The Devil You Say

 

The Devil You Say

 

1 Peter 4:12-14; 5:6-11

God sustains those who suffer 

 

4:12 Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that is taking place among you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.

 

4:13 But rejoice insofar as you are sharing Christ's sufferings, so that you may also be glad and shout for joy when his glory is revealed.

 

4:14 If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the spirit of glory, which is the Spirit of God, is resting on you.

 

5:6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that he may exalt you in due time.

 

5:7 Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you.

 

5:8 Discipline yourselves, keep alert. Like a roaring lion your adversary the devil prowls around, looking for someone to devour.

 

5:9 Resist him, steadfast in your faith, for you know that your brothers and sisters in all the world are undergoing the same kinds of suffering.

 

5:10 And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, support, strengthen, and establish you.

 

5:11 To him be the power forever and ever. Amen.

 

Many moons ago, a Black comedian—Flip Wilson—crafted a character who used to say, “The DEVIL made me do it!” He always got a laugh out of it, but as the years went by, we began to see people doing horrible things—even killing throngs of people in nightclubs, outdoor concert venues, schools, and even a synagogue here in Pittsburgh, because “the devil” put such a deep hatred in their hearts that ideas and bigotry mattered more than human lives. Someone has said, “The devil is in the details.” Perhaps the devil IS the details, for it is in the details that so many have lost their souls and came to believe that only THEIR “details” are the right details, or the most “spiritually correct” ones. When people act out of such strong, often deluded confidence, “devilish” things can happen, and they are usually swallowed up in them, themselves, before the debacle is all over. This is how the “devil” works. It’s important to note how this general epistle describes “the devil” as prowling like a “roaring lion.” Lions prowling as they hunt for food is perfectly normal thing; it’s nature working as nature does. What has been labeled as “the devil” works through perfectly “normal” human processes, but evil happens when they become distorted by overzealousness, misplaced passion, or are enacted “out of proper context,” kind of like letting a lion loose from a zoo, or removing it from its natural environment and dropping it off in a child’s playground. Metaphorically, this is what happens when persons’ ideas grow distorted and they act upon them. Is “the devil” for real?

 

Most of the first-century Christ followers had been Jews. The Jewish people were—and are—strict monotheists, believing in only ONE God. The famous Shema is: “Here O Israel: The LORD is our God, the LORD is One.” While this is why these early Jewish Christ followers had trouble grasping the “divinity” of Jesus Christ, it is also why they didn’t accept the idea that “satan” or “the devil” was in any way a god-like being, with any of the power or traits of the Eternal. (The early Gentile Christ followers were a different matter. Many of them had come from pagan traditions where they had gods for everything, so one that was a “dark-sider” would not have been unusual, in their thinking.) While the Jewish people had little to do with a “devil,” and tended to either place evil in the purview of GOD (yes, just read your Old Testament; such strict monotheists HAD to believe that their ONE God was somehow even responsible for evil events), OR in the hearts of human beings. Note that we’re not talking about random “bad events” that can happen to any of us. The Jews did NOT believe that EVERY happening had to be either caused by or “permitted” by Yahweh. Bad things can happen to good people in life, and most of the time, “evil,” either personified in a “devil” or personalized in the evil acts of an individual or a government, are not “of God.” 

 

The Christian church did extract belief in a “satan” figure, based on some of the accounts they read in scripture. Most especially, we have the “temptation of Christ” stories in the Gospels, where Jesus is put to the test by “the devil.” But again, these are just the passed-down accounts from the authors of the text, as they were NOT eyewitnesses to these events, so they could be more “theological excurses” than historical accounts of what molded and formed Jesus before he began his earthly ministry. Modern fundamentalists and certain Pentecostals have formulated very definite “doctrines” around a satanic persona—the “roaring lion” of I Peter—and even specific procedures of how to deal with “him” or to hold power over “him.” I may be starting to sound like I deny the existence of such a being, and in a way, I am, but I have my reasons, which I’ll address now.

 

First of all, “blaming” some external “perpetrator of evil” like a “satan” figure is so often used as a scapegoat to excuse evil human behavior. We humans have proven time and time again that we are quite capable of such incredible evil, from pogroms, to World Wars, to genocide, to mass shootings. These things are far worse than anything that should be attributed to some “devil,” and they are of our own doing—no “devil” needed. Furthermore, it seems each generation births its own horrors of human evil, the latest in our time being excessive, excused bigotry against persons of color, other ethnicity, or members of the LGBTQ community, as well as the near continuous “rash” of murder-suicides we see almost daily in our nation, a nation that has made an idol out of the gun, which makes such horrors so possible. Again, no “devil” needed. It would be so easy and convenient to have someone like “satan” to blame these things on, but honestly, we must take the responsibility for these devastating events. That we are capable of such things, as well as having the chutzpah to RATIONALIZE them, in many cases, should school us on the lack of need for a devil. How simple it would be to believe we could just perform some kind of “exorcism” to end such suffering! “Be GONE, Satan, in the name of JESUS!”, and everything would return to the steady state.

 

If there IS a “devil” in the world, a better name for him would be “Deceiver.” The power to deceive is an awesome and terrible thing. We are living in a time when our own national government is using deception and outright lies as a “super power” to grab and maintain a tremendous amount of power. Some of the poorist and most oppressed people have been convinced that supporting acts that increase their own suffering and disenfranchisement is what’s best. Folk who work hard to care for themselves and their families are being convinced that losing their healthcare and paying higher prices is “in the national interest” and “for their own good.” And this deception is so effective that many of these same people are wearing the symbols of their oppressors on their heads, tattooing it on their appendages, and erecting signs and banners of tribute in their front yards. That we have national leaders who perpetrate such deceptions and use them to maintain “legitimacy” may sound REALLY evil, but honestly, from a political standpoint, it’s just what “roaring lions” do, in this arena. It’s quite natural for them. That their modus operandi is so blatant and so uncontested (or so it seems), is a sign that more than “human” evil may be at work here. If there IS a devil, he is certainly in the details of this dastardly drama.

 

The writer of this text in I Peter warns believers to “resist” this devil, and by “this” devil, I mean any who would use their power to deceive to further their own agenda and feather their own nest. Down through history, countless purveyors of this “art” have effectively done this, and they have been so good at it that the “victims” they fleeced basically shouted, “Thank you, Sir, may I have another!” They, too, have engaged in petting the lion who is devouring them, even in the act of doing so. What do you think this author of scripture was warning against? In his time, it was Rome, which, under the guise of the “Pax Romana,” was enslaving and controlling the “common folk” in order to fund and preserve the “peace” of the illuminati. Is today any different? That “roaring lion” is just so beautiful, isn’t he?

 

All right, where is the GOOD NEWS here? In the big picture, it is that Jesus Christ himself flew right into the maw of the “roaring lion,” and while he endured the cross, he triumphed over the ultimate “threat” of “the devil”: death! Resurrection is the Christian belief that this “final word” on who’s in charge is NOT the final word, and its finite condemnation has no power over the grace of the Eternal, who came to rescue us, and to judge the perpetrators of this “devil/evil.” 

 

The “final word” of this Good News is that the “God of all grace” has visited us in Jesus Christ to “restore, support, strengthen, and establish” us! The collective term used in ecclesiology is “edify” the Body of Christ. Jesus Christ IS the final authority on this wonderful ministry of reconciliation, renewal, and resilience of God’s people. Those who cling to their manipulation, deception, and victimizing of the innocent (in some cases, the ignorant) will be judged by a “higher power.” Those who have been marginalized and oppressed will continue to be set free by “the God of all grace.” The “devil,” be he real, imagined, or incarnated in the selfish desires of powerful people, will be dispatched with a word, even as he was by Jesus in the temptation stories.

 

Friends, this is not just an eschatological promise—it’s for right now, for all to invoke! “Resist the devil and he will flee from you” is something that all Christ-followers have the power to do. Just don’t be surprised that when you invoke it, who leaves! There is evil masquerading as your economic, political, and even “moral” saviors, and in their hearts, they mean you no good. Resist them, for our world and our church will not recover until we do. Amen.