Something Terrible & Wonderful

Jesu Juva

Revelation 12:7-12                                   

September 29, 2024

St. Michael & All Angels

 Dear saints of our Savior~

        A few years ago you sent me on sabbatical to Germany.  There I quickly learned that to journey through Germany is to be confronted by things both terrible and wonderful.  At first the cobblestone sidewalks seem quaint.  But then you notice how some of the little stones are inscribed with names—marking an address where German Jews were arrested in the dead of night, never to return home again.  Look closely at the monuments and you’ll see how bullet holes still scar those structures from when the Russians arrived in 1945 to exact vengeance.  A sign next to a nondescript parking lot tells that beneath your feet was Hitler’s bunker, a little suburb of hell which housed demonic evil.  It’s terrible—terrible tokens of evil.

        But right next to the terrible . . . is the wonderful:  the ruins of the Berlin wall, relegated to the ash heap of history, cathedrals with spires that stretch into the heavens, museums housing the finest artworks ever created.  It’s wonderful and beautiful and inspiring.

        My little pilgrimage through things both terrible and wonderful—this vision of violence and beauty—it changed me.  It reconfigured my view of the world as I continue down the path of my earthly pilgrimage.

        This Sunday—on which we give thanks for St. Michael and all the angels of God—is like a journey through Germany.  All the Scripture readings direct our attention to things both terrible and wonderful—on a cosmic scale.  The reading from Revelation 12 in particular gives us a vision of heavenly violence—of terrible trauma—of a war in heaven.  St. Michael and the angels fight against the dragon who is called the devil and Satan—the deceiver of the whole world.  We’re familiar with war on earth.  We see the images from Ukraine and Israel.  But war in heaven is unimaginable—angels and demons—a dragon and a Lamb—terror and violence on a cosmic scale, where victory comes only by blood—the blood of the Lamb.  However you picture it, it is both terrible and wonderful.  And this vision changes us as it leads us to ponder things unseen.

        Terrible things and wonderful things are so tightly intertwined in today’s readings that it can be tough to decipher.  Michael gets the victory, and Satan is evicted from heaven.  Jesus said: I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.  That’s wonderful!  But without missing a beat, Revelation gives a warning of woe for those of us who dwell on earth.  Why?  Because the devil has come down to us in great wrath and rage.  And that’s terrible and terrifying.

        What the devil does best is deceive and accuse.  And we are the targets of his deceptions and accusations.  His ultimate goal is to extinguish your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ—to pull you away from your Savior by any means necessary.  He deceives and he accuses.  Some of us he draws into despair—convincing us that we are truly worthless and unforgivable—that the weight of our sins will rightly drag us down to hell.  But others of us he pulls into pride—causing us to look with contempt on others and how bad they are, while engaging in smug self-satisfaction at how righteous and respectable we are.  Worst of all, many of Satan’s accusations are dead-on accurate!  He’s not just making stuff up about us.  He’s a liar; but he can also leverage the truth to attack us:  Fickle faithlessness, greed, idolatry, adultery, drunkenness, theft.  You know which of those accusations might rightly stick to you.  Give the devil his due; even a stopped clock shows the true time twice a day. Do not be deceived.  This is our sin; and it is terrible.

        But this day holds before our eyes something supremely wonderful and mysterious.  This day declares that you are victorious in Jesus.  Even Saint Michael—that great warrior angel—even Michael is a participant in the victory of Jesus.  Think about how strange this account is in Revelation 12.  Michael and the holy angels fight a war against the devil; and that devil is evicted from heaven.  The devil gets his butt kicked.  This is wonderful, but weird.  If I were writing this story—even though my name is Michael—it wouldn’t be Michael who demotes and defeats the devil.  It would be Jesus!  Right?  Shouldn’t it be the Christ who conquers?

        But it’s Michael.  And it is Michael for this reason:  Because Michael participates in the victory of Christ.  How do I know?  Because right there in Revelation 12, when Michael casts Satan out, the heavens break into song.  Only they don’t sing about Michael, but about the Christ—about His rule, His authority, His salvation, His power, and His blood—blood that cleanses sinners, blood that silences every ugly accusation, and blood that conquers all the powers of evil.  The victory comes through Jesus.  The devil’s demise is our Lord’s doing.  Michael shows this.  Michael demonstrates this.  The Lord Jesus enables all who trust in Him—including you—to participate in His victory.

        And this ought to encourage you as you press on in your earthly pilgrimage through things terrible and wonderful.  See the wonder of God’s love for you in the terror of our Lord’s crucifixion.  See how He suffered so that you might conquer—in Him!  See how the blood that seeped from His terrible wounds has so wonderfully cleansed you of all the sin that would condemn you.  We witness His terrible death; and we watch with wonder His glorious resurrection.

        War arose in heaven.  This is true.  But you are not collateral damage in this war.  You have not been abandoned to stagger and stumble through a never-ending no-man’s land.  God has chosen you—drafted you in the waters of holy Baptism to participate in His victory over Satan.  This is why the baptized always renounce the devil and all his works and all his ways.  I do renounce them!  Because they are being born again into the victory of Jesus!

        Those little babies at the baptismal font are the perfect illustration.  There’s no way a little infant could ever defeat the devil.  There’s no way someone so helpless could ever secure salvation.  And that’s the point.  All of us—from the littlest infant to mighty St. Michael—we fight and we conquer by the strength of our Savior, who loved us and gave Himself for us.  In Him we are more than conquerors.

        I don’t know all the terrible battles you are fighting today—or what, exactly, Satan is hurling in your direction.  But let me tell you something wonderful.  We are on our way!  We are pressing on in a pilgrimage from earth to heaven.  And once in a while on this long journey God pulls back the curtain to show us things terrible—and things too wonderful for words—to stiffen our spines and speed our steps and strengthen our faith as we spy the golden horizon ahead.  We are on our way to Jesus, walking with angels, and archangels, and all the company of heaven.

        In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.