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After this the Lord appointed seventy others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go. He said to them, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest. Go on your way. See, I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves. Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals; and greet no one on the road. Whatever house you enter, first say, “Peace to this house!” And if anyone is there who shares in peace, your peace will rest on that person; but if not, it will return to you. Remain in the same house, eating and drinking whatever they provide, for the labourer deserves to be paid. Do not move about from house to house. Whenever you enter a town and its people welcome you, eat what is set before you; cure the sick who are there, and say to them, “The kingdom of God has come near to you.” But whenever you enter a town and they do not welcome you, go out into its streets and say, “Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet, we wipe off in protest against you. Yet know this: the kingdom of God has come near.” ‘Whoever listens to you listens to me, and whoever rejects you rejects me, and whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me.’ The seventy returned with joy, saying, ‘Lord, in your name even the demons submit to us!’ He said to them, ‘I watched Satan fall from heaven like a flash of lightning. See, I have given you authority to tread on snakes and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing will hurt you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice at this, that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.’ (Luke 10:1-11, 16-20 NRSV)
Jesus never had an office. No desk. No computer. No telephone. No administrative assistant or office manager. And for that matter, neither did His disciples. There was a great sharing of the work that was at hand, and in this passage we see that it is all about reaching the world for God. Jesus did keep hours for praying and worship. Jesus knew to seek rest when needed, and respond when the need arose. We need to see that the key word in this passage was harvest. The harvest of souls ready for the word of God to reach them was great, but the ones prepared and ready to reach them was few. Jesus had a great plan of towns and places where He knew the harvest would be realized, but He knew He would be better served in sending out disciples two by two. His instructions to these seventy disciples was simple but powerful; They were going out as lambs in the midst of wolves. Their readiness to travel is also reflected in Jesus saying, "Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals; and greet no one on the road. Whatever house you enter, first say, 'Peace to this house!' And if anyone there is there who shared in peace, your peace will rest on that person; but if not, it will return to you. Remain in the same house, eating and drinking whatever they provide, for the laborer deserves to be paid." They were to say that the kingdom of God had come near to them, for those who welcomed them; but if not, they were to dust off their feet as a sign of protest against them.
And the seventy return with awe and wonder of how their experience went. "Lord, in Your name even the demons submit to us!" There is power in the name of Jesus. To discover this for themselves gave them hope and renewed energy to keep doing what they had been trained to do. Many have been the times I have had no words for situations just the one word, the name of Jesus, to see me and the situation through. I have a young man for whom I pray and counsel who has been tormented by terrible dreams and nightmares, and I urge him to pray right before he dozes off, in the name of Jesus for a covering over him by Jesus to ward off the inner thoughts and ideas that can turn into terrifying nightmares; and it works because Jesus works on our behalf when invited. Even Jesus replies to the seventy, "I watched Satan fall from heaven like a flash of lightning." I've shared how one late afternoon in November in Grenada, España, we went looking for a kiosk that sold personalized bullfighting posters. In the fall that part of Europe by five p.m., it's dark, and we found that kiosk near a cathedral dedicated to Lucifer, the angel of light. This was before his fall from heaven; and that church has a menancing statue of that angel crouching down in a terrified state that at night is not the most appealing of sights before bed! And scholar have debated if Jesus was speaking of Satan's fall from heaven on the day it happened, or as a figurative reference to the blow he received as a result of the seventy's ministry during their assignment. I tend to favor the latter. Satan stands no chance against us when we work, minister, teach, pray, love, live in the neme of Jesus; each prayer, and each action is a blow against him and his work against us. Jesus said, "See, I have given you authority to tread on snakes and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing will hurt you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice at this, that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven." Jesus is saying that anything and everything that comes against us stands no chance against Him. Jesus has taken those creatures that most people fear, snakes and scorpions, and says, "These things can't harm you, because I have given you authority over them." And, Jesus says, yet, our rejoicing should be that our names are written in the book of life in heaven. Just the other night I was talking about the days when the phone company provided phone books to every household in a community. Every person who had a phone and had given permission to have their number listed, had their name appear in the phone book. The old Steve Martin movie, "The Jerk" has a scene where he is so excited that the day finally arrived when the phone books were given out and he runs to see his name in print. I also chuckled that one of the best paying jobs for Ma Bell was to sell ads in the Yellow Pages. Now, we have, for all intents and purposes, no phone books or Yellow Pages (Kids ask grandma or grandpa what those were); but we rejoice in knowing that our names were written in heaven when we surrendered our lives to Jesus.
PRAYER: Awesome Father, thank You for having our names written in heaven and in Your heart. Help us live as those seventy, who experienced and rejoiced in the things they saw You do for others. Send us forth with confidence and power to overcome evil. In Christ Jesus we pray, amen.
Have a great and blessed day in the Lord! Speak words of hope and power to those who need them today.
Receive my blessings of hope and peace,
Pastor Eradio Valverde
