Making Satan Fall (Luke 10: 1-11, 17-20) 7/7/13

                                                 

It is generally thought that the second most important post in our government is that of Secretary of State. The Secretary of State is the delegate of not only the President, but the United States as well. If the Secretary makes a promise to a head of state, it carries the power of the Presidency behind it. It is a position of both enormous power and of enormous responsibility.

When Jesus sent out the seventy two in the tenth chapter of Luke, they were acting as his emissaries, just like the Secretary of State does for the President. He sent them out with the power of the Son of God. When they spoke, they spoke with the authority of God behind them. These people were entrusted with both enormous power and enormous responsibility. They took the Word of God on the road and they were charged as the advance team to carry the message of the kingdom of God to every town and village to which Jesus would later go.

The Secretary of State is always a senior person, usually involved with affairs of state for many years prior to his or her appointment.  Young folks need not apply. This is a job requiring years of training, decades of experience, thousands of major decisions behind the nominee.

But in Luke’s gospel, Jesus gives his charges about a paragraph’s worth of instruction and sends them on their way. No Secret Service. No helicopter. No Air Force plane. No business cards! Jesus sent the seventy two with no money, no knapsack, no sandals. They left with the clothes on their backs in twos. They were to stay in the first house that welcomed them and not move around. They were to heal the sick in the name of God. There was no training other than what they had received at the feet of Jesus. There was no logistics, no press. They went on faith, delegates of Jesus.

Think of a time when you had to do something completely out of your comfort zone. Maybe you left home…for college or military service. Maybe you took a job that caused you to move. Remember when you reported for work at your first real job. Those times can be very traumatic. Most of us don’t feel comfortable being thrust into new surroundings. All those trappings of home are absent and you have to be accountable. I remember a long time ago stepping out of a train at Grand Central Station in New York City with two suitcases and a job to go to the next morning. I was scared out of my wits. But even in that time for me… and there would be many more, right down to becoming the pastor of this church…even in those many times you have had to do something brand new, you had some sort of safety net. You could call home. You could ask your new boss or a co-worker. The only thing the seventy two had was that they were paired. There is no indication that there was a senior or a junior in the pairs. They just went out by twos. They had each other…and that was it.

My first grownup job was in the Navy. I had plenty of instruction for that. The Navy expects a lot from you, but it also trains you. My next job, and each one after that until I went on my own, came with some kind of training or apprenticeship. If that was the case with the seventy two, it certainly came in a hurry, for these first missionaries went in front of Jesus. They were called upon to pave the way in a sense. There was only the preparation born of that strong belief that they went out for the Master…and that whatever he asked of them would turn out okay because it was Jesus who asked.

It is typical of Luke to ignore the details of what went on with the pairs of missionaries. He is much more concerned with reporting what Jesus said...how Jesus reacted. Luke gives us only a summary of the activities of the seventy two. They return with joy, saying “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!”

The passage in Luke 10, verses 17-20 is one of those times that it simply is not enough to read silently. This passage must be read aloud and with emphasis. When John says that Jesus wept, I get it. But when Luke tells us that Jesus said: “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven,” it’s not enough to read it. I think this is one of those times that the humanity of Jesus shined through like a beacon on a hill. “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven…nothing shall hurt you…rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”  Sometimes in the magnificence of Jesus’ life and deeds, we forget that he was also a small town kid who grew up to be a man just like you and me, only with perfect obedience to his heavenly father. And on this occasion, he took a risk. He sent out normal people to do an abnormal job. He sent them out on faith and they went on faith. When it was all said and done, the Son of Man looks up and out and says: I saw Satan falling! The good guys really are gonna win!

In the church, there is a lot of talk about sending. Our weekly bulletin has a sending section. We send people out into the world. In the Old Testament, there was a lot of sending. God sent Abraham to a mountain with his son Isaac to test their faith. God sent an angel to wrestle with Jacob. God sent Moses to deal with Pharaoh and liberate the people of Israel from bondage. God sent Isaiah and Jeremiah and so many more prophets to deliver his message. In the New Testament, God sends John the Baptist to baptize Jesus. And God sent himself. Yes, he sent himself. He sent God the Son from the Trinity that is God in three persons, and he sent him as a baby. He sent him as a human. He sent him to bleed his own blood for you and me and all human kind.

And yet, in the most bizarre turn of faith, God left the fate of this great experiment in the hands of amateurs. When Jesus returned to heaven, he left his disciples in charge. If they failed to carry the message for just one generation, then it was over. Christianity would fail. This is why Jesus was practically jumping out of his skin when the seventy two returned. They had acted in faith and that’s all it took. They said yes. Jesus did the rest.

Nothing has changed. The kingdom of God is still near to us. It is closer today than it has ever been and tomorrow it will be closer yet. When will it come? I don’t know and no one else does either. The Bible tells us to be ready…that the Day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. It’s funny to hear that phrase this week. Last week someone broke into our home. That’s right. Someone violated the sanctity of our home. If the person had just broken into our house, it would already be forgotten. But the peace of our home was breached by a stranger and it has left us off balance. Now I understand anew what it means to hear that the Day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. It will be a surprise. We will either be ready by living in a state of readiness…or we will be caught unprepared.

As much as I would like to see the coming of the Lord, I still take comfort in the fact that Christianity continues to spread…that people are daily being won to the Lord. The seventy two have multiplied considerably in the years since Jesus sent them out barefoot to pave the way. Maybe that’s why he hasn’t chosen to end the age. People are not only still being sent…they are still going. They are still accepting the call. And more than any other time in history, people are coming to God.

So listen. When you are asked, say yes. When the call goes out, say as the great prophet Isaiah said: “Here am I, Lord. Send me” [Isa. 6: 8]. The harvest is still plentiful and the workers are still few.  We are the modern day version of the seventy two. We are Jesus’ disciples, except we don’t just pave the way for him to come behind us. We stand on the shoulders of all those who have followed him and we build on that foundation for all those who will follow us. 

You will never be alone. Chances are that if you have not already been paired, God will provide you with the partner you need at the time. You will never feel prepared, but go anyway. Your assignment is always the same. Respond. Don’t say no when he calls you.

When you work for him, nothing shall hurt you. Your names shall be written in heaven. And maybe if you look up, you can even see Satan falling like lightning from heaven.