WHAT BRINGS LASTING JOY?
“The Lord appointed seventy-two
whom he sent ahead of him in pairs
to every town and place he intended to visit.
He said to them,
‘The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few,
so ask the master of the harvest
to send out laborers for his harvest.
Go on your way . . .’
“The seventy-two returned rejoicing, and said,
‘Lord, even the demons are subject to us because of your name.’
Jesus said, ‘Behold, I have given you the power to “tread upon serpents” and scorpions
and nothing will harm you.
Nevertheless, do not rejoice because the spirits are subject to you,
but rejoice because your names are written in heaven.’” Luke 10:1-12, 17-20
“When you see this, your heart shall rejoice
and your bodies flourish like the grass;
the LORD’s power shall be known to his servants.” Isaiah 66:14
The Gospel passage is not just about Jesus, disciples and demons. It is also about people possessed by demons (We are all in some way possessed by demons!), and Jesus may be directing the disciples to find joy and rejoicing, not in their newly-discovered power (that “spirits are subject to you”), but in the fact that the disciples and those released from bondage now are able to see each other as sisters and brothers whose “names are written in heaven”, i.e., in God’s favor. As Isaiah announced to the people of the Old Testament, “When you see this, your heart shall rejoice, for the LORD’s power shall be known to his servants.”
Jesus advice to us may be: Do not rejoice in the “victory” over the demon. Go, run to the side of those released from bondage. Rejoice because your names are all in heaven.
“Holiness is going into the heart of where it’s most difficult for human beings to be human. Jesus goes ‘outside the city’; he goes to the place where people suffer and are humiliated, the place where people throw stuff out, including other people. ‘Outside the camp’, in the language of the Old Testament (also Hebrews 13:13). If we take this seriously, the Christian idea of holiness is to do with going where it’s most difficult, in the name of Jesus who went where it was most difficult. He wants us to be holy like that.” Being Disciples, Rowan Williams, 2016
What are our camps? And who are the people inside and outside of them? Where is Jesus? What are his thoughts?
What is Jesus asking me to see as I go with Him into the lives of the people in the towns He wishes to visit?
Sister Loretta