Scripture Daily

Context No. 1700 of 4322 · Luke

Context · Reflection

Luke 10:18-22: in context

18He said to them, “I saw Satan having fallen like lightning from heaven. 19Behold, I give you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy. Nothing will in any way hurt you. 20Nevertheless, don’t rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” 21In that same hour, Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Spirit, and said, “I thank you, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for so it was well-pleasing in your sight.” 22Turning to the disciples, he said, “All things have been delivered to me by my Father. No one knows who the Son is, except the Father, and who the Father is, except the Son, and he to whomever the Son desires to reveal him.”

The seventy return elated, having found even the demons subject to them in Jesus' name. Jesus affirms their authority, I saw Satan fall like lightning, he says, and I have given you authority over all the power of the enemy. But then he redirects their joy: do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven. And in that hour Jesus himself rejoices in the Spirit, thanking the Father for hiding these things from the wise and revealing them to little children.

The disciples are thrilled by their success, and understandably; they have exercised real power, seen real results. And Jesus does not deny the reality of what they have done. But he moves their joy off it and onto something else: do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven. He is protecting them from a subtle danger, the danger of grounding our joy in our successes, our gifts, our results, rather than in our relationship with God. Ministry that works, gifts that impress, victories won, these are real, but they are shifting ground for the soul's joy; today they are with us, tomorrow they may fail, and a joy built on them rises and falls with our performance. Jesus points them to steadier ground: your names are written in heaven. Rejoice not in what you have done for God but in the fact that you belong to him, that you are known and kept and enrolled among his own; for that does not depend on your success and cannot be taken by your failure. There is a needed correction here for all of us who are tempted to measure ourselves, and to find our joy, by our results, our productivity, our usefulness. Jesus says the deeper and safer joy is not in what we accomplish but in whose we are. When the results are good, we can be glad, but not stake our hearts there; and when the results fail, as they sometimes will, the ground of our joy is untouched, for our names are still written in heaven. Rejoice in that, he says, above all your successes: not that the spirits obey, but that you are God's.

Do I ground my joy in my successes, my gifts, my results, so that it rises and falls with my performance, or can I heed Jesus and rejoice above all in this, that my name is written in heaven, that I belong to God, a ground of joy that my failures cannot take and my achievements cannot secure?

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