Serving the Lord
Luke 10:17-24
Rabbi Rev. Dr. Michael H. Koplitz
Luke 10:17 Now the seventy-two returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons
are subject to us in Your name!” 18 And He said to them, “I watched Satan fall from
heaven like lightning. 19 “Behold, I have given you authority to walk on snakes and
scorpions, and authority over all the power of the enemy, and nothing will injure you.
20 “Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice
that your names are recorded in heaven.”
Luke 10:21 At that very time He rejoiced greatly in the Holy Spirit, and said, “I praise
You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the
wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants. Yes, Father, for doing so was
well pleasing in Your sight. 22 “All things have been handed over to Me by My
Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is
except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son determines to reveal Him.”
Luke 10:23 Turning to the disciples, He said privately, “Blessed are the eyes that see
the things you see; 24 for I tell you that many prophets and kings wanted to see the
things that you see, and did not see them, and to hear the things that you hear, and
did not hear them.”
So many times, we forget that the Bible was written by Semitic people over 2000 years
ago. I say this because we must remember that these people wrote differently than what
we learn in school today. We learn the Greek philosophy method of writing and
analyzing writings which started in Plato’s Academy and, through what we call
Hellenism, comes to us today. We are Western thinking people. The people who wrote
the Bible were near Eastern thinking people. We also have to learn what their figures
of speech and what their metaphors were. In addition, knowing the culture of the day
is critical because a lot of information was not written in the Scripture because it was
part of the culture of the day.
With all that said, let’s take a look at Luke chapter 10 verses 17 to 24. When we look at
these verses, we learn that the 72 followers of Jesus were sent out to do his work, which
was to spread the gospel. They came back and reported to Jesus about how well things
went for them. In response to that, Jesus said a few things that are important for us to
understand in the context of his day and of his language.
Jesus said that he watched Satan fall from heaven like lightning. This is a metaphor, and
what it means is that Jesus saw that light overtook darkness. Of course, the light is the
gospel of Jesus Christ. Darkness is the gospel of Satan. It is significant for us to
understand that the light of Christ will overcome the darkness of Satan. It sometimes
requires a large effort to make that happen, and it doesn’t always happen immediately.
However, as long as we keep trying to bring Jesus’ words to the world, which is also
meaning bringing his light to the world, one day we will succeed. Even if we don’t fully
succeed, we have been accomplishing the work that Christ place upon us when we
decided to follow him. We are the bearers of the light, the gospel of Jesus Christ.
In verse 19 we’re told that Jesus gave authority to his followers to walk on snakes and
scorpions and have authority over all the power of the enemy and that nothing will
injure us. This is also a metaphor, which means that they should not fear anybody or
anything. Healers in Jesus’s time in the near East would carry snakes with them. It was
believed that a person with a fever could be cured by scaring them. So, the healer would
come up to the person lying on their bed or on their mat with a fever, and he would
pull out snakes. People are generally scared of snakes and fear them. The fear of the
snakes would cure the fever because the person would get up and immediately want to
run away from the snakes. Please don’t try to walk on scorpions and snakes!
So, Jesus was saying to his followers that they must have no fear when they go out and
tell the world about the gospel. Even though they knew that there was danger, they did
not fear it. Can we say the same thing today? At the turn-of-the-century, I say the answer
is yes. Today I’m not so sure because there are so many people out there that are anti-
Christian and actually anti-anything traditional that you have to be on your guard. That
makes it very difficult to want to go out and tell people about the gospel and the
goodness of Jesus Christ. However, that’s one of the things we are supposed to do, and
even I find that sometimes to be very difficult to do.
In verse 20, we are told that our names will be recorded in heaven because we took the
gospel out. The phrase our names will be written in heaven has been misunderstood
for many years. What this phrase refers to is that when there were kings in Israel and
Judea centuries ago, people were honored by having their names written in a book called
the Chronicles of the Kings. Archaeologists tell us that there were at least two books of
the Chronicles of the Kings. One book for the northern kingdom and one book for the
southern kingdom. Unfortunately, those books have been lost due to the invasion of
the northern kingdom by the Assyrians and the invasion of the southern kingdom by
the Babylonians. The only records from that period that survived were those that were
smuggled out of the country before the invasions occurred. Unfortunately, even some
of those documents have been lost to time.
There is a traditional belief in Judaism that when Moses was on Mount Sinai receiving
the 10 Commandments, then the Torah, he also received something called the secret
Torah. The secrets were a way to get into heaven. In verse 22, Jesus tells us that God
the Father had given to him the secret Torah. Jesus then gives the secret Torah to his
followers. Those secrets have been transmitted down to us, and the good thing about
them is that Jesus summarized them for us.
What is the secret to getting into heaven, you may ask? It is a simple answer, and we
call it the two great commandments from Jesus. The first one is to love God with all
your heart and soul. To acknowledge that God is the creator of all things and that we
owe him everything. The second one is to love your neighbor as you love yourself. We
are to love people who are different from us, whether we agree with their ways or not.
Loving your neighbor is probably one of the most difficult things to do, especially if
you have an annoying neighbor. However, Jesus tells us that we are to love everyone,
especially our enemies, because they are the hardest to love.
So, the bottom line of this narrative about the 72 followers returning and reporting is
that it is our responsibility to go out and spread the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is through
our words and actions that people see what it means to be a follower. If you’re not
doing this, perhaps it’s time for you to think about doing it. For those who go to church
on Sunday and do nothing else for Jesus and the gospel, it’s time for you also do work
for Christ. Just attending church on Sunday is not enough. We must look at these verses
and come to understand that the secret Torah which gets us into heaven is
accomplished by our actions and attitudes.
Go out and serve Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. That means to love God and to
love neighbor. That means to go out into the world and tell the world about what it
means to be a faithful disciple of Jesus Christ.
