“Defeat? Defeat!”

Fr. John Riccardo

August 25, 2021 

Some years ago, there was a campaign at a local church entitled “Two Word Story.” The idea was to help people engage in evangelization by having everything from coffee cups, to shirts, to hats made with two words on it. Actually, it was the same word, but first written with a question mark and then with an exclamation point. The words were supposed to be a way to summarize someone’s coming into a life-changing encounter with Jesus. For example, someone’s coffee cup might read, “Forgiven? Forgiven!” It was meant to be a conversation starter (“What’s up with that coffee cup?” “Ah, thanks for asking. Let me tell you…”). 

That campaign comes to mind as we move now to the crescendo of our extended look at The Christian Cosmic Narrative. Today, we dive into the event that made possible our rescue from the powers of Sin and Death, namely, Jesus’ death and resurrection. What the devil thought was the defeat of Jesus, turns out instead to be his own defeat, and the undoing of the power of Death and Sin. Yes, we will still die, but it can no longer hold me, and thus the disciple of Jesus need not fear it. This is the point behind that powerful passage in The Letter to the Hebrews, where the author says that Jesus “partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery” (2:14-5). As we continue to navigate our way through COVID, it would seem our culture is paralyzed by the fear of death. But death is the only thing everyone knows is in fact going to happen to them, perhaps from COVID, but certainly from something. Now, the point here has nothing to do with COVID, it has, rather, to do with Jesus’ destroying Death’s power and wanting to liberate us—now—from the fear of dying. And that all can happen because of the event of the Passion and Resurrection of Jesus. So, with that…

“From the point of view of his close followers, the capture and death of Jesus was a devastating and disorienting event. It seemed to make no sense and to throw all their hopes and beliefs into confusion. From the beginning, they had seen Jesus deal with his mission in masterful fashion... Again and again, he had skillfully put his enemies to confusion. He had healed the sick, raised the dead, cast out demons with a word, and opened minds and hearts to the Father in ways that had never before been known. He had spoken constantly of his plans to establish the Kingdom of God. Nothing had been too much for him; no obstacle had slowed his advance. All the disciples’ faith in God, all their future hopes for themselves and for their people, had come to be focused on their beloved Messiah and his mission. And now in the space of less than a day, that whole edifice had come crashing down around them and had crumbled into dust. The Master who had seemed on the cusp of a great victory had been taken in secret and eliminated by his enemies. The one they had thought to be the true King of Israel had been decisively and irrevocably defeated. The man they had dared to think was the very Son of God had been horribly and shamefully treated and was now dead. The messianic mission upon which they had staked their lives had failed. All was lost.

“The demonic mind, equally in the dark, was reveling in a different set of thoughts. Satan had seen this new prophet arise, as he had seen many before, and he had been battling against him according to the resources allowed him. He had attacked him with seductions and temptations; he had tried to frighten him, to flatter him, and to discourage him; he had stirred up his servants against him. But he could gain no foothold. The man had not only dodged every dart and sidestepped every carefully laid trap, but he had shown a strange power of undoing Satan’s rule. Yet worse, he had taught and empowered others to do the same. The whole matter had been perplexing and infuriating. Yet, the Devil knew that he held the final card. Whatever the man might say or do, in the end he was a son of Adam, a mortal under the curse of death, and sooner or later—sooner if it could be managed—he would die. He would then be gathered under Satan’s dominion with all his miserable human fellows and share the fate of a fallen and rebel race. And now at last Satan had cleverly succeeded—so he thought—in putting into effect the plan that had caught Jesus and killed him. The victory would be so much the sweeter for having been so long deflected and delayed. He sped to embrace this soul newly detached from its physical remains and was more than usually eager to feast upon the latest of his conquests, to enjoy that special moment when he could reveal himself as overlord and could relish the horror of his human slave, the only glimmer of satisfaction left to his twisted spirit.

“But the greed and gloating of the Devil turned rapidly into something very different. He did indeed meet the new arrival; he did encounter the soul of the man he had connived to have killed. But something strange, entirely new to his experience, began to happen. The ‘prisoner’ did not come sad and defeated, bound in chains of darkness and surrounded by the triumphant laughter of demons. Instead, he came wrapped in a blinding, searing light, such as had never before blazed in that dark dungeon. He came forward upright and strong, with authority and power, sending the demons shrieking in dismay, and boldly advancing upon the Prince of Darkness. Now the mind of Satan was filled with fear and foreboding, as the true identity of this mysterious figure broke upon him, and he saw too late that the trap he had so cleverly laid for his enemy had sprung upon himself. The idea that the divine Logos might humbly unite himself to humanity had never entered the darkest corner of his proud mind. His cunning craftiness had been overthrown by God’s seeming foolishness. By bringing a criminal’s death upon the innocent Son of God, he had unwittingly opened death’s door. Now the Lord of Life himself was demanding from him the keys of death, was announcing the Good News to all who had been chained by it, and was leading them out of the Devil’s dungeon into freedom and light.

“Meanwhile, in the visible world, the body of Jesus still lay in the cave-like tomb that had been provided by a sympathetic man of wealth. Pilate had ordered the tomb to be tightly shut, sealed, and guarded by a unit of soldiery…The company of Jesus’ disciples were dispirited and frightened, fearing for their lives and facing a blank future. When on the third day after Jesus had been buried, on the first day of the new week, some women of the company went to the tomb to perform the customary preparations that they had been unable to complete because of the oncoming Sabbath, they were surprised to find the soldiers scattered, the stone that had sealed the tomb rolled away, and the tomb itself empty. Among the women was Mary of Magdala, one of those who had faithfully followed Jesus and had stood near him and his mother at the crucifixion. While she was wondering what might have happened to her beloved Master, he himself appeared to her, calling her by name. ‘Go to my brethren,’ he told her, ‘and say to them, I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God’ (John 20:17). She ran off to tell the Apostles and the other disciples what had happened, that Jesus was alive, and that she had seen him and spoken with him. They too came, and running to the tomb they found it just as Mary and the other women had told them.

“So it was that the Kingdom of Heaven gained an unshakable foothold on earth. The Messiah had completed his mission and had accomplished the salvation of his people, not merely freeing them from human oppression or physical disease but lifting the ancient curse, the source of all their misery. By the willing offering of himself, Jesus had paid the debt of sin. By rising from the dead, Jesus had conquered the demonic enemy and returned humanity to its original form, restoring it from corruption and undoing death. The Devil’s rule was approaching its end.

“During the next forty days, Jesus spent time with his disciples and friends, consoling them and preparing them for their coming mission. Yet his presence among them was different from what it had been before he went to his death. He was still a man, someone who could walk with them, speak to them, share a meal with them, be seen and heard and touched. Yet he was no longer confined to normal human limitations; his existence was on a different and higher level. He came and went mysteriously, unhindered by walls and doors, unshackled by time or space. He was undoubtedly the same person, and yet in some way he was transformed and therefore not easily recognized. His disciples were awed and dumbfounded by his presence, filled with a new joy and hope, but still not knowing what this resurrection might mean.

“In the few weeks that he remained with them, Jesus enabled his followers to see what God had originally intended humanity to be, now renewed and freed from corruption. He was giving them a glimpse of their own future, of what they too would possess as his disciples. He was especially concerned to see that they who were to spearhead the coming mission as his witnesses understood that he had truly risen from the dead and was now beyond the reach of death, and that his plan to establish the Kingdom and to save humanity was not ended or defeated but had just begun.”