I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven

Then the seventy returned with joy, saying, "Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name."  And He said to them, "I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.  Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you.   Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven."  

In that hour Jesus rejoiced in the Spirit and said, "I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them to babes.  Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight.  All things have been delivered 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 the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him."  

Then He turned to His disciples and said privately, "Blessed are the eyes which see the things you see; for I tell you that many prophets and kings have desired to see what you see, and have not seen it, and to hear what you hear, and have not heard it."

- Luke 10:17-24

 In yesterday's reading, we read that Jesus appointed seventy apostles (in addition to the Twelve) and sent them two by two to every city into which He was about to go as He journeyed toward Jerusalem.   He told them,  "The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few; therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into the His harvest.  Go your way; behold, I send you out as lambs among wolves.  Carry neither money bag, knapsack, nor sandals; and greet no one along the road.  But whatever house you enter, first say, 'Peace to this house.'  And if a son of peace is there, your peace will rest on it; if not, it will return to you.  And heal the sick there, and say to them, 'The kingdom of God has come near to you.'  But whatever city you enter, and they do not receive you, go out into its streets and say, 'The very dust of your city which clings to us we wipe off against you.  Nevertheless know this, that the kingdom of God has come near you.'  But I say to you that it will be more tolerable in that Day for Sodom than for that city.  Woe to you, Chorazin!  Woe to you, Bethsaida!  For if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes.  But it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the judgment than for you.  And you, Capernaum, who are exalted to heaven, will be brought down to Hades.  He who hears you hears Me, he who rejects you rejects Me, and he who rejects Me rejects Him who sent Me."

 Then the seventy returned with joy, saying, "Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name."  And He said to them, "I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.  Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you.   Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven."    Christ's distributed power is at work among these apostles.  My study bible says that I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven is probably a reference by Jesus to Isaiah 14:12-15.  It says, "Note the five 'I wills' in that passage.  Because he pursued his own will, Satan is both fallen from heaven, and he is defeated and dethroned from his demonic lordship over the world by the ministry of Christ and His disciples.  The joy of discipleship is not in authority over demonic power, but in the citizenship of God's kingdom."  The authority to trample on serpents and scorpions refers to images of demons - those which give pain, and poison, to human beings, and used by the power of the enemy.  The word translated as power (of the enemy) may also be translated as strength. 

In that hour Jesus rejoiced in the Spirit and said, "I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them to babes.  Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight.  All things have been delivered 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 the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him."  My study bible says, "These things are the mysteries of the Kingdom manifested through the words and works of Jesus.  They are received by babes, people of simple and open hearts, rather than by the scribes and Pharisees, the wise and prudent."  We have a powerful turning point in the ministry here, and in a sense, in the history of the salvation story.  Through faith, the "revelation" of the Father by the Son, to whom the Son chooses, human beings carry this power of the Kingdom into the world; it defeats the strength of the enemy, allowing them to trample on "serpents and scorpions."  My study bible adds, "Jesus is the Son of God in the absolute.  He shares fully all authority and knowledge of the Father, and is the sole and eternal revealer of God to humanity."

Then He turned to His disciples and said privately, "Blessed are the eyes which see the things you see; for I tell you that many prophets and kings have desired to see what you see, and have not seen it, and to hear what you hear, and have not heard it."  Again, there's a helpful note here:  "Many prophets and kings of the Old Testament anticipated the coming of Jesus, but they did not experience the blessing of His Incarnation and the presence of His kingdom."

In Jesus' last statement, about the many prophets and kings who have desired to see what the Apostles see, we get a sense of the tremendous awe at what is at work here, its preciousness.  Often I think we're so inured to hearing stories from the Bible, especially of Christ, that it's hard to understand this feeling of awe, rarity, preciousness.  But the truth is that when we experience Christ's presence in our lives it's always new, and awesome, and something we can't really predict by our worldly understanding of what life holds.  We may not have the kinds of awareness of the "work of the enemy" in our midst that the Gospels convey, but there are all kinds of oppressive forces in our lives with which we have to grapple.  In a modern context, we may experience Christ's power in our lives through a kind of healing resolution to painful problems, a way through a difficult situation, a way to bear troubles and difficulties, and to find a more wholesome sense of self.  All of these things are healing efforts against a painful and oppressive enemy, against things which poison our lives.  Often, I find, a way through a difficult situation isn't that I am able to change that situation, to change a person who's being cruel or unjust, to undo a kind of imposition or hardship or painful experience, but rather through Christ's power perhaps a better perspective is gained, something that helps in the long run, a kind of way of seeing and experiencing that adds to life, helps growth, and puts someone in good stead with God, right-relatedness as the result.  Children of abuse, for example, come to blame themselves; it's far easier than coping with the fact that parents may unjustly hurt them.  In Christ, we have an example of love, healing, a parenthood by adoption in which chastisement or rebuke is just, not unjust.  For the child of abuse, morbid shame or guilt becomes something to correct in Christ's embrace, the plank in one's own eye being the inability to see past this childhood abuse, and to become healed in order to love properly oneself, and not to pass on shame in the forms that prolong the problem.  The world suffers from all kinds of oppressive problems and we should not discount the power of wrong choices, abuse of authority, other ways in which right-relatedness is obscured, made harder, and stood upon its head.  Let us consider the outcome of Christ, His awesomeness, His day in our own lives - and then grasp its precious sight.