Luke 10:1-24

I love so much about this passage.

This is where the 70 are sent out to spread the good news and heal in Jesus’ name.

They were to bless the houses they entered. If they were rejected they were to leave and the blessing would return to them. 

In the same way, if they went to a town and were rejected they were to take the blessing back and leave the town with the consequences of rejecting God.

The 70 returned full of Joy at doing the Jesus’s work and it being successful. 

They told him “Lord even the demons submit to us in your name” v17. 

Jesus warned them not to feel joy that the spirits submitted to them but that their names are written in heaven. 

The agenda for rejoicing is not what we can do for God, but what God does for us. (The Message v18-20). It is important that we do not lose sight of that. God can make anything happen. His work is not dependant on us. He chooses to give us tasks, but He is not dependant on the tasks we do to achieve His work.

Following witnessing the joy of the 70 and all they had learned, Jesus was full of Joy through the Holy Spirit and praised God for revealing these things to those who were open to learning like little children, not the supposed wise and learned who were closed. 

The people who followed Jesus and comprised the 70 He sent out were mostly ordinary people. They were not highly educated. They were not considered wise. They were not considered to be well versed in the scriptures. They were ordinary people. But what they knew about God was greater than all the learning of the leaders of the Jews.

Many years ago I attended a church which had recently appointed a new curate. Fresh from his studies he gave a rousing sermon about having authority. He spoke at great length about the importance of book learning and studying the scriptures. That, according to him, gave you authority. He never quite reconciled how this applied to Jesus, who from a worldly perspective was just an ignorant carpenter.

We need to remember that authority does not come from book learning or theological qualifications. That can enhance what we know, but is not the ultimate authority. To suggest it is, is to be a pharisee not a follower of Jesus.

We need to remember that God chose 70 ignorant men to carry out His work. 

He did not choose the learned men, but the ignorant.

This was why Jesus rejoiced. He rejoiced because His Father had given those men great knowledge of God. He rejoiced because those men had been prepared to hear and see what God was teaching them through Jesus. He rejoiced because these men had that day learned that true Joy comes from what God does for us.

Let us never forget that is the source of Joy. What God does for us, not what we do for Him.

Luke 8:1-15

I have covered this parable already in this series. This is the one about the man sowing seed that falls on the road and is eaten, that falls among rocks and sprouts but cannot grow, that grows among the weeds and is smothered and that grows on the good soil and grows into a good crop. Jesus explained to His disciples that those with ears to hear will hear Him and those with eyes to see will see Him, but those who have closed eyes and ears will not see or hear anything. 

What I found really noteworthy about this passage as Luke writes it is the description of the women who accompanied Jesus. These women had been healed of diseases and evil spirits. Many had been healed, but these women chose to follow Jesus. They followed Jesus at a time when women had little freedom to do what they wanted and to just go and follow some itinerant preacher. What is more, they were wealthy women who used their wealth to support Jesus’ work.

Amongst the women were Mary Magdalene, Susanna and Joanna the wife of the manager of Herod’s household. Jesus’s message reached into high places. And those with ears to hear lived in those high places. 

I was particularly struck by the presence in that group of women of Joanna. This was the household of the man who, on a whim, promised his step daughter anything she wanted and she wanted John the Baptist’s head. Herod had gone along with this rather than lose face. 

This was the household that saw Herod’s predecessor murder baby boys in Bethlehem because he sought to destroy the new born Messiah.

The manager of Herod’s household was a prestigious position. He was a man of great influence and wealth. Here was his wife following Jesus and financially supporting Him. If Joanna was with Jesus and had money to support Him then that suggests her husband allowed it. So the manager of Herod’s household was sympathetic to the message, even if he did not follow it. Maybe he was like the seed growing amongst the weeds. He heard the message but considerations about his position prevented him from accepting the word and growing with it.

Joanna had experienced the great Joy of the knowledge of God and was passionate about following Jesus. For her, Joy led to obedience to God and His son.

That is very much what Joy can do for us if we are open to it.