On the first Sunday in July, we read from the beginning of Luke 10 about Christ sending out 72 of his disciples as heralds of his coming. They are to proclaim the coming of the Kingdom as Jesus himself has been doing. Upon their return, they report gleefully that they have been able to cast out demons in Christ’s name, and he explains to them that this is because “I watched Satan fall like lightning from heaven.”
The first thing to notice about this, then, is that the ministry both of Christ and of his disciples is explained, at least in part, by the fall of Satan. To put it another way, even before his crucifixion and resurrection, the life and ministry of Jesus is a celebration of, and evidence of, a calamitous cosmic event. In Matthew and Mark, as well as Luke, Jesus responds to the accusation that he casts out demons by the power of the devil by claiming that he has overpowered Satan, and is now plundering his possessions (Luke 11:18-22).
