This Sunday, we celebrate the feast of St Michael and All Angels. It was actually on Monday in our liturgical calendar, but the church authorizes us to celebrate feasts the Sunday after the date. I chose St Michael and All Angels because of the theme and the readings that I hope will give us a foretaste on our study of Revelation, and hopefully will make you eager to read the books and attend our class. We’ve already discussed together last Wednesday this passage we have just heard, and I really liked that someone said something that could be the perfect introduction to the book. He said: There is a whole world out there we don’t know about. He said that indeed in the past centuries, science got us used to the idea that the world was all about what we could see and touch, but as science progresses, they find out that there is so much beyond the reach of our senses. And yes, if you think about it, there is so much we cannot perceive from the infinitely large to the infinitely small, galaxies, atoms and particles, and we also know that our apprehension of time and space has nothing to do with what time and space probably is. Now the Book of Revelation is certainly not a book of science, but in its spirit, its says something that’s very important to us and it says that indeed: There is a whole world out there you have no idea about. The word Revelation is a translation of the Greek apocalypsis which means not the end of the world, as most assume, but “lifting of the veil”, “uncovering”. The Book of Revelation shows us God’s reality. It does not mean that our world is an illusion, it’s too often painfully real. But there is another level of reality that explains a lot about this world and that Christians need to be aware of, for several reasons. First, because God wants us to know the truth. Because of our limitations, we cannot understand it all but God will speak in images that help us understand, like when Jesus told parables. God wants us to know the truth because God does not want to deceive us or for us to be deceived. And then God wants us to know the truth so we can act according to this truth and also have hope, not just hope for tomorrow but ultimate hope.
Our passage today is a good example of it. So let’s dive in…
Our text today says that a war broke out in heaven. We all noticed on Wednesday that it is kind of disturbing for us because we all have a sense that heavens is a place of peace, and that’s actually what our passage is about: How heaven became a place of peace, when the archangel St Michael (here we go) defeated Satan who was an angel who rebelled against God. But when did this happen? or is it still to happen? Well, we see here that in God’s reality there is no time like our time. In the Bible, the sense of time was modeled by Hebrews’ sense of time, and in their grammar there is no linear present, past, future like in ours. There is two times in Hebrew (and also a bit of that in Greek) what is accomplished (we call it the past) and what is still to be accomplished (the present and the future for us). God’s reality is accomplished (what Jesus said on the cross), our reality is unaccomplished. So the events that happen in the Book of Revelation are still unfolding for us, and indeed we use to think of Revelation as what will happen in the end, but it’s different in God’s reality: It’s done. And we only need to understand that, that we live in this time where Satan is cast out on earth, roaming the earth.That’s the opening of the Bible, right? The serpent finding Adam and Eve in the garden. Our text actually refers to that: Satan is the great dragon that was thrown down, the ancient serpent.
So what is it that the Book of Revelation uncovers about Satan? What is it that God wants us to know about Satan, and why?
First it says that Satan and the forces of evil, that are rebellion against God, exist and it explains a lot about the reality we live in. People tend to blame God for bad things that happen, or blame other people, sometimes blame themselves. But we see here that actually bad things happen because of rebellion against God, because God’s order has been opposed. And it’s not so much a punishment rather than a consequence. We live in a world that isn’t in accord with God’s reality. Satan who couldn’t make his reign in heaven is trying to reign on earth by leading people to rebel against God. That’s what temptation is all about.
Now when the Book of Revelation tells us about Satan, it is not to scare us. We see in this passage that the angels of God are much more powerful than Satan and actually Satan is already defeated. But defeated, he is seeking revenge. He cannot attack God or anyone in heavens, so he is trying to attack us. Well, when you have an enemy it’s better to know about them, otherwise there is little chance you can fight them.Satan does not want us to know that he exists so it’s much easier for him to tempt us this way. God wants us to know about Satan so we can resist him.
So how does Satan get to us? Well, it’s very interesting because if we think about temptation, we generally think about, you know, sugar. Or maybe adultery. Or alcohol or maybe money and power. But what’s at the root of that is rebellion against God, and again it’s something we see quite clearly in the Book of Genesis. Adam and Eve’s temptation isn’t about the fruit itself, it’s about opposing God’s order. And the most interesting about that is not so much that Satan wants us to be on his side, and join his worshipers, his goal is to accuse us. The Book of Revelation says that he is “(…) the accuser of our comrades (…) who accuse them day and night before our God“. In short, Satan wants us to feel bad about ourselves, guilty and dirty so God is dishonored. What hurts us is meant to hurt God. Satan cares very little about human beings, we are just his ultimate resort to get to God because heavens is out of reach for him. Well, I think it’s very important to have that in mind that Satan wants to destroy human beings and that’s the ultimate goal of temptation. I think it’s important when we feel ashamed about ourselves, like Adam and Eve who went away to hide. It’s important to know that shame is not what God wants for us and the one who accuses us is not God. Sin is wrong but Satan leads us to sin not so much because he enjoys that we do something wrong but because it gives him leverage to accuse us, not in front of God, because he cannot do that anymore, but he accuses us inside of us and then we feel so much shame or guilt or a sense that we have been deceived that we separate from God. Oh we may not feel guilt or shame for a while, but ultimately that’s where it leads. This voice inside of us accusing us, making us feel inadequate, stupid, dirty, a failure or an impostor is not from God. It is a voice that wants to separate us from God. It is a voice that actually says that there is no God, at least not for people like us.
Now someone asked: Well, when do we know it’s from God? Certainly a sense of remorse or regret is appropriate when we do something wrong, and we see in the Book of Revelation, in Chapter 1, that Jesus corrects his people and points out their sins (The letter to the seven church) and he does that sometimes quite sternly. The difference is that there is no condemnation. Jesus corrects his people to lift them up, not to bring them down. To reconcile them to God, and not to separate them from God. To show them that they can be good rather than show them how trapped they are in their corruption hate ourselves or to destroy ourselves. Jesus helps us to change and gives us chances to make up for the wrong we did. Jesus does not want us to be obsessed with our sins, he wants to free us from evil. There is this famous saying that is one of the most misunderstood in the Bible: God won’t give you more than you can handle. Well this is an adaptation of 1 Corinthians 10:13 that actually says: [God] will not let you be tested beyond your strength, but with the testing he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it.
Yes we have the choice between evil and good, but even when we sin, God does not condemn, rather God provides a way out. A way to make up for it.
Recently I did something I wasn’t very proud of. I went grocery shopping and when I did the self checkout I realized something went wrong. So after I was done, I had a look at the receipt and I saw that actually one of the article didn’t ring. Now I had a second of hesitation, wondering if I should say something and then seeing that nobody noticed I just told myself Maybe its a gift of heaven and I drove away. Well, obviously I knew it wasn’t a gift from heaven and I started feeling pretty bad, you shall not steal etc. Actually I felt so bad that I told Xavier when I arrived home and we both agreed that there was no way I could now go back to the store and pay what I owed. They would just think I was crazy. Nobody drives all the way back to the store because they forgot to charge you for something, right? So that was it, I was just a bad person. Well, I prayed about it and the day after that, I had to go buy something in another store, and – truth – the same thing happened. I purchased something and as I was ready to leave the store glancing at the receipt I noticed it didn’t go through. And the terrible thing is that my first reaction was like Oh cool. And then I realized what has just happened and I rang the thing again and again until it went through, and it did. I believed that God was giving me an opportunity to make up for something wrong I did. I couldn’t change what happened before, but I could change myself and not be stuck into blame and shame. I think it’s called repentance. Have you ever noticed that there are situations that keep happening in our lives? What do you think this all about?
Maybe it’s all about making choices. I think that ultimately that’s what the Book of Revelation is about: This is what the world is like and which side will you be on?