Earthly and heavenly joy
It is widely believed that religion should give a person peace of mind from life’s difficulties, struggles, and trials. The original meaning of the expression “Opium for the people” was not that faith is a drug that is addictive or distorting reality, but that it is a medicine for pain. Different religions approach this in different ways, for example, devaluing human life itself, as the Eastern teachings do. If this life is just a moment in a long chain of rebirths, then what to experience? If it doesn’t work out in this life, you can try the next one! Another approach is to have a list of things to do that you can be sure of in the favor of a higher being towards you and reward here and now and in the future. Christianity, unlike these unreliable sources of comfort, brings the gospel of grace to the people. It does not discount the importance of the current life, but it offers the assurance that it does not depend on our efforts but on the works of Jesus Christ. However, human nature resists this “too simple” solution, as one story from the Gospel tells about:
17 The seventy-two returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!”
18 And he said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.
19 Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you.
20 Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”
(Gospel of Luke, chapter 10, ESV)
Often only the last part of the 18th verse is taken from all this text ( “… rejoice that your names are written in heaven…” ), but we will look at everything that is written here in order to better understand the meaning of the command of Jesus Christ.
The 10th chapter of the Gospel of Luke is very eventful, we looked at it a couple of times. For our today’s text, the closest context is Articles 1–24 — the election of 70 disciples, the instruction and sending to preach before Him, the condemnation of the cities that did not believe. After the sermon and the above words, Jesus rejoices about His disciples and calls them blessed from what they saw and heard. Verses 17 through 20, in turn, tell how Jesus corrects the reaction of His disciples to success in the Lord’s work.
The first difficulty in interpreting the text is found in v. 18, where Jesus says that he saw Satan fall from heaven like lightning. What time is Jesus talking about in this case? The first thought that comes almost immediately is that we are talking about the first fall of Satan at the very beginning of creation. Obviously, Jesus saw this as God. Moreover, the form of the Greek verb makes it possible to translate “we saw/observed”, in all texts of the New Testament, except for the text from the Gospel from Luke, it is translated in the plural — Mark 3:11 “… unclean spirits when they saw him …”, Mark .15: 47 “… Mary Magdalene and Mary of Josieva looked where they put Him …”, John 6: 2 “… a multitude of people … saw miracles … ”. Moreover, in the plural, this word is sometimes translated in the Septuagint (Joshua 8:20, Judgment 13: 19–20 ). Thus, it is possible that the divine Trinity is indicated. The second version, about the time of the fall of Satan, is associated with the Incarnation of Jesus because at that moment the prophecies about the Savior of all mankind were fulfilled. The third version is connected with the immediate context — we are talking about the observation of Christ for seventy, casting out demons, who by their actions throw Satan from the throne of dominion over the world. I see the first version as more reasonable, but the latter also has good arguments.
One way or another, Jesus speaks of the defeat of Satan and connects this event with the actions of His disciples, whom He gave the strength to resist the forces of evil. It is here that great danger lurks — so serious that here Jesus only gives the command “do not rejoice”. Once again in the New Testament, similar instructions are given by the Apostle Paul “… brothers … should be … as not rejoicing …” ( 1 Cor. 7: 29–31 ), saying that we should live as if we do not use the benefits of this world, so that not to be burdened with worries.
Usually, in biblical texts God says “do not be afraid” or “do not do evil,” but here He calls not to rejoice in spiritual strength and victories given by Him to believers.
Jesus came down from heaven, angels came from heaven, but Satan fell, was cast off, and this had a very specific reason and consequences: “… your inner being was filled with iniquity, and you sinned … your heart was lifted up because of your beauty, you ruined from your vanity your wisdom … “ ( Ezek.28: 16–17 ), “ … your pride has been cast out into the grave with all your noise … “ ( Is.14: 11 ). Pride, vanity, untruth, and sin destroy the best of people and Angels, therefore it was so important to warn the disciples that one should not rely on one’s joy even in victories over the forces of evil. For example, the Apostle Paul in 1 Epistle to the Corinthians warns a lot about this danger: “… whoever thinks that he knows something, he does not know anything yet …”,“… Who thinks that he is standing, beware lest he falls…” (8: 2, 10:12). Self-confidence leads to the fact that a person stops in his spiritual development and begins to go back, Jesus directly spoke about this: “He who does not collect with Me, he wastes.”
Of course, we are not talking about being a gloomy schema who does not even have a trace of a smile on his face, we can enjoy the many blessings of earthly life — talents and skills, health, family relationships, the opportunity to buy food and clothes, a roof over our heads. Joy is the fruit of the Holy Spirit, it is a reflection of our gratitude for what has been given to us, we can rejoice when we receive what we asked for in prayer, because “those who have fulfilled desire are like the tree of life” (Pr.13: 12).
The main thing is not to lose sight of the One from whom all this comes, not to become Pharisees, who believed their joy in their own deeds. No one can ever fulfill all the conditions to become a saint on their own, no prayers, fasts, studies of Scripture, good deeds, confessions, sermons will make us worthy of the Kingdom of Heaven. Maxim the Ispovdenik compares the expulsion of demons and the struggle with the passions — while we are alive, we will fight, in heaven, there are no passions, vicious desires, and sins, there are only written names, and the name is a symbol of personality. Therefore, in the parable of Jesus, the rich man in the fire has no name, just as he did not have a name when he lived on earth. His identity was that he was rich and that was all he had. Lazarus, in spite of his humiliated state in earthly life, kept faith in God and was comforted in heavenly abodes.
Jesus Christ fulfilled everything that Adam, who came out of the earth, could not fulfill, and that his descendants cannot fulfill. Jesus came down from heaven, became incarnate, became a man in order to deify human earthly nature, and make it the nature of heaven. It takes time to finally complete this transformation, but even now the Holy Spirit is acting in believers in the Messiah, now there is a reason for real joy and not psychotherapeutic consolation in earthly affairs or neglect of them.
Rejoice!
