Day 163: Luke 10:17–24

In that same hour He rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, “I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth” (v. 21).

Jesus sent out seventy-two disciples to teach and heal, instructing them to “ask the Lord of the harvest . . . to send out workers” into His harvest field (Luke 10:2). He sent these disciples out “two by two.” The original language phrase for this is ana duo.

I love the fact that Christ sanctions companionship in the work of the gospel! The point is not the magic number of “two” (as opposed to three or four). The point is simply togetherness. Exceptions to this exist, of course, when we are called to stand alone, but the standard rule of our lives in Christ is far more often the fellowship, protection, accountability, and double dividends of joint service.

I can hardly describe the joy my coworkers in the gospel bring me. My best friend and I met each other by serving together in Mothers’ Day Out over twenty years ago. God called us to work ana duo, and we’ve been a duo ever since! Few things can add to our lives like the fellowship of serving together. I didn’t want you to miss that point in this passage.

But today, I want to look more carefully at what happened when the seventy-two returned, rejoicing with something that resembled amazement. In verse 17 they essentially said, “Wow! It happened just like You said it would, Jesus! Even the demons were subject to us in Your name! What a rush!”

Sandwiched between expressions of jubilation, Christ took a quick moment to remind them that they had a greater motivation for rejoicing than this: their names were written in heaven. So although we see Him celebrate their victories, we also see Him teaching them to base their joy on something far more reliable than accomplishments and abilities. He wanted them—and he wants us—to understand that the greatest cause we have for joy is not what we do but who we are. We are children of the eternal El Elyon. Our names are recorded in heaven. We are very wise to find our joy in who we are because of Him, rather than what we can do because of Him.

But now let’s enjoy these two awesome moments of celebration. Verse 21 tells us Jesus was “full of joy through the Holy Spirit.” Here’s a place where the original language is so much fun. In verse 17, the word for the joy of the disciples is chara, meaning essentially what you’d assume: “rejoicing” and “gladness.” The word switches in verse 21, however, to a far more intense original word. The word for Jesus’ joy is agalliao, meaning “to exult, leap for joy, to show one’s joy by leaping and skipping, denoting excessive or ecstatic joy and delight.” In the Septuagint of the Psalms, this idea often spoke of “rejoicing with song and dance.”

Someone may ask, “Do you expect me to believe Christ jumped up and down with ecstatic joy?” I don’t have one bit of trouble believing it!

“Could the word simply mean He rejoiced in His heart?” Possibly, but the essence of the word agalliao is what happens when the word chara gets physical! You may apply it either way, but I prefer to jump up and down with Jesus. With all my heart, I believe Christ Jesus was and is demonstrative.

But what would cause Jesus to leap with ecstatic joy in this scene (whether physically or internally)? At least two catalysts for colossal joy appear in these verses:

1. Satan’s defeat. “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven” (v. 18). According to Revelation 12:10–12, Satan was cast out of heaven for pride, rebellion, and his desire to usurp the Most High (see also Ezek. 28:16–17; Isa. 14:12–13). At the risk of oversimplification, Satan has attempted to get back at God ever since by targeting those He loves.

But we who are in Christ possess the power through God’s Word and His Spirit to avoid being defeated by the evil one. Problem is, we don’t always exercise that power. The disciples in Luke 10 did. They exercised the authority He had given them, and Christ was ecstatic! At the end of the contest, the scoreboard read: Believers 72, Satan 0. That was a score Jesus could have spilled His popcorn over! When was the last time you got excited over the defeat of the devil? Notice, too, the other side of the equation:

2. The servants’ victory. “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned and have revealed them to little children” (v. 21). You see, the wise and learned of this world are often too sophisticated to throw caution to the wind and believe they’re capable of doing something they’ve never thought possible. If we stay in our neat little perimeters of safe sophistication where we walk by sight and not by faith, we’ll never have room to leap and skip with Jesus in ecstatic joy.

Oh, beloved, give Him a chance to leap and dance over you! Dare to do what He’s calling you to do! And don’t always be so reasonable. I have a feeling there’s one thing Christ likes better than leaping and skipping and dancing over you. How about with you? When you hear that victory music playing, get up out of that chair and shake a leg.