Stephen
Terry, Director
Jesus
Wins--Satan Loses
Commentary
for the April 1, 2023, Sabbath School Lesson
"He replied, 'I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.'" Luke 10:18, NIV
The best place to start all stories is in
the beginning, and those very words are in the first verse of the Bible. We
might therefore be excused for thinking that is where everything began. But it
is only the beginning of humanity and our world. Much more happened before that
took place. Before God spoke an edenic earth into being, there was heaven. It
is the dwelling place of God and myriad angels. It was a paradise of harmony
and beauty. Eden, the home of humanity
was a reflection of that beauty, and God loved to walk through htat garden with
Adam and Eve. How it must have broken his heart when they no longer wished to
walk with him. They were hidden in the garden, and he was forced to call to
them. I can almost hear the tears in his voice as he felt their rejection of
their creator. But this is not the beginning of the story
God is love, and when he creates beings,
he wishes them to be loving also, to be in his image.[i] In order to
do that, he must create them with free will because love is a choice. It cannot
be commanded. Love means trust and a willingness to serve one another's needs.
It cannot coexist with fear and deceit. Nonetheless, one must be free to choose
those negative paths if the love is to be genuine and without coercion. It was
a risk for God to trust his creation with choice in order for them to love, but
he took that risk. All went well, until one day, one of the angels, who are
also created beings, told the first lie. That angel who was Lucifer came to be
known as Satan.
The Bible tells us that pride in his
beauty and his ambition to rise above his station led him astray. Like a social
media influencer, he began to build a following. It wasn't hard since no one
had lied before. He invented it.[ii] But like
modern day conspiracy theories, the lies took on a life of their own and spread
throughout heaven until a third of the angels joined with Satan and backed his
camapaign to take over heaven. The threat had to be addressed. A universe of
love could not have lies for a foundation. The erosion of trust had already
become evident. In the end, the angels supporting God confronted those following
Satan and war broke out. Satan did not have the power to prevail, and with his
followers, he was cast to the earth. The earth then became a theater for acting
out the remaining scenes of the conflict between a kingdom of lies and one of
love. Unfortunately, to this day much of humanity would still choose a lie over
love. It has split countries, governments, and churches much as heaven was
split.
Lies are enticing because they tell us
what we want to hear, what we want to believe about ourselves and others. They
tell us that we are always right and the others cannot be trusted. They tell us
that we should not believe the ideas about love, that we are only being
manipulated to surrender our liberties and our possessions. Ironically, this is
the whole purpose of lies, and the liar is projecting their own personna onto
others. As this develops, the world does not become more loving. It becomes
more fractious, more fearful. While love drives out fear,[iii] lies
establish it. Much of this can be seen in the political arena. Rarely does a candidate
provide an extensive list of what they plan to do to bring about peace and
prosperity. Instead, they inculcate fear into the minds of the voters by
fantasizing all the horrors their opponent is ready to bring to pass. For
instance, Republicans tell the voters the Democrats will take all your guns,
and the Democrats tell the voters, the Republicans will eliminate Social
Security benefits. Neither of these tropes has come to pass even though the
lies have been perpetuated for all seven dacades of my lifetime and before.
Despite that, fear brings out the voters and the campaign contributions, so the
lies continue. Instead of believing the lies, we would be better off to ask what
does the one stirring up these fears seek to gain by doing so? The r sum of
one individual elected to congress in the last general election was discovered
to consist almost entirely of lies. While some were shocked at the blatancy, he
was nonetheless seated in congress. It is almost as though those who elected him
were saying, "Yes, he's a liar, but he's my liar."
Satan's attempt to project his lies onto
God, portraying him as one to be feared and to be controlling and restricting
the freedoms of the angels found more reception than deserved. It is true here
as well. Cast to the earth, he set about subverting humanity's relationship to
God, a relationship based on love, truth, and trust. His plan worked well for
they also had not been lied to before. Even though the lie was in direct
contradiction to what God had said, they rejected the relationship of love with
God and through fear that they were missing out on something that Satan told
them they deserved, they followed the lie and the liar. But God did not want to
lose the love of humanity, so he told them of a way back to that loving
relationship. That plan would take thousands of years to fully develop, but
those who remained faithful would one day see Eden and the Tree of Life again.
What was lost would be restored. But Satan would do all in his power to prevent
that. The lengths he is willing to go to are seen in the book of Job, who
suffered greatly under his assaults. In Job's case, God protected the man's
life and restored his fortune after his suffering. Many others have paid with
their lives for choosing to dwell in God's love rather than in the fear Satan would
give them. Isaiah was sawn in two by evil King Manassah. John the Baptist was
beheaded by licentious King Herod. Stephen was stoned to death by the wicked
Pharisees. Many, many others have followed these faithful men into martyrdom
for standing for the truth in the face of those who would manipulate others
through lies and fear.
We tend to think of the church as the
great defender of truth, but as we have seen with Stephen, his slayers were zealous
for the church. Through the ages, the faithful have suffered much from persecution
by zealous church goers. Crusades and inquisitions have sent many to their
graves in hope of a vindicating resurrection. Sadly, the degree to which Satan
has subverted even the church is evident from a similar spirit that continues
to find its home in sacred precincts. Despite warnings against rooting others
from the church,[iv]
some covet positions of power and influence in the church to do exactly that.
And worse, they encourage others to follow in their path, handing them stones
to throw at those who would challenge denominational dogma. The courage of
those martyred either physically or spiritually is admirable. Despite all that the
church might do to smear their reputation or end their influence, they go on
sustained not by church cofffers but solely by the love of God. They have tasted
from that cup offered by Christ and after that, nothing can equal its
sweetness. As the hymn says, "The things of earth go strangely dim in the light
of his glory and grace."[v]
After thousands of years of misery
promoted by Satan and his followers, many have only seen fear as the basis for
how they should live their lives, even projecting that fear onto God. A popular
lie that has become almost universal in its spread is "God is going to get you
for that!" Many have drawn back from a relationship with God for fear that he
will do as those accusing God would have us believe. But when they do, rarely do
those refusing the relationship become more loving as a result. But those who
remain despite the lie often find themselves becoming more loving than they ever
envisioned. Some have traveled to the most remote hovels in the darkest places
on the planet to love the people they find there. Some have lost their lives
doing so. But there is also darkness and the lost can be found even within our
families and our churches. Continuing to love those we find there is every bit
as challenging. While the laws may discourage those who would slay someone who
shares God's love with them, we nonetheless risk becoming dead to that family member
if fear has taken hold to the extent that they find it impossible to see God as
loving and sever a relationship with us as well as God.
Jesus made it possible for us to once
again see the loving image of God and his offer to restore that love in us as
well, driving out fear. But the struggle between a life lived in love versus a
life lived in fear engendered by lies continues as we wait for the fulfillment
of Jesus' promise that he will come again.[vi] As it was
in the beginning so it is today. Love is a choice. Choose love.