Luke Interpretation : A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching by FRED B. CRADDOCK

Author:FRED B. CRADDOCK
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 2012-01-08T15:03:51+00:00

A Prayer of Thanks and a Blessing (10:21–24)

(Matthew 11:25–27; 13:16–17)

We will look at these two subunits together even though they probably existed separately in Luke’s source (as in Matthew) and even though the prayer and the blessing have different audiences. Thanksgiving and blessing belong together in worship, and it could well be that we have here two pieces from an early Christian liturgy. Consider the movement of the entire unit (10:1–24): seventy messengers are instructed and sent out; they return with the joy of success; Jesus shares with them his vision of the final victory now begun; Jesus cautions against triumphalism and self-congratulation; Jesus breaks into inspired speech in gratitude to God; and Jesus turns to his disciples with a blessing that reminds them of God’s favor on them. If they were in position to hear Jesus’ words in verses 13–15, then they should also understand the burden of that favor.

We learned in chapters 1–2 in the inspired songs of Zechariah, Mary, Simeon, and Anna that for Luke one of the primary manifestations of the presence of the Holy Spirit is in words. The Holy Spirit “says.” Jesus is prompted by the Spirit to thank God for “these things” which have been revealed to babes (v. 21). In this context Luke probably means by “these things” the evidence of God’s reign over evil spirits as reported by the Seventy, meaning that Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem is wrapped in power, not resignation, and his being “received up” (9:51) will mean final enthronement, not defeat. To the extent that the disciples were beginning to grasp the meaning of what was really going on, they too were participating in revelation. The fuller revelation will come after the resurrection (24:31–32, 45). The “wise and understanding” do not grasp such things, because true spiritual discernment does not come by observation (Matt. 16:17) but by revelation of the Spirit (1 Cor. 2:14–16; 12:3). This prayer, therefore, participates in the reversal we have already met frequently in Luke, here expressed as “concealed from the wise, revealed to babes.”

The Christology of verse 22 is patterned on the ancient image of Sophia, or Wisdom, or its masculine form, Logos. Wisdom personified was an intermediary between God and the world, being God’s agent for creating, sustaining, and bringing messages to the world (Job 28:12–28; Prov. 8:22–36; Ecclus. 24:1–24). Even a casual reader can see how early Christians saw in Jesus the embodiment of God’s eternal Wisdom. Paul says it in 1 Cor. 1:20, 26–29, but the New Testament’s principal subscriber to this perspective is John (John 1:18; 6:35–59; 7:25–30). Luke 10:22 (and Matt. 11:27) is so similar to a number of texts in John’s Gospel that the German scholar K. A. yon Hase has called the passage “a meteorite from the Johannine heaven.” Whatever its source, Luke’s use of it in this location provides, along with the benediction in verses 23–24, a beautiful doxological conclusion to a service of commissioning and receiving kingdom messengers.

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