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).
Four questions present themselves: who is this Satan that Christ has overpowered? When did he fall from heaven, and is this the same as his final defeat by Christ? And finally, what residual power is Satan still exercising, if any?
The first of these questions is perhaps easiest to answer. “Satan” is the Hebrew word for “accuser”, and is a job title rather than a name. The Accuser appears only three times in the Old Testament: in 1 Chronicles 21 he incites David to institute a census; in Zechariah 3 he appears in heaven bringing an unspecified accusation against the high priest Joshua, but is rebuked by the Lord. His biggest role, however, is in the book of Job, where – appearing as one of the “Sons of God” in the heavenly court – he wagers with God that Job is only righteous and devout because he is wealthy and successful. God permits Satan to afflict Job, eventually reducing him to a wreck of a man, utterly destitute and sitting in the rubbish tip scraping his sores with a potsherd.
The strange thing about the book of Job is that this wager between God and Satan is never resolved. Space does not permit me to make the full argument here, but I suggest that we are supposed to realise that Satan could never really vie with God in a contest of equals. His role as the heavenly public prosecutor was only ever permitted him under sufferance.
Let us remember, then, that Satan was never the “anti-God”, equal and opposite to the Lord. Like all of us, he is a creature, held in existence by God at every moment. When Christ says that he has fallen from heaven, the implication of this is that he no longer has the ear of God when he murmurs accusations against human beings. Perhaps this means his being cast down from heaven is at the same moment as the Incarnation. This, after all, is the moment when God definitively enters into solidarity with us, takes our side. When he tempts Christ in the wilderness and is defeated, we should see this not so much as a divine victory over evil – because evil could never truly contest with God – as a human victory over evil, made possible because humanity is now united with God in Christ
The final victory, then, must be the cross, because it is there that Christ offers perfect obedience to the Father, showing the way and making it possible for humanity to respond properly to the love of God, and therefore giving the lie to Satan’s accusations. The Accuser is shown up for what he is, the Liar (in Greek, diabolos, or “devil”).
As for the present, though he has no sway in heaven the Accuser still mutters his lies on earth, to those who will listen, seeking to divide us from one another, sowing discord and hatred. Hence for example his role in the Passion (Luke 22:3, and see also Luke 22:31). But Christ is our Advocate with the Father, and has sent us his Spirit as our Advocate here on earth.
If we listen to him then Satan has no power over us, and we too share in Christ’s victory procession.
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