Let’s be honest, today the devil is either naively ignored as some dark superstition from the past, or is falsely attended to, as some underworld force that can throw little girls into mustard-spitting convulsions, as in the infamous movie, The Exorcist. Indeed, most people today do not even believe in the devil, either as a person or a force. What is to be said about the devil?
The kingdom Jesus preaches is about coming together
The gospels name the forces of hell in two ways: sometimes they speak of the devil (diabolus) and at other times of satan (satanus). Are the terms synonymous? Not exactly: Diabolus means to divide, to tear apart; whereas satanus, most curiously, means almost the opposite, it connotes a frenzied, sick, group-think that accuses somebody or something. In essence what the gospels tell us is that the powers of hell, satan and the devil, work in two ways: sometimes they work as the devil by dividing us from God, each other, and from what is best within us. Sometimes they work in just the opposite way, as satan. Here they unite us to each other but through the grip of mob-hysteria, envy-induced hype, and the kind of sick unity that makes for gang-rapes and crucifixions and excommunications.
And at the root of both lies the same thing, envy. It is no accident that, among the ten commandments, only envy has two inscriptions against it. Jealousy is the devil’s tool and Satan’s weapon. Through envy, the devil works at dividing us from each other. From envy we get the kind of paranoia, jealousy, sense of being wronged, and bitterness that divides families, communities, churches, and whole nations. The devil tears us apart. Satan, using the same weapon, works differently. As Satan, envy unites us so as to put us into the frenzied, mad pitch of the lynch mob, the crowd hell-bent on crucifixion. Satan uses envy to pit the crowd against an outsider.
In Jesus we see the opposite. The first word out of his mouth (“metanoia”) is a word uttered against the power of the devil: be un-paranoid, do not let envy and suspicion divide you from each other, God, and what is the best inside yourself! Everything else Jesus says and does is intended precisely to lead us beyond division, bias, segregation, and being apart from each other. The kingdom he preaches is about coming together (the opposite of the devil).
Lord, I pray for all my Sonshine Friends that our hearts are not writhing in a paranoia and a jealousy that tears us apart from each other, and crowds writhing in a sick energy that wants, in God’s name, to spill some blood. Rather, bring us together as a family, a church, a nation that seeks a spirit to be compassionate, generous, humble and kind.
