1st Monday in Lent, March 7: “Rejoice about the right thing”

Prepare to Listen.  As you wait in silence and stillness, pray: Give me understanding, that I may keep your law and observe it with my whole heart.
 
Prayerfully Read Luke 10:17-20
17The seventy returned with joy, saying, ‘Lord, in your name even the demons submit to us!’  18He said to them, ‘I watched Satan fall from heaven like a flash of lightning.  19See, I have given you authority to tread on snakes and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing will hurt you.  20Nevertheless, do not rejoice at this, that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.’
 
Prayerfully Wonder
The 70 returned, excited about their amazing success, exclaiming, “Lord, in your name even the demons submit to us!”  They focused on what they’d been able to accomplish, perhaps assuming that was what mattered most.  This is what many of us believe today.  We’re a doing-oriented culture and assume Jesus expects us to accomplish much in his name.  And we’re tempted to brag about this to the world.  Jesus, however, sees things differently.
 
Jesus rejoiced with them, but then warned them, “Nevertheless, do not rejoice at this, that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”  It’s not doing, all our accomplishments, but being, who we are when the chips fall, that matters in God’s eyes.  Therefore, don’t rejoice in what you do, not even casting out devils.  As Fred Craddock writes, “triumphalism is an inappropriate spirit among disciples.  Out chief joy should be, not that we have certain gifts and powers, but that God has received and accepted us, that our names are ‘written in heaven’.” [1]
 
That’s what we’re to rejoice about.  This is a relief to most of us who will never be able to accomplish great things.  We can simply rejoice that we belong to Jesus and get on with the small things that are within our means to do.
 
Prayerfully Reflect
What makes you rejoice and feel good about yourself?
 
Respond to Jesus
Give me the courage today to focus on what matters the most to you so that I rejoice with you.  Amen.
 
Live obediently.  Rejoice in being rather than doing.
[1] Craddock, Fred B.  Luke.  Louisville, KY. 1990, p. 147.