Get Behind Me, Satan

            I could preach ten sermons on this passage in Mark and just brush the surface. Jesus asks the disciples who people say he is. They answer: Elijah, John the Baptist, one of the Prophets, all good answers. Then he asks them a harder one: “who do you say that I am?” Peter speaks up and says Jesus is the Messiah. This is the answer Jesus is looking for, but tells them not to say anything. Then he moves on to tell them that the Messiah will undergo suffering, be killed and rise after three days. Peter takes Jesus aside and lets him know that this is not what Messiahs do. My understanding of what Peter would have expected is that Jesus would win, the Messiah would rule and bring shalom: peace, justice and the Kingdom. But Jesus surprises Peter and all of us by turning and saying, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting you mind not on divine things but human things.” Jesus then calls over all the others and tells them that if they want to follow him they will have to “deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it”; strange words that must have shocked his followers.

            There is much to say here but I will only say briefly that my understanding of this is Jesus calling people to recognize that he is the Messiah, but that his path is not what they expect, and in fact, their paths as his followers will not be as they expect. In order to follow God’s way of love we have to get rid of our human desire for success and safety, health and self protection and follow a divine way of denying ourselves and our human need for security. We find freedom in letting go our self interest and, in fact, our lives.

            But the main thing I want to talk about is Jesus turning to Peter and saying, “Get behind me, Satan!” I have been learning a little about Satan thanks to a book by Elaine Pagels, "The Origin of Satan" and to Jayson Webb, who gave me the book and requested that I preach about Satan sometime. This may just be the beginning, for it is a huge topic, but here are some highlights. Let me start by saying that I have experienced evil and even the personification of it in people and felt the need within myself to confront evil with the name of Jesus as my power, so I come with great interest to this history. I believe, however, that this evil is faced primarily within ourselves. “We have met the enemy and it is us” to quote Pogo.

            But Pagels presents an exhaustive study in her book, that I have read about half of in which she points out that the earliest references to Satan in the Old Testament are of “a satan”, that is, an angel who is not evil, but is sent by God as an obstacle to people. Actually, very much in the way that Jesus refers to Peter as “Satan”, tempting him to not face the difficult task ahead of him. Satan, originally was not bad or malevolent, simply and angel doing their job as part of the heavenly court. The root word in Hebrew is “stn” meaning “one who opposes, obstructs, or acts as an adversary”. The word in Greek is “diabolos” from which we get the word “devil” and means “one who throws something across one’s path”. In Numbers we encounter such an angel who confronts Balaam when he refuses to go where God wills him to go (Numbers 22:22-33). The angel is a satan who comes and plants himself across the road to block Balaam who is riding on his ass. But only the ass can see the angel and refuses to go on. In a somewhat humorous account, Balaam whips his ass to go only to end up in the ditch and eventually confronts the angel, the satan, himself. In Job, we see an angel, Satan, returning from wandering around the earth. It seems to be his job, and there are other records of this, to wander the earth placing obstacles in human’s paths to help them get closer to God. God asks this angel if he has considered his servant Job, and the angel, Satan is given the job of putting obstacles in his path. I will not go into a huge study, but trust me, there are many such passages where angels come to earth and obstruct humans with the intention of helping them. But with time, this changes, and Pagels shows how Satan evolved.

            What happened is that Satan as an opponent to humans began to be identified with all opponents and enemies. Within Israeli history we see the different factions of Jews referring to each other as “of Satan”. Particularly, the competition between Jews who were influenced by Hellenistic (Greek) culture and those who were trying to stay true to traditional Jewish law, like the Pharisees. They saw these disloyal Jews as agents of evil. Hellenistic influences were very dualistic, with strong ideas of the battle between good and evil. In Hebrew culture this reached its climax with the Essenes at the time of Jesus. The Essenes were a severe, monastic community in the desert who saw the world as a cosmic battle between the “son’s of light” and the “sons of darkness”. The sons of light were those who remained true to the Law of Moses and all others were in league with Satan, who was becoming a “prince of darkness”. The Christian movement adopted this view. It is unclear to what extent Jesus himself did. And by the time the New Testament was being written, it was common to describe one’s opponents, whether they were Jews who didn’t recognize Jesus, or pagan Romans, as agents of Satan. Pagels spends most of her book telling the history of how the majority of Christians (and indeed Jews and Muslims as well) in history has tended to characterize their opponents as evil, as demons, evil empires and in league with the prince of darkness, who gradually acquired many names: Beliar, Beelzebub and others. Milton, in Paradise Lost, names him Lucifer. Martin Luther, among many others, talked freely about the devil and considered everyone who opposed him and the Lutherans to be in league with evil.

            But Pagels also finds another stream in Christian history: those who believed the stood on God’s side in the battle of good and evil, but did not demonized their opponents. Francis of Assisi, Martin Luther King, Jr. and others saw hope for those who disagreed with them and prayed for them and aimed at reconciliation. Pagels characterizes Christian history as a largely divided between these two parties: those who see their enemies as devils and see human life as a battle between good and evil, and those who locate evil to be in each person’s heart and seek to reconcile all people with God and with each other. Satan, she thinks, evolved as part of this demonization of the other, the stranger, the enemy, the unknown, the opponent.

I agree with Elaine Pagels that evil is the result of human choices and free will, and is the battle is in each person. The idea that there is a devil, Satan, who is the leader of an army of demons who influence people to do evil and is our enemy, is not helpful. But it is incredibly prevalent in human history and the way people view the world. There may be Angels (satans) who work for God and place obstacles in our paths for our improvement, but that is the subject for another day. For now I call us to join the forces of Christians working and praying for forgiveness and reconciliation of all people. We need this reconciliation within ourselves, with others and with God. I would, however, be very interested to hear your ideas about evil and Satan and invite anyone who wants to discuss this further to join me in the sanctuary after coffee hour.