The Reign of God is at Hand

In chapter 10 of Luke’s gospel, Jesus sends out the seventy-two in pairs as lambs in the midst of wolves to cure the sick and to proclaim, “The reign of God is at hand (V.9). The seventy-two returned in jubilation saying, “Master, even the demons are subject to us in your name (V.17). Jesus replies, “I watched Satan fall from the sky like lightening. Do no rejoice so much in the fact that the devils are subject to you as that your names are inscribed in heaven (V, 18,20).

What Jesus does next is absolutely beautiful! He offered a hymn of praise and rejoiced in the Holy Spirit saying, “I offer you praise, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because what you have hidden from the learned and the clever you have revealed to the merest children. Yes, Father you have graciously willed it so. Everything has been given over to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father and no one knows the Father except the Son-and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him” (V.21-22).

Jesus, reminds us to put God first in everything we do and to give God all the glory. He then turns to the disciples and said, “Blest are the eyes that see what you see. I tell you, many prophets and kings wished to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it (V. 23-24).