Luke 10:17-20 English Standard Version The Return of the Seventy-Two 17 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 saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. 19 Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you. 20 Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” Those that Jesus sent out with power and authority return to Him after some time--note that it seems that Jesus already knew which towns were going to reject them and reject Him before they even returned. How amazing is that?
The disciples that were sent out have all kinds of stories to tell as they want to talk about how they were even able to cast out demons in the name of Jesus, which we've seen they had some issues with the demons listening to them in the past. Jesus responds by telling them that that He saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Probably Jesus is talking about when Satan rebelled and was thrown out of heaven and took one-third of the angels with him who became what we know as demons. Of course Satan and the demons submit to Jesus' name and His authority because He's their creator and has the authority not just to throw them out of heaven, but to throw them into the lake of fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels. Jesus then turns back to those He sent out and tells them that He has given them authority so that they can tread on scorpions and not be injured and that they will have all authority over the enemy and nothing will harm them. This is not to say that they should be proud, but I think the context here is that God is going to keep them safe on their journey as ambassadors of the King and His kingdom. There will be a time and place for each of them to die, but that would come in God's time, and until that time, nothing would be able to hurt them if they were staying obedient to God's commands--nothing of this world nor of the spiritual world. All power and authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Jesus and He sends us out in that power and authority to be His witnesses (the Greek word there is martyrs). Jesus warns them not to rejoice that the demons are subject to them, but they are to rejoice that their names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life in heaven and that their salvation is secure. For this is no other name under heaven by which men must be saved. Are some of these men the same ones that would say "Lord, Lord" to Jesus in Matthew 7 and He would respond by saying, "I never knew you" because their names were not written in the Lamb's Book of Life? Possibly, though we have little idea who these 72 are outside of perhaps the 12 Apostles, and Judas Iscariot may be among them, though we know that Luke has already identified Judas as a traitor and a devil that is among them. Luke 10:13-16 English Standard Version Woe to Unrepentant Cities 13 “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. 14 But it will be more bearable in the judgment for Tyre and Sidon than for you. 15 And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? You shall be brought down to Hades. 16 “The one who hears you hears me, and the one who rejects you rejects me, and the one who rejects me rejects him who sent me.” These are probably some of the cities that rejected the members of the 72 that were sent out and since they rejected the ambassadors of the King, they rejected the King Himself. Jesus condemns their rejection saying that if Jesus did the same miracles in the pagan towns of Tyre (remember that Satan is referred to as the King of Tyre in the Old Testament) and Sidon that they would have believed. This is not just hyperbole, but Jesus actually knows that they would have responded in faith, so this is quite the condemnation. They had access to everything--the Law, the Prophets, and the actual words and works of Jesus being performed in their midst, but didn't believe.
Jesus also condemns Capernaum, the town from which He operated from for a long time. They apparently also assumed they had it made and had no need for repentance. Jesus promises that those that are proud and think they have it made and don't repent will be in Hades and not in heaven--both those who rejected Jesus' words and those who rejected the messengers that He sent, because to reject His messengers is to reject Him and His message and the one who sent Him (that is the Father). Luke 10:1-12 English Standard Version Jesus Sends Out the Seventy-Two 10 After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them on ahead of him, two by two, into every town and place where he himself was about to go. 2 And he said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. 3 Go your way; behold, I am sending you out as lambs in the midst of wolves. 4 Carry no moneybag, no knapsack, no sandals, and greet no one on the road. 5 Whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace be to this house!’ 6 And if a son of peace is there, your peace will rest upon him. But if not, it will return to you. 7 And remain in the same house, eating and drinking what they provide, for the laborer deserves his wages. Do not go from house to house. 8 Whenever you enter a town and they receive you, eat what is set before you. 9 Heal the sick in it and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ 10 But whenever you enter a town and they do not receive you, go into its streets and say, 11 ‘Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet we wipe off against you. Nevertheless know this, that the kingdom of God has come near.’ 12 I tell you, it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town. Jesus is now sending 72 ambassadors of His kingdom out ahead of Him. There is much work to be done in a very short period of time, and Jesus needs to allow others to help Him reap the harvest and get things ready for Him so that He can come into the towns and villages and have people know He's coming, only staying for short time and quickly moving onto the next town or village. However, Jesus warns those that He's sending out that there are now going to be enemies that come against them. They will be like lambs among wolves, which is not comforting for these seventy-two that are being sent out.
They are still among the Jews and are to rely on their charity and hospitality, so they are to take no provisions with them and they are not to stop for anything or anyone. Time is of the essence here--there is no time to pack and no time to stop and talk to anyone along the way. When they get to their destination, they are to greet the people that live there with the standard greeting that wishes peace to come on the person's house. If the person owning the house does not return the greeting back to them then they know they are not welcome there and they are to move on, and God will not bring peace to such a man or his house if that man rejects the Lord by rejecting His messengers. They are to stay with the same household for their entire stay (which was probably not going to be very long) and eat whatever the host family gave them to eat. Remember they had nothing of their own that they brought with them, they were to depend totally on the LORD sending them to the right families that would take care of them. The seventy-two that were sent out were sent out with the ability to perform miracles to go along with their message to validate that the message was from the LORD. It was common for Jews to ask for a sign like this, but they were also prone to use this as a stall and delay tactic to keep asking for more signs, bigger signs, and refusing to believe if their demands of what the signs were supposed to look like were not met. These seventy-two that were sent out (I believe it would be safe to call them apostles by the strictest of definitions of the word "apostle") were to keep the focus on God and His kingdom when performing these healings and other signs as they would say "The kingdom of God is near you" (and it was because the kingdom of God was there in the person of Jesus). However, not every town would be willing to accept them or Jesus. We've already seen this a couple of times and Jesus is specifically going to call out some of the cities that would reject Him when He pronounces condemnation and judgment on them in the next passage we are to read (cross-reference this with Matthew 11, starting in verse 20). These that rejected Jesus didn't do so because of lack of having someone sent to them or lack of evidence. We try to make these arguments today, but those arguments are specious. Show me that person who you know has never had the gospel preached to them and I'll preach the gospel to them and we no longer have an issue. Even the issue of language is not an issue there as we see in the book of Acts as the Holy Spirit can cause me to speak in a language I do not know or cause them to hear me as if I were speaking a language I do not know. So then the hearts of those in these unrepentant cities are revealed to be in rebellion against the LORD and against His Christ. Jesus said to not even let any of the dust that stuck to their clothes or their feet stay on them if the people did not accept them--a sign of the totality of the judgment coming upon them that you wouldn't even want to have a piece of dirt from that city stuck on you in fear that God might someone sweep you up in His judgment against those cities. The kingdom of God being near to some meant healing, salvation, and restoration. For others, the kingdom of God being near was something to fear and meant condemnation and judgment. because they were living in open rebellion. They did not want the Christ to come, because they wanted to continue to live the way they wanted to live. Jesus said that those who rejected Him and His messengers with all the evidence they had seen and heard here would have a harsher judgment than Sodom and Gomorrah, the worst cities we know of among the Canaanites which you can read about in the book of Genesis. Those cities experienced a little bit of what we might think of as "hell on earth" as God allowed them to be judged by fire and brimstone as a sign of the judgment that is to come, but that will be "soft" compared to the judgment in hell that awaits these unrepentant cities and all those who look in the face of the evidence and the truth and choose to continue in rebellion because they love the darkness and hate the light (John 3 tells us about this condemnation and the verdict that has already been passed on them). Luke 9:57-62 English Standard Version The Cost of Following Jesus 57 As they were going along the road, someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” 58 And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” 59 To another he said, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” 60 And Jesus said to him, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” 61 Yet another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home.” 62 Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.” Sorry this is getting published a day late, but I lost my session login in the middle of writing this article on the 28th, and and didn't get around to coming back and writing it again yesterday. I do find this topic of conversation an important one though and one that we often don't have with people when we are sharing the gospel with them. Jesus is short on time here and He doesn't have time for people that simply want to follow after Him but not be fully committed to Him. He's already dealt with that issue a few times during His ministry, but most notably after The Feeding of the 5,000 (if you read the account in John's gospel). He now has many people wanting to follow after Him as He is on His way to Jerusalem with His eyes set on the cross. He's in so much of a hurry to get there that He wouldn't take the "normal" route that the other Jewish people would take to bypass Samaria, but instead went right through it, preaching the gospel to the Samaritan towns and villages (even those which He knew would reject Him) on His way so that everyone that He came to share the gospel with had heard the message before His limited in-person, face-to-face ministry here on Earth was over.
Jesus' words in this passage may seem harsh, but they are truly loving when you consider that He knows that the chief priests and the teachers of the law and the Sanhedrin are not only coming after Him but everyone who has associated themselves with Him and His gospel. This is not a movement where Jesus is going to be accepted as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords and HIs followers were simply going to ride His coat tails into His kingdom and have a never-ending gravy train of peace and prosperity to enjoy just because they named themselves as being a follower of the person who was going to win the battle. The battle is going to come to the followers as we'll see in the book of Acts and beyond. The people must have sensed that things were coming to a climax with the determination of Jesus to go to Jerusalem and the way in which Jesus was now being a little more open about His identity, and the obvious hostility that was there between those in authority (both the Roman authorities and the Jewish authorities) and Jesus. Now was the time to let Jesus know they were on His side (or so they thought), but these people had divided hearts and interests that kept them from being fully committed to what Jesus was doing in the here and now. The first person seemed to be one of those that wanted to ride the gravy train like I was talking about before. Jesus sees right through the man's statement of allegiance and knows that the man is only interested in what he can get out of following Jesus (there are many today that believe in this kind of prosperity gospel that you should say you believe in Jesus because that will make God have to bless you and give you good things--good health, lots of money, etc. You won't have to look hard to see this message in all kind of "inspirational" books, sermons that make it onto TV and radio, and in the hearts of the world as their imagination as why would follow after Jesus. Certainly it must be for selfish reasons, for why would we follow after a God who didn't serve us and give us something for the trouble of serving Him?). Jesus tells this man that He's got it all wrong and that He lives in poverty, is homeless, and has no material possessions or comforts of this world to offer this man. The second person is called by Jesus (that's different than the first person who came up to Jesus on his own), but the response to the call was that this man was committed to his family and needed to wait for his father to die before following Jesus. While this sounds honorable, Jesus has taught that we must be willing to leave everyone and everything behind to cling to Him, much like how a man will leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife and the two will become one flesh. (Genesis 2:24). We are told that our relationship with Jesus will be like a marriage, but notice in that marriage that Jesus is the groom who left HIs Father's house (heaven) to make a way for us to to be united with Him. Reading between the lines a bit, this man's father probably would not approve of his son being a follower of Jesus and so the man wanted to wait until after his father was dead so that he would not have that conflict or embarrassment. But if this man truly believed in Jesus, why didn't he also want his father to come to believe in Jesus before he died (and who knows how long before that happened)? Under the Law (see Numbers 30) this man was free to make his own vow or oath and his father could do nothing about it--only for an unmarried woman did the father have discretion to nullify the vow or oath as long as his daughter lived in his house and was under his authority. So then, this man is simply making an excuse to not follow Jesus and while he wants to make it sound like he's doing it for religious reasons to honor his parents, he's not. If he truly loved and honored his parents, he would bring them to Jesus too. Jesus says some words here that are hard for us to believe came out of His mouth, "Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God." We've probably seen this at play in Jesus' own life as I mentioned before. It's pretty apparent that Joseph dies at some point during Jesus' ministry because there were some responses early on along the lines of "We know who your father is," and "Is not this the carpenter's son?" (Implying that Jesus was born out of wedlock between Mary and Joseph and that they had come up with the story of immaculate conception as a cover for their fornication). Later we see that Joseph is not mentioned....only Jesus' mother and siblings, and Jesus would give Mary into the custody and care of John from the cross implying that Mary was a widow and Jesus as the first-born son has been responsible for her, but now He was passing that responsibility along to John who closer to Jesus than His actual brothers. We don't see Jesus leaving HIs ministry to bury Joseph and put the family's affairs in order. While we don't have every moment of Jesus' life recorded for us in the gospels, I presume the exclusion of this particular part of the story means that Jesus isn't calling this man to do something that He didn't already do Himself--to let His brothers and sisters (who at the time were not following Him and were spiritually dead) take care of burying Joseph as He continued to declare the kingdom of God in the limited time that He had. Not even the love of family should be distraction from the call that we are given. Now a third man came up to Jesus to voluntarily follow after Jesus, but says that he first wants to say goodbye to those at home (probably referring to his wife and children). This answer is probably one of the hardest things that Jesus said. Jesus says that you can't go into ministry for Him always looking behind you to make sure that your family is going to be safe--that's like a farmer trying to plow a furrow and looking behind him. The furrow won't be straight and he won't be able to see things in front of him that he needs to see (rocks, when to make the team of horses or oxen turn, or any course corrections he needs to make to keep the furrow straight). Such a farmer does a lot of work that looks bad and is worthless in quality. Those are some pretty strong words, but Jesus knows that many are going to be called to choose between their families and their faith in the near future. It's not an easy choice, but we are called to love Jesus supremely so that it seems like we hate all others in relationship to our love for Him. (See Luke 14:26 where Jesus specifically addresses this issue as being part of the cost of discipleship). This conversation about the cost of discipleship is going to keep coming back. Jesus wants the people that are happy being followers to make a real commitment are they in or are they out? Now is the time to decide. We should be real with those we are witnessing to that there are real costs associated with following Jesus and they can't leave one foot in the world and one foot in the kingdom of God. There is no line that we are judge by where if you are on one side of the line you belong to Jesus, but if you are on the other side of the line, you don't. You are either one with Jesus and willing to go through anything He goes through, or you don't belong to Jesus at all. There are no marriages for the sake of convenience or for political alliances like Solomon's marriages, or simply for being a gold-digger and wanting to marry a rich sugar-daddy and get all the benefits that come with being married to someone with the resources of the Creator of all things, the King of Kings, and Lord of Lords. We're not simply in this for ourselves. There are fringe benefits that come our way for sure, but that it not the reason that we become united with Christ. We do so "to the praise of His glory." So, I encourage you to check your motives for following Jesus today and ask yourself if you are are in it for selfish reasons, if you are embarrassed to say you follow Him when He calls you to a relationship that may divide you from your family (maybe imagining the decision to be easier once that member of the family were dead) or are you so attached to the living members or your family or maybe your friends that are like family to you, that you wouldn't go and do what Jesus calls you to do because you wouldn't want to put them at risk or don't want to risk those relationships. Just who is the Jesus you are trying to follow after? Is He the one that told you that everyone hated Him and will hate you too and that in this world you will have trouble, or are you believing in a fictitious Jesus that is your sugar daddy and doesn't even really care about your relationship with him and He just writes you checks and buys you things to make you and keep you happy? Who Jesus is and what kind of gospel we believe seems vitally important because Jesus seems to be telling us here and in other places that there are some people who think they belong to Him and they don't. Luke 9:51-56 English Standard Version A Samaritan Village Rejects Jesus 51 When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. 52 And he sent messengers ahead of him, who went and entered a village of the Samaritans, to make preparations for him. 53 But the people did not receive him, because his face was set toward Jerusalem. 54 And when his disciples James and John saw it, they said, “Lord, do you want us to tell fire to come down from heaven and consume them?” 55 But he turned and rebuked them. 56 And they went on to another village. We've talked quite a bit about Jesus' rejection by the "Jews" (those in political and religious authority over the people of Judea and Galilee), and we've seen Jesus be rejected by the Gentiles that lived on the east side of the Sea of Galilee, but we haven't talked much in the gospel of Luke about the Samaritans. They lived in the land between Judea and Galilee and were a mix between Jewish and Gentile ancestry. Before Judah was taken off into captivity by Babylon, the northern ten tribes that had formed the nation of Israel and followed their false gods and built temples to them in the northern kingdom were taken into exile by the Assyrians. While Babylon seemed to focus mostly on reeducation of the leaders and trying to demoralize the general populace, Assyria tried to make those they took captive lose their identities by splitting the people up so among their empire so they could not form communities and forced them to marry people from other nations. This is where the Samaritans came from and they were hated by both the Jews and the Gentiles--they didn't fit into either world, having only the first five books of Moses for their Bible and worshiping at the temple their forefathers had built. The woman at the well tries to address some of these issues with Jesus in John 4, but He keeps the conversation on track. In that story in John 4, the whole town believes.
The Jews so hated the Samaritans that typically they would avoid travelling through Samaria when going from Galilee to Judea or vice versa. Jesus knew the Samaritans wouldn't make Him or His disciples unclean though and travelled through Samaria on more than one occasion. This is one of those occasions as we're actually getting close to the time that Jesus is going to die on the cross now (Luke indicates this) and Jesus is on a timetable. He needs to get to Jerusalem so that specific events happen on specific dates to fulfill the meaning of the events that are going on with Passover for those dates (I'll try to explain some of those things as we go along, but it's likely Luke won't talk much about that since he's writing to a Gentile audience). All that's important to Luke's readers here is that there wasn't time for Jesus to take the normal long way around because He had to take the direct route to get to Jerusalem on time. While in Samaria, Jesus does seem to preach the gospel to and minister to some of the Samaritan people, who we don't have much of a record of Him ministering to up to this point (Philip the Evangelist and others will go to Samaria in the book of Acts though). When the people there also rejected Jesus, for it was prophesied that all would reject the Messiah before His crucifixion--neither Jews nor Gentile nor Samaritans would accept Him fully as the Messiah--James and John, "The Sons of Thunder," show their bigotry towards Samaritans and ask Jesus if they should call down fire from heaven to destroy the town (imagine Sodom and Gomorrah, because that's probably what they are thinking of--they imagine these people to be as bad or worse than the people of Sodom and Gomorrah). Jesus rebukes them for having such and attitude and thinking that it is up to them to pronounce condemnation and ultimately damnation on people that reject Him. If they do die rejecting Him, then He will be the Judge that will condemn them one day. The Word of God will convict them in their rebellion, so we need do nothing more than preach the Word to them and like Jesus did here, move on to the next place whenever the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ is rejected. They are not rejecting us, but rejecting Him. Jesus knew this was all part of the plan--He was to be rejected by men and then crucified by them. We don't have any indication what happened in the next town, but even though Jesus was in a hurry, He had time to stop and minister to these Samaritan towns along the way, even the ones which He knew would reject Him--a people that had long ago traded real worship of the LORD for a god of their own creation (a pair of golden calves like those created a Mount Sinai). Jesus still loved them and wanted to see them come to repentance and have those that would believe restored to God's family once again. Make time for the people that everyone else tells you to stay away from, and check your pride and prejudices. If Jesus were to ask His disciples to call down fire from heaven on every town and village that rejected Him, it would have started by His home town of Nazareth burning because it was there that that He was rejected when He preached to them in the synagogue and they would not hear what He had to say to them. This has been a pattern all of Jesus' ministry, but James and John decided that God needed to treat these people differently than their Jewish brothers who had rejected Jesus over and over again. This passage tells us much about ourselves and about Jesus and the hearts that each of us have for others who the world tells us that they don't deserve the gospel (those we've heard called "deplorable" and "irredeemable" recently by some politicians). Do you want to see "those people" in heaven with you, or do you like James and John want to call down fire from heaven because waiting for the fires of hell is too long? Luke 9:49-50 English Standard Version Anyone Not Against Us Is For Us 49 John answered, “Master, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he does not follow with us.” 50 But Jesus said to him, “Do not stop him, for the one who is not against you is for you.” Once again, the disciples get it wrong and Jesus had to correct them. They saw someone casting out demons in the name of Jesus (note that they are probably jealous as they just tried to cast out a demon, probably also in the name of Jesus, and it didn't work). They tried to stop this man from doing his work and ministry because he was not part of their group, as if the man was not allowed to speak in Jesus' name if he was not one of the Twelve.
Jesus said not to try to stop this man who was apparently able to cast out the demons in the name of Jesus, for it is not for us to decide who is friend or foe in these situations...the signs are supposed to tell if their message is genuine and approved by God. If God has an issue with the one claiming to be His ambassador in a situation like this, then God will deal with such a man. Luke 9:46-48 English Standard Version Who Is the Greatest? 46 An argument arose among them as to which of them was the greatest. 47 But Jesus, knowing the reasoning of their hearts, took a child and put him by his side 48 and said to them, “Whoever receives this child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me receives him who sent me. For he who is least among you all is the one who is great.” Jesus has just told the disciples that He's going to leave them (I think pointing both to HIs crucifixion and ascension) and they've seen that they can't do the things that Jesus does by their own power. Only He is able to will things to happen and creation (whether that be the wind and the waves or the spiritual beings that He also created) obey Him.
Now the disciples start arguing about who is going to be the greatest, probably in reference to who is going to be in charge when Jesus leaves since that's the last thing that He told them. This may also be the event where the mother of James and John comes and asks if one of her sons can sit at Jesus' right hand and the other at His left hand in His kingdom. (See Matthew 20:20-28, but I believe this event probably happened closer to the events of the cross as Matthew records it just before the Triumphal Entry and we're still approximately one year before those events now since we know the feeding of the 5,000 happened around the time of Passover and so did the crucifixion, so we're a little less than a year away). This is an ongoing argument with the disciples and Jesus will rebuke them many times and it's one of the reasons that we see Jesus wash His disciples' feet at the Last Supper. While they were trying to be quiet about their argument, Jesus knew what was going on in their heads and hearts, and used a little child as an example for them--children were not respected at all by that culture as we see when the disciples tried to prevent the children from coming to Jesus in Matthew 19:13-15. Jesus tells them that, "Whoever receives this child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me receives him who sent me. For he who is least among you all is the one who is great.” This would be counter-cultural to the disciples for sure as taking care of the children was a job that the women were supposed to do in that culture. Jesus emphasizes that however we treat those that we view to be the "least" (those who can offer us nothing) is what we think about Jesus and who we welcome the "least" is how we welcome Jesus and the Father who sent the Son. That doesn't make much sense, but we know that Jesus says this is how those who claim to be children of God will be judged (see Matthew 25: 31-46). Jesus will evaluate who the sheep and the goats are based off of how we have compassion for those who the world would call "worthless." All people are made in the image of God and all of them have souls that are precious to Jesus--He wants to save all of them, and He wants us to have compassion on the children and those who are naked, hungry, impoverished, and imprisoned. We should not allow pride or prejudice to allow us to try to pick and choose who we believe is worth of the good news of the gospel. It takes time to disciple a child. You must work to teach them things that they have never heard before, and you must be able to to explain things to to them in words they can understand. However, children have great faith which is many times taken advantage of. They know they don't understand everything in the world and they have to assume that their parents and the other adults in their lives are telling them the truth, even if they don't understand it for themselves yet and answers like "One day you'll understand" have to do for a time. There reaches a point where the child wants to be able to understand for themselves, which is a good thing, because then they will be able to teach these same things to others--don't withhold answers to good questions from those who are curious. Let the children come close to you not only to be inquisitive, but to look to you as an example because they will want someone to watch to see what true faith looks like and you will teach them by example whether you desired to or not, and if you don't take the time to train a child up in the way that he should go, then the world and the devil will be happy to train them for you in the way that they should not go. Refusal to take responsibility for discipling the children of our generation and having real, authentic conversations with them about our faith (making it out that faith is something that is simply internal, personal, and not to be discussed publicly) has lead to many of the problems that we see in many generations. We love to blame the younger generation for being rebellious (and every generation has that urge), but did we do anything to train them up in the way they should go? Jesus seems to say that He will not hold us guiltless if we abdicate this responsibility. Now, back to the question of who is the greatest. Jesus is saying that the person who is doing the kingdom work that the Father sent the Son to do and that that Son was going to send the apostles to do was great in the kingdom, and the Son came to seek and to save that which was lost (we will see that In Luke 19). Jesus will tell them before His crucifixion that the one who wants to be the greatest must be a servant to all and that He came not to be served, but to serve and give His life as a ransom for many, and that He was leaving them an example by washing their feet. Unless they were willing to be washed and to wash each others' feet (a dirty, disgusting job done by the lowest servant in the house with no privilege or status), they had no part of Him or His kingdom. So, yes, there is an outward expression of the gospel that is necessary, though these works in and of themselves do not save people. True faith will always work in concert with works that will authenticate the message that we speak and will always bring glory to the Father, the Son and Spirit (and not to us). That's a little bit of a sidetrack, but this passage is one of those that people like to use to preach a "social justice gospel" (that Jesus came to be revolutionary and give equal status and rights to women, children, poor, needy, oppressed, disabled, and so on). Jesus loved all of them and equally shared the gospel with all, but His motivations were not primarily political or social in nature, but He also wasn't afraid to run shoulders with those that others felt to be "unclean" and "the least of these" because these were the ones who were willing to come to repentance--they knew they had nothing to offer God and that they simply needed to cry out to God for salvation because they could not earn their way to heaven. We also should not be afraid to engage in such ministry--in fact, we should love to do so because we are truly doing the work of Jesus when we do. |
Daniel WestfallI will mostly use this space for recording my "journal" from my daily devotions as I hope to encourage others to read the Bible along with me and to leave a legacy for others. Archives
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