URC beliefs The BIBLE in bits Miracles of Jesus Lent Easter Pentecost Christmas The God Delusion Homosexuality Stone Soup

The main battle with Satan

But if Jesus thought he was God, would he defeat the forces of Satan, as the Jews hoped God would? And if so, how?

Through his exorcisms, Jesus had already hinted that he was the one predicted to take on evil. But these were just minor skirmishes. The real battle against Satan himself was yet to take place. The question was, how? Popular expectations were that evil would be crushed by an armed rebellion, the Romans would be defeated, and Israel would once again be free, under the rule of God.

And his followers must have hoped that he was the one to start such a rebellion. But before he'd arrived in Jerusalem, Jesus had hinted that violence wasn't part of his plan. He'd suggested through his teachings that he was going to fight Satan in a very different way, by ‘going the extra mile’, by ‘loving ones enemies’. It sounds like a very submissive form of pacifism, hardly the way to defeat the ultimate forces of evil.

And instead of taking on the Romans, within days of his arrival in Jerusalem, it seemed he'd given in to them. He was arrested, and condemned to death by crucifixion. But it can't have been a complete surprise to those who knew him well. He had dropped hints that death was always been part of his destiny.

At the last supper, he had spoken of his body and blood and had asked the disciples to remember him. And at the Garden of Gethsemane on the night of his arrest, the Gospels say he asked to be spared what was about to happen to him. That sounds like a man who knew he was about to die.

The Romans were famous for their gruelling and inhumane methods of execution. But how on earth did Jesus think that suffering in this way would bring about the defeat of evil?

Every Easter, pilgrims flock to Jerusalem to retrace Jesus' final journey towards his death. They follow what's known as the Via Dolorosa, literally, the way of sorrows. It's traditionally believed to be the route along which Jesus carried the cross. The pilgrims are fervent and very literal. The pilgrims try to identify with the agony that Jesus must have gone through.

But to get close to what Jesus thought he was doing, we must try to imagine the traditions and ideas that he grew up with and was shaped by. In Jewish scripture there is a precedence for fighting evil through suffering, and very specifically, the idea of victory through death. It appears in a passage that Jesus would have heard read in the synagogue as a child. It was from the book of the prophet of Isaiah in the Hebrew Bible. It was all about a man who would undergo intolerable pain and hardship. He was known as ' the Suffering Servant'.

We know from the Gospels that throughout Jesus' life he quoted from this book of Isaiah, and there's a close similarity in their thinking. Both talk about the kingdom of God, and both stress suffering and rejection as a part of God's plan.

As Jesus carried the cross, it's likely that he identified himself with the Suffering Servant. Many scholars believe it's the only way to make sense of his behaviour. He probably knew the many verse by heart and would have remembered them

He was despised and rejected by men. He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth like a lamb who is led to the slaughter.

Marks Gospel says that Jesus' final words were ones of despair. ["My God, my God why have you forsaken me?"]["It is finished"].

It is easy to dismiss Jesus’ actions as those of a madman. But suppose he did believe he was God. Could his death have made sense?

If Jesus was convinced he was engaged in a battle against Satan, there was no more bitter symbol of his rule than the cross - the hated Romans most brutal method of execution. By submitting to it, Jesus was literally throwing himself onto Satan and allowing him to do his worst. It fitted his teachings, the way to conquer evil was to renounce its weapons, to turn the other cheek, to be the suffering servant.

But in Isaiah, the suffering of the servant had a purpose. His humiliation was rewarded. God said, "I will give him a portion among the great." And yet as those closest to him watched him die, they must have believed that he had failed. The Romans were still there. Nothing looked any different.

It seemed that Jesus had gambled and lost. All those miracles suggesting that he was God, he was the Messiah, the promised one, seemed to have come to nothing.

It was an unlikely end for someone who claimed to be God. Unless...what the Gospels say happened next is true. There's another miracle – the greatest of them all - was still to come. That death wasn't the end.

End of Part 2

More resources: Downloadable resource for episode 2

http://www.bibleresources.org.uk/9780564038466/