Silencing Accusation
Text: Rev. 12:7-12, Luke 10:17-20
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
I think it’s safe to say that we’re in the midst of a renewed fascination with the supernatural. If you haven’t observed this, I’d suggest you go for a drive through the neighborhoods around town and see what kinds of displays people are already putting up for Halloween, well over a month in advance. This isn’t the first round of this sort of fascination in our country and society though. There have been times that interest has surged in what happens beyond what we can register with our five senses. And with this recent resurgence, it’s easy to fall into some of the mythologies and, frankly, wildly incorrect manmade ideas about the supernatural. So if we want to really learn about what’s going on beyond what our eyes can see, we would do best to learn what God Himself has to say about it in His Word, rather than what mortals have manufactured. And blessedly, for our celebration of the feast of St. Michael and All Angels, the Lord has given us the same account, but from two different angles, so that we might better understand the mystery of the unseen realities of our world.
In our reading from Revelation we hear of a war arising in heaven, Michael and his angels, fighting against the dragon and his fallen angels. The dragon is revealed to be the ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan. And while the old evil foe is often referred to by the name Satan, it can also be understood as a title. Satan is from the ancient Hebrew word for “adversary” or “accuser”. In a court of law, this would be the prosecutor, the one who brings charges against the defendant. This is indeed the dragon’s title and what he does quite well. We read in various places in Scripture of the accuser traveling hither and yon throughout creation, even appearing before God Himself in His heavenly throne room, as he does in the book of Job, just before he starts leveling accusations and attacking the Lord’s servants. This is what he’s said to do in the reading from Revelation today, when he and his angels are cast out of heaven by St. Michael and the angels who fight on the Lord’s side, as the great voice in heaven says, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God.” But now he’s lost his position. He’s been stripped of his title and role as prosecutor. He’s been thrown out of the heavenly courtroom and can never return to accuse the people of God.
And then in the Gospel reading, we have the same event, Satan being cast out of heaven, but instead of being told from heaven’s point of view, it’s told from earth’s. In Luke’s gospel, Jesus has sent out the 72 disciples and they’ve returned to Him, rejoicing that everything went as He said it would when they arrived in the towns He was going to visit and preached that the kingdom of heaven was arriving and that peace with God was coming to the households there. Jesus answered them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning. 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. Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”
Jesus’ disciples were sent out with one message: the kingdom of heaven was coming and it’s going to show up with Jesus. Each household that received that good news, that Gospel, received the blessing of peace from those messengers. Notice that it’s this preaching that causes Satan to fall like lightning from his lofty perch, from the throne room of heaven. It’s the preaching that peace with God is made, that is the preaching of sins forgiven, that strips the accuser of his ammo against believers. There’s nothing left to accuse them of when it’s forgiven. Who can bring any charge against God’s elect? That’s why Jesus explains that the fact the demons are subject to them in Jesus’ name is not the main point, but their names being written in heaven is the real reason for rejoicing. Forgiveness means now they belong with God in His household forever.
That’s important, because although the accuser has lost his position in the heavenly courtroom, he hopes that you forget that. So he’ll whisper in your heart “I can’t believe you did that. And you call yourself a Christian. There could never be forgiveness for that—not something so bad, not this time, not when you’ve done it again.” He tries to undermine your faith and trust in the Lord, to get you to seek some other way. This is why the warning is given by the great voice in heaven in Revelation, “Woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!” The ancient accuser knows that he’s stripped of his position and it’s just a matter of time before he meets his doom, but he’s hoping you forget that so that he can drag you down with him.
That’s why Jesus continues to send messengers—both human preachers and angels like St. Michael and the angels who serve the Lord. That’s all “angel” means in its literal translation, really: messenger. So in a wonderful order of both men and angels, the Lord continues to cast down Satan. Through the angels, He restrains the rage of our old evil foe, who would strike us in body and soul every moment, waking or asleep, were it not for the angel guards that the Lord of Sabaoth commands to encamp around you every moment. Through the service of mortal men, preachers like the 72 Jesus sent, the Lord continues to conquer the dragon by the word of their testimony, as the book of Revelation puts it, by the proclamation of the blood of the Lamb. So time and again, the accusations leveled against you are silenced by forgiveness. There’s no case for the accuser to present before God because Jesus has dealt with it all, taken on the guilt and punishment, purged those sins from you in His blood shed on the cross. Martin Luther used to say to those who were troubled by the memory of their sins that whenever the devil wants to hold up all your sins in front of your face and remind you of them and accuse you, that you say back to him, “Yes, I did all these. But you forgot a few. I also did this and that and this other thing too. But what of it? I’ve confessed it and it’s all forgiven by Christ. Go away.”
That’s the essence of the spiritual warfare that you’re engaged in. It doesn’t happen in the overwrought ways that the world might imagine with its limited vision. Real spiritual warfare is fought in words; or more accurately, it’s fought in the Word, the Word of God. It’s fought with the blood of the Lamb. So hear that your Lord has defeated the father of lies. Hear that your sins are forgiven. Know that the accuser has nothing on you. Receive the blood of the Lamb and in doing that, receive your victory. Rejoice that your name is written in heaven. In the name of Jesus, the victorious Lamb of God. Amen.
