Jesus had many followers who were deeply devoted to Him, abandoning everything to serve Him and to cooperate in the fulfillment of His mission. Oftentimes we give most of our attention to the Twelve Apostles when we speak of Jesus’ first followers. But in today’s Gospel, Jesus sent seventy-two disciples to go forth to all the towns that He would soon visit. Think about that for a moment. Seventy-two is quite a few people. These would not have been casual followers of Jesus. Rather, they clearly were people who were all in and fully committed to Christ. To them, Jesus entrusted the mission of preaching and gave them authority over demons.
