The high and mighty of this world see no need for angels. After all, they have the money to hire their own protection. They can rely on their own, and what they can buy, to save and protect them. Why rely on what you aren’t sure of or what you can’t see or confirm? Walking by faith only makes sense if you have no other choice.
The high and mighty of this world can also create their own opportunities. They have the wherewithal to turn events to their advantage. They don’t need divine intervention, someone or some being who will swoop down to do the impossible or even the odds. They’re not the little guy–and angels are just for little guys, the weak people who need them.
At least, that’s many how misunderstand today’s Gospel reading. Angels are for children, if not real children than those who are child-like in intellect, vulnerability, or spiritual development. Angels are for those who childishly believe that some greater force exists, some higher being that lovingly designs our destinies, or keeps them from going too badly awry.
If angels are only for those who are too weak to stand on their own, we then find that we have a faulty understanding of angels. Seeing angels in such a way even misunderstands what the word “angel” means. Angel means “messenger.” Angels aren’t heavenly ninjas dressed in black to slice and dice our enemies. Most of the time, God gives His angels no weapons. Angels have no powers or sophisticated tactics. They have their mouths to be the messengers that God gave them to be.
Angels are messengers, mouthpieces, beings who repeat what the Lord says back to Him in prayer, praise, and thanks. They also speak against the Devil, defying that accuser and liar, to defend and protect of the children of God. That’s what angels do. They speak the Word of God. The Word is their weapon.
Consider the tumultuous scene you heard in today’s reading from Revelation. War breaks out in heaven. Michael and his angels fight with Satan, the dragon. The dragon and his angels fight, as well, but they don’t prevail. And what are the weapons of this cosmic war in the heavens? They are words. Satan and his demons fight by using words of deception, lies, and untruths. Michael fights by speaking the Truth.
But Michael doesn’t just happen to speak what is true: He also speaks the Truth who is also the Way and the Life. By this Word, the angels overcome the false, misleading, and doubt-filled words of the Devil. This Truth that Michael speaks is inextricably united to the One who is the Truth, Jesus Christ. And it’s that Truth–joined to the One who is the Truth–that undoes the lies of the father of lies, the Devil. By this Word, who is Truth in the flesh, soaked in His own Truth-bestowing blood, the accuser of old is overcome.
It’s exactly as we heard from Revelation. “And they [Michael and his angels] conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony” (Revelation 12:11).
Its Satan’s words versus words united to the One who is the Word, Jesus Christ. The Devil’s lies and deceptions war against words of truth united to the One who is the Truth. They’re words that give birth to doubt fighting the Word that gives birth to faith. They’re statements designed to deceive, divide, and create chaos battling the Word who unites, gives peace, and creates communion. They’re sayings that deliver and plant home death and hell versus the Word who has Life in Himself, since He is Life.
And so today brings us to the mystery of why we have a day in Christ’s Church that remembers angels, yet calls them “saints.” Today is “St. Michael and All Angels.” How can an angel be a saint? It’s simple. Saint means “holy one.” Someone who is holy is someone whom God has made sinless. This can be by God creating someone who is sinless or by forgiving sins.
For us, we become holy by God forgiving us by the blood of Christ. That’s because Jesus’ blood makes us holy and cleanses us from all sin. This forgiven state of being becomes ours as the Holy Spirit, through Word and Sacrament, gives us faith to trust in Jesus and what He did and does to save us. That’s how the Holy Spirit applies Jesus’ blood to forgive us. But, of course, the most-intimate way of being made holy is when we, in faith, drink His true blood and receive Jesus in His Supper.
Yet, angels are holy because God created them that way. Now, some angels fell, and they became the Devil and his evil brood. But the angels who remained sinless are still holy. They are still doing what God has given them to do in their sinless state of being. And so, because such angels are sinless, we recognize that they also are saints who serve God.
And angels serve God by being His messengers. Remember, that’s what the word angel means; it means “messenger.” Angels speak God’s words. That’s what we see in Revelation as words fly back and forth in that war between good and evil, between demonic and angelic forces, between Satan and the angel Michael. Words are their weapons of war. How seemingly commonplace, unspectacular, and deflating that is to our expectations of the supernatural!
After all, we see words as weak. “Stick and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” Words have no mass or substance to shield you from the weapons of war. They have no force that can disembowel or eviscerate an enemy. How can such sound vibrations carried by the wind, one’s breath, or even the Spirit of God, do anything?
It’s because of Whom the Holy Spirit connects to such words. That’s why. Words in themselves can do nothing, unless such words are connected to someone or something powerful. And the words that angels speak are given to them by God, the all-powerful Creator. And so words can do what God wants them to do.
But words are weak! It’s then that you are to remember the Son of God, Jesus Christ, the One who is the Word, on the cross. In Jesus Christ, God masks His power in weakness. In the flesh, the same God through whom everything was made, allowed sinful man to despise, revile, torture, and kill Him. Jesus hid His power so, in death, He could destroy the power of death. That’s the picture of strength hidden in weakness. And it’s in that weakness that Jesus won the victory.
We see that reality in the power of words. Words are weak, but hidden within them is the power of God. Like Christ on the cross, God uses words to win the victory. Words are the weapons in the battle between heaven and hell, between life and death. Spiritually speaking, words are what God uses to create life in this valley of death in which we live.
These are the words of life. “I am the Lord your God; I am with you always; I am gracious and compassionate.” Here are some more: “I forgive you; I am the Alpha and the Omega; I am coming quickly.” Such divine words from the Word Himself don’t merely inspire faith or encourage living; no, they are words of Life itself.
But there are also words of death, those satanically inspired words: “Did God really say?” “If you are the Son of God?” Such words not only deflate hope, they also sow the seeds of doubt and unbelief. Such demonic words seek to bring death to the Life that our Lord gives and is.
And so the angels speak as God has given them to do. They are God’s messengers, God’s preachers, speaking what He gives them to say, repeating His Word day and night before Him, defending, protecting, and delivering us simply on the strength of God’s Word. And Michael the angel, with the other angels, leads the charge. And by the blood of the Lamb connected to the word of their testimony, they overcome our enemies for our well-being.
But those who rely on themselves don’t need to hear such satanic-defeating, death-defying words. After all, they have themselves. Such self-reliant people don’t even see the need for listening to the same Word preached by visible angels, messengers of God, as they speak from the pulpit or stand at the altar, proclaiming the Word who is Truth.
Such people rely on the strength of their own word. That’s what Eve did when she tried to strengthen the Lord’s Word with her own words. That’s what Peter did when he tried to strengthen his speech by misusing the Lord’s Name. That’s what Judas did when he relied on the word of the lying priests instead of the word from the One who is the Word, Jesus Christ.
But those whom the Word converts become as little children. They are humbled, and, in turn, humble themselves as children. Not to do so is to keep yourself out of God’s kingdom. Everyone in God’s kingdom needs, relies on, and takes to heart that angelic Word, whether it is spoken by invisible preachers named Michael and Gabriel, or by visible preachers named Matthew and Mark.
For the Word of Life, that Word of Truth, the Word that saves and delivers doesn’t depend on who speaks it or what the speaker is in himself. Whether a heavenly being or not, God’s messengers don’t represent themselves but the person of Christ. And so the Word that God also gives the pastor to speak is the Word that gives eternal life, whom the Father through the Holy Spirit has made known to us.
That Word Jesus is declared to you, so you may be in a divine union with Him. And it is that Word, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit connecting words to the Word, who gives and keeps you in eternal life. Such a Word even strengthens and delivers you from every eternal evil: Past, present, and that which is to come. Such is the power of words united to the One who is the Word, Jesus Christ. Amen.
