NOTES for Luk 10:1-24
The disciples rejoice that they have become heralds and agents of God's Kingdom, conquerors of demons, and healers of diseases. But Jesus stops them: “That is not what you should rejoice about”... God gives those who believe in Him many good and wonderful things (if they are able to see them), but these are not the chief value of His Kingdom. The disciples—and with them the Gospel's readers—are blessed and happy simply because they have seen and heard what the prophets and wise men of old could only dream about. They are witnesses, not only to miracles, healings, and victories over evil; they are beside the very Center of God's Kingdom. This means that the Kingdom is not an abstraction, not paradise, not life after death, not gifts and miracles, but God Himself, revealed to humanity in His Son Jesus.