Big Idea: How people respond to Jesus and his ministry (and to his disciples’ message) determines their spiritual destiny.

Understanding the Text

The mission of the seventy-two leads to reflections on the significance of Jesus’s ministry and of the mission that he now shares with his followers. As in the earlier account of Jesus’s transfiguration, we see again here that the drama being played out on the earthly level also has a supernatural dimension, both in the conflict with and the defeat of Satan (a theme that will be taken up again in 11:14–26) and in the intimate relationship of Jesus the Son of God with his Father. It is a privilege for the disciples to be involved in a game played with such high stakes, but it also puts a sobering onus on everyone to respond in the right way or f…