Pastor Tom Johnson, September 25, 2011
The the idea of someone or something watching over us is as simple as a gaze into the night sky. The fixed stars are the lesser gods. The traveling stars—what we know as planets—were the greater gods—the sun the father, the moon the mother. Even the creation story in Genesis tries to dispel that early explanation—God made the stars, the sun, and the moon. From the beginning, God the Creator is the only one, true, and living God.
And yet, in the context of both our readings from Daniel and Revelation, both authors worshiped the angels they encountered. Both fall down prostrate because of how awesome the angels appear. But they are immediately encouraged not to bow dow but worship God alone. They are not to be worshiped but listened to. The angels have a message for us. The word angel simply means “messenger.” Angels are often the ones who deliver news from God. An angel gave Mary the message that she would have a son. Angels rolled away the stone from Jesus’ tomb so that the disciples would see it empty. Angels were the first to announce that Jesus had risen from the dead.
Artwork depicts angels with wings, harps, halos, and the faces and bodies of babies. But Scripture describes angels as beaming with light, radiant robes, warrior physiques, with weapons or trumpets. The one creature that has wings, the Seraph, do not have two but six wings—and not two eyes but a multitude of eyes. Angels are creatures—created beings who serve God. But as our readings remind us this morning, some of those angels rebelled. We don’t know when or how it all began, but war broke out in heaven. Those that opposed God were quickly defeated by Michael and the army of other angels he led.
The war that started in heaven spilled out to us when God exiled Satan and those who followed his rebellion. And again, we don’t know why God would allow evil to enter our world. And so we know Satan and his fallen angels are defeated foes. They have already lost the war. They have been driven out of heaven. And it is only a matter of time before the last battle is fought. Satan is angry and enraged, our text says, “because he knows that his time is short.” Satan is like the general of a defeated army. He knows that he cannot win the war. Each major battle has been lost. But rather than surrender to Michael the general of God’s army, he will not go down without a fight. His time is short. But he will fight until the bitter end.
Both Daniel’s vision and John’s revelation of angels are revealed to them bring a message to us. The messengers of God want us to be grounded in reality—to assure the believer that victory has been won. The angels give us a peek into heaven to see that our salvation is secure and that eternal peace is near. But here is where our discussion of angels takes an unexpected turn: even the archangel Michael and his army of angels do not defeat God’s enemies by their own strength or any power that they possess. “They conquer [the enemy] by the blood of the Lamb and by the word.” As Luther’s great hymn says, “Though devils all the world should fill, All eager to devour us, We tremble not, we fear no ill; They shall not overpower us. The world’s prince may still Scowl fierce as he will, He can harm us none. He’s judged; the deed is done; One little word can fell him.”
When Jesus died on the cross of Calvary. He did not just bear the load of our sin and the world’s brokenness. He also bore the load of all evil—Satan, his angelic host, and even death itself. The world’s evil—human and angelic—did their best defeat Jesus. It briefly seemed that Jesus was the defeated. He died. He was buried. The sealed tomb seemed like it swallowed him up forever. But early that third day, by the power of that blood that he shed on Friday the Word himself rose victoriously from the grave. And it is by the power of that same blood and Word that Michael and his army defeated Satan.
And so, if Jesus defeated death and sin by his own blood—and the angels defeated Satan and his army by Jesus’ blood and his Word—then we also must win our battles—not by our own strength—but by that same blood and the Word.
Do you remember our desciption of the angels—like stars of heaven? At the end of our reading from Daniel—and at the end of John’s vision in revelation—it describes a time after we finish our battles on earth. Soon we “shall shine like the brightness of the sky…and like the stars forever and ever.” The bright stars of the night sky are a shadow of what we will become. God will transform us from creatures of dust into bright and angelic occupants of our heavenly home—all by the power of the Blood and the Word, Jesus.
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