{"id":23064,"date":"2025-01-25T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-01-25T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mailchi.mp\/urc\/urc-daily-devotion-25-january-2025-6zfj048eje"},"modified":"2025-01-25T06:00:00","modified_gmt":"2025-01-25T06:00:00","slug":"urc-daily-devotion-25-january-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/urc-daily-devotion-25-january-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"URC Daily Devotion 25 January 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

Saturday 25 January 2025<\/strong><\/span>
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St Luke 10: 17 – 20<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The seventy returned with joy, saying, \u2018Lord, in your name even the demons submit to us!\u2019  He said to them, \u2018I watched Satan fall from heaven like a flash of lightning.  See, I have given you authority to tread on snakes and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing will hurt you.  Nevertheless, do not rejoice at this, that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

Reflection<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Sometimes I wonder if I have a particularly short attention span.  The sending out of the 70 is very familiar, but I did not immediately recognise this story of their return, which I must have read or heard read many times over the years.  Perhaps that\u2019s because we are often focused on sending people out into the world, sharing the good news, and trying to make the world more like God\u2019s kingdom.  Should we ask more about what those people find and learn?<\/span><\/p>\n

Knowing as we do where Luke will take us later in the Gospel, the power of the 70 is quite jarring.  No Jonah-like \u201cWe told them but they didn\u2019t want to listen\u201d, but rather an apparently unblemished record of casting out demons and other achievements.  If Jesus had the power to inspire normal people to such achievements, why didn\u2019t he surge to a peaceful triumph over the power of evil, rather than end his life on the cross?  Maybe that is too literal a reading of Luke\u2019s words – maybe the 70 were celebrating the successes they had had, even as they were mixed with failures and disappointments, rather than reporting that every interaction was successful.<\/span><\/p>\n

There are two points that I am particularly taking away from this reading:<\/span> <\/p>\n