This passage contains many injunctions that sound very much
like Jesus' teachings. We are told not
to seek high office, Jesus said that we are to be like children instead of
seeking greatness and we are to humble ourselves as servants to one
another. We are enjoined to righteous
living not to multiply sacrifices and Jesus says that we are not acceptable to
God due to the multiplicity of our offerings, no matter how much we tithe of
things like our spices, we are to keep the "weightier matters" of
God's Word. We are not to grow weary in
prayer, Jesus tells the little parable of the persistent widow and calls us to believe
we pray to a Father who gives good gifts.
We are not to babble in the assembly of elders, Jesus tells us to keep
our prayers simple and in so doing gives His disciples an incredibly short but
powerful prayer we know as the Lord's Prayer.
The Apocrypha isn't evil, we simply don't put it on par with the
Scriptures. We receive it as the Jews
do, writings that are useful but not Scripture.
The seventy-two return rejoicing at the success of the
mission, all that Jesus has sent them to do has been done, they have seen great
things. Jesus rejoices with them but
puts it all into perspective by reminding them that the real cause for rejoicing
is that their names are written in heaven, they are known by God and when
something is written in heaven, it is written forever. He has given them an everlasting name that
will not be cut off (see Isaiah 56). In response
to all this Jesus gives thanks to the Father that He has been faithful and is
revealing marvelous things to these disciples.
To the disciples, He tells them that they cannot imagine how thankful
they should be, they are seeing things no one has seen before, not Moses, not
the prophets, not John the Baptist. They
should rejoice beyond measure. So should
we.
If you rejoice with the angels in Genesis 1 when the Lord
speaks and the wonders of His creation are revealed, and what an amazing thing
it would be to see as all things come into being, things that never were, then
you must also be deeply saddened by the desolation of that creation. Paul says in Romans that creation gives
testimony to its creator and to His will for life on the planet, a testimony
some have ignored and acted in disobedience to the revelation. Does this horrid destruction not also bear
witness to the greatness, in the sense of great power, of God as well? Should those who witness it not tremble in
fear? It seems likely that in our day we
would attribute it to something we have done to the environment. The conclusion that it is the work of God in
wrath seems inescapable but we should know by now that we think ourselves to
more powerful than we are when it comes to creation, there is no doubt that
some would find alternative explanations for God's work of destruction just as
they do with creation. It isn't enough
to see great things, properly interpreting them is equally important.
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