings wanted to see what you're seeing and didn't see it, and to hear what you're hearing and didn't hear it."

Then an expert in religious law stood up to test Jesus. "Teacher," he asked, "what do I need to do to inherit limitless life?"

Jesus said to him, "What's written in the law? How do you read it?"

He answered, "'Love the Lord your God with everything you are — all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, all your mind' — and 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'"

"You got it right," Jesus said. "Do this and you'll live."

But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, "So who exactly is my neighbor?"

Jesus answered with a story: "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho when he was jumped by robbers. They stripped him, beat him, and left him lying there half dead.

It just so happened that a priest was going down that same road. When he saw the man, he crossed to the other side and kept going.

A Levite came by the same spot. He looked at the man, then crossed to the other side and kept going too.

But then a Samaritan who was traveling came to where the man was. When he saw him, his heart broke for him.

He went to him, poured olive oil and wine on his wounds and bandaged them. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn, and took care of him.

The next day he took out two silver coins, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, 'Take care of him. Whatever else you spend, I'll pay you back when I come through again.'

"Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who got jumped by the robbers?"

The legal expert said, "The one who showed him mercy." Jesus said, "Go and do the same."

As they continued on their way, Jesus came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him.

She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he was saying.

But Martha was overwhelmed with all the preparations she had to make. She came to Jesus and said, "Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her to come help me!"

"Martha, Martha," the Lord answered, "you're worried and stressed about so many things,

but only one thing really matters. Mary has chosen what's best, and it's not going to be taken from her."