The passage
      v1. In sending out seventy evangelists, Jesus signifies the kingdom's coming. There are seventy Gentile nations to evangelize, Gen.10, and seventy Israelites went into Egypt and into slavery, Ex.1:5.
      v2. The "harvest" imagery ties in with last days judgement. Jesus is the "Lord" of the coming day, and the task of his evangelists is to save a lost people from destruction.
      v3. The evangelist is dependent on the protection of the "Lord", the Great Shepherd.
      v4. The travelling instructions are the same as in 9:3ff, but note the change in 22:35ff. For Jews, this "dress code" serves to identify a wandering prophet, someone worth hearing.
      v5-6. Although "peace" is the normal Semitic greeting, v6 shows it is an actual bestowal of God's eternal peace upon those who are sons of peace, ie. sons of the kingdom (believers - those who repent on hearing that "the kingdom of God is near" v11).
      v7-8. Paul the apostle uses this "word from the Lord" to teach that those who proclaim the gospel have the right to be paid for their work, 1Cor.9:14, 1Tim.5:18.
      v9. The evangelist is to proclaim the gospel in sign (healings, and in particular, exorcism) and word. The message, "the kingdom of God has come close to you", NEB, only appears in Luke's gospel in this verse and in v11. This summary of the gospel proclaims that the kingdom's present reality is close to us (immediate rather than imminent).
      v10-12. Rejection of the gospel brings judgement (symbolically expressed in the act of wiping the dust of the town from the evangelist's feet. Having passed through Samaritan territory, a Jewish pilgrim would wipe away the dust of an "accursed" people). Yet, Israel's rejection of the gospel is more serious than the evil of Sodom.
      v13-15. Luke's placement of the "woes" at this point implies that Israel rejects the mission of the seventy. Even Gentile communities such as Tyre and Sidon would not be so stupid. The repentance of Nineveh at the preaching of Jonah lies behind Jesus' words. Israel's hardness of hart results in greater guilt.
      v16. Rejecting the gospel/preacher, is to reject Jesus, and to reject Jesus is to reject God.
      v17. The seventy witness the intrusion of Christ's kingdom into this age in the defeat of the powers of darkness (healings, but in particular exorcisms). This is done in the power of Jesus' "name", ie. his person = the gospel. So, the powers of darkness are broken, but the people do not repent.
      v18-19. Jesus now interprets the evangellists' experience. The disciples have witnessed Messiah's defeat of Satan, in that they are able to exercise authority over demonic powers ("snakes and scorpions" are symbols of the demons). In our confrontation with darkness, many things will harm us, but these powers will not overcome us, thus we confidently pray "save us from the time of trail, and deliver us from evil."
      v20. Finally, Jesus warns his disciples not to boast about their authority over the powers of darkness, but rather boast about the free grace of God in Christ -the gift of life eternal.

Actualizing the Kingdom
      At King Balshazzar's feast, the hand of doom wrote on the palace wall and yet the feast blithely continued while the Persians moved quietly in on the city. The end of the Babylonian empire was near and they knew it not. For the seventy, time was pressing in, the harvest now, and rejection final and damning. The Messiah's day had dawned, the blessing of peace a present reality, and the powers of darkness brought low. The kingdom was being realized both in Jesus and his disciples.
      For Luke, the kingdom of God is an inaugurated reality, it is "near", it is upon us. That was so for Luke's day as it is for ours. The mission of the seventy remains the mission of the church today. Believers are Christ's empowered representatives - the new Israel empowered by the Spirit of the new Moses. We are to impinge the kingdom on our age both in sign and word - writing on a wall with a word of explanation. For the seventy disciples the writing was healings and exorcisms, while for us today, the writing consists of such things as the love of the brotherhood - "by this shall all men know that you are my disciples". The Spirit will do His work and darkness will retreat, but always mysteriously, as He wills. Yet, the writing on the wall is with a word of explanation, and so, like the disciples of old, we proclaim the gospel, we communicate the gospel to the lost, we speak of the grace of God.