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\(^1\)After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them on ahead of him, two by two, into every town and place where he himself was about to go. \(^2\)And he said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest. \(^3\)Go your way; behold, I am sending you out as lambs in the midst of wolves. \(^4\)Carry no moneybag, no knapsack, no sandals, and greet no one on the road.

The more I look at how God does things the more plain it is that speaking God’s words doesn’t require money. Jesus explicitly sends out the 72 saying “carry no money bag, no knapsack, no sandals”. It requires instead courage, conviction, compassion for those you’re trying to reach and most of all, faith in the Lord.

The Good Samaritan

Jesus surprised his disciples by welcoming children and saying how hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. We aren’t told what people thought of the parable of the Good Samaritan but I can well imagine it caused surprise, and quite possibly outrage. Jesus when talking to the Samaritan woman at the well says the Samaritans worship what they don’t know. So Jesus isn’t telling this parable to say something like “all routes to God are valid”, he basically says the Samaritans are heterodox. But he chooses to make a Samaritan the hero of the parable. It’s a stark challenge to the way of thinking that makes faith in God mere head knowledge. The Samaritan shows more faith, courage and love than the priest and Levite who should have done better. Jesus ends by saying that we should go and do as the Good Samaritan did.