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

 

 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 

 

Yesterday we read that, as He set off toward Jerusalem, the Lord appointed seventy others also, and sent them two by two before His face into every city and place where He Himself was about to go.  Then He said to them, "The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few; therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into 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 remain in the same house, eating and drinking such things as they give, for the laborer is worthy of his wages.  Do not go from house to house.  Whatever city you enter, and they receive you, eat such things as are set before 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."  My study bible says that I saw Satan fall describes an event that took place before the creation of the world.  It says that five times, Satan set his will against God (Isaiah 14:12-15; see also Revelation 12:7-12).  Let us keep in mind that serpents and scorpions are images representative of devils and demons, and so fall into this same category of spiritual battle and all the power of the enemy.  But even this victory over the power of the enemy, Christ says, is not what we rejoice over -- rather that 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."  My study bible comments that the people Jesus refers to as babes are those of simple faith and open hearts (see 18:15-17).  

What does it mean that Jesus rejoices over the fact that God has "hidden these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them to babes"?  I connect this statement with those that came before it, in which Jesus speaks about the power of God at work through the Seventy that he has sent out on an apostolic mission.  Jesus said, "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."  This is a sharing of holy spiritual power, and it comes not to those prophets and kings who have desired it, nor even the wise and prudent, but to the babes who follow Christ.  My study bible says that the babes are those who have simple faith and open hearts.  But we need to read this in the context of their relationship to Jesus.  In other words, their hearts are open enough, and their faith simple enough, so that they can perceive Jesus as He is, in His identity as Son and Christ.  In other words, it is the open heart and simple faith that allows us to truly see -- and to which God responds with revelation of God's power at work.  In modern times, how might we put this into context, and come to understand it for ourselves?  Many, if not most, of my readers live in nominally Christian countries, and come from cultures which long ago embraced Christianity.  How do we keep open hearts and simple faith?  How does one keep an open heart and simple faith when bombarded with news stories and social media eye-catching attention-seeking "musts" and "shoulds" all the day long?  How do we keep our faith simple and our hearts open when we're pulled in so many different directions -- from terrifying news stories, to outrageous and shocking media, to the latest celebrities climbing on bandwagons and drawing our attention in a million different directions?  The simple truth of the matter is that maintaining and open heart and simple faith is work, and perhaps we might characterize that as our central work as faithful Christians.  To maintain an open heart is, in effect, to cultivate a state of the heart that is open to the leanings and understanding that God wants to plant there.  This does not mean that we seek out special dispensations, or strange ways of practicing and cultivating asceticism, or engage in anything which is extreme or dangerous.  What it does mean is a careful cultivation of the peace we need to set time aside and pray as Jesus has taught us -- both in the secret place of our room (Matthew 6:5-6) where God who sees in secret, sees us pray in secret, and in liturgical services and traditional practices of the Church, built up through the centuries to help us shore up our faith and protect those "open hearts."  These are safe places to open up the heart, ask not just for God's blessing but also renewal and good direction, creating fertile ground for God's power and energies to be at work in the world.  Our open heart is the fertile ground for the seeds of the Sower which may bear an abundant harvest.  A simple faith is one that remains in that simple place of the open heart, in which it is just our bedrock of the love of God that sustains where our faith is, and remains the place we return when we're questioning or perplexed or cannot understand what the world seems to be saying to us.  This is the simple faith place where we understand -- just plain and simply -- that God loves us, and that in Christ we know the One who came here to die for us.  That simple and plainly powerful declaration of love that we truly know is the place where we take refuge for our simple faith.  It is the place where we know what we know, the bottom line root of who we are in this world.