When I was growing up, Carman recorded a live album with one of my favorite groups (Commissioned), and the Christ Church Choir. On it was a song called Sunday’s On The Way. In a way only Carman can do, it painted a picture of Easter weekend. It described Calvary as Satan’s plan to kill Jesus, Satan worrying whether or not it had worked, the devil’s rejoicing at their victory, and then Jesus’ triumphant return on Easter. So this Easter got me to thinking…
Did the devil understand the impact of the crucifixion? Was he hoping Jesus was dead and would stay that way? Did he consider it a victory? Or did he know that in that moment he was defeated? Was the resurrection a surprise to him?
Anyway, I know we can’t really know the answers to these questions, but I would love to hear your ideas.
Thoughts?
Todd
Well, I’m not sure, but I think, maybe he was just happy that Jesus would die, and at the time not caring that Jesus would be resurrected.
But, the only thing on his mind was that Jesus was going to die, and didn’t know, possibly care about Jesus coming back.
Satan probably didn’t know, possibly care that our sins would be washed away. As long as the Messiah died.
Maybe, Satan was happy at the anger of the guards, that he had already collected THEIR souls.
Or, maybe everything I just said.
I think from one perspective he thought he had done it, killed Jesus. But he had to be wondering about the prophecies already given that Jesus would defeat him in the end. He probably thought he beat the omniscient one but once Jesus returned, I think he was surprised that whatever power he possessed, however much he wanted & whatever he hoped to obtain, they didn’t matter. Jesus reigns. Satan knew certainly his doom was inevitable and inescapable.
A few days ago I wrote an article on this topic called “Satan’s Sweet Revenge” which was posted at http://facebook.com/brokenpeople
Here’s an excerpt:
“Lucifer had schemed and plotted since the beginning of time to get revenge–sweet, sweet revenge. Now victory was almost in his grasp as he anxiously awaited his chance to claim the kingdoms of this world for himself. He had tried and failed many times to regain his position of power. But now he was sure he had finally outmaneuvered and crushed the opposition. His whisperings of hatred and revenge successfully permeated the souls of those who ordered the execution of one sinless man–the promised Messiah, God himself!
Lucifer’s plan to get even worked perfectly. In fact, it had been easy to incite the crowd, lure them to commit murder, and then sell them a cheap lie to justify their actions. It wasn’t until the third day following the execution that Lucifer’s celebration party was abruptly interrupted by news of a missing body and an empty tomb. All the forces of darkness and hell and Prince Lucifer himself were unable to defeat the plan of redemption and extinguish the eternal light of the world.
The news was confimred by many eyewitnesses–Jesus was alive! He arose from the dead as the prophets declared the true Messiah would do. Lucifer’s evil plot to destroy the souls of mankind was thwarted once and for all by the heavenly plan of redemption through the death of the perfect Lamb of God and the resurrection of the Lion of Judah.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhhhhh !
My guess is that he tried to stop it and he couldn’t. But he still hates God, so his work now is to try to drag as many people into hell with him as he can.
despite popular beleif. Jesus did not rise again on easter. It was actually the biblical Holy Day Feast of Firstfruits which falls on the first day of the week on the Hebrew calender (saturday sundown – sunday sundown) after Passover, durring the Feast of unleavened bread. Each of this biblical feasts are absoultly full of meaning an symbols that Jesus fullfilled. Durring this feast Satan would have known the symbols and knew everything that was going on.
My question is was it satans plan to kill Jesus? Or was it Gods plan to kill Jesus?
I beleive Jesus answers this in the Gospels.
Forgive me i dont have the scriptures im going by memory here.
No one takes my life but i lay it down.
Not my will father but yours.
Seek these questions by studying the biblical feasts of passover, unleavend bread, and feast of firstfruits. You will be surprised on how much you learn. Email me if you want to know more.
This question just brings to mind another Carman song, “The Champion”. I guess I picture it that way, that Satan thought he won, but he had no idea the defeat that was coming!
Bro Todd, I do not think satan understood the ramifications of Christ dying on the cross nor of Christ being the first fruits of resurrection! Anyway, satan didn’t kill Jesus nor did the Hebrews; satan might have thought he did but Christ went as lamb to the slaughter and willing became the perfect and final sacrifice for all of mankind.
Another thing that I don’t think satan understood – In the Old Testament God talked about a new covenant and a temple not made with man’s hands but no one knew back then what that meant and so I don’t think satan did either. I think in his narrow-mindedness he focused on getting rid of Christ but didn’t expect what happened next! Christ being resurrection by the God’s Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit (the Spirit of Christ) being exponentially dropped into believers that started in the upper room!!! Surprise, surprise!
What I see satan doing now and getting away with is blinding believers to their benefits, gifts and rights in Christ so that we do not live victoriously (and put satan into his place). So many Christians are ‘putting up’ with satan in their lives, their children’s lives and they don’t have to. Satan is subject to us now in the name of Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit!! I humbly submit that we need to read the word of God, believe it, exercise our rights as God’s children and start walking in it!
Obviously, just speculating here. But certainly he actually thought he could pull off the temptation in the desert or he wouldn’t have attempted that, would he? And he’s depicted as prideful/arrogant and evil. That’s a bad enough character cocktail to delude him into maybe thinking he was bigger than God’s plan for mankind – that he could affect the foretold lynchpin of all hope. Still he knew prophesy and he knows the bible. I bettin’ he thought the scheme wouldn’t succeed in the long run but he gained instant gratification from those marker moments we all know. Peter’s cowardice, all things Judas, reasonable people breaking ranks one by one and falling to the mob mentality mode, etc.
I was just thinking earlier today about how the devil had to have been pretty close to Christ, literally, in close proximity the majority of the time toward the end. Not a new idea no doubt, but it was to me, and it was pretty bizarre when I imagined him in the scenes depicted in the gospels. I mean, John 13:26 – right there he crashed the last supper where he entered Judas via bread and wine. Goading and cajoling the frenzied masses to demand the unthinkable; the unreasonable? I think he was pretty busy in that crowd. I think he tried to manipulate every possible angle to disrupt the design but knowing prophesy…..
i think the devil knows that God has power over death and that He would raise Jesus from the dead. satan’s only play was to try to get Jesus to deny the will of the Father and somehow get out of what was in store for Him–as seen in the garden when Jesus prayed (Luke 22:42) that if the cup of suffering be taken away from Him but Jesus quickly added that God’s will be done. in my opinion the issue for satan here is not wheter Jesus would die or not it was about how He would die and also about how He lived. Jesus death and the way it happened saved us from our sin because of the way he lived even up until the last moments when He knew a terrible physical end was upon Him. He was perfect and blameless even at His most dire time , He submitted to the Father’s will. when Jesus willingly handed himself over to the guards and began the process of laying down His life for us-the devil was undone and he knew it. don’t forget Jesus had the option of saying no to the crucifixion, he laid His life down willingly, praise God that even though heaven turned its back on Him that day that He did not turn His back on us.
My wife (Erika) and I sat together on Friday, Saturday, and then on Sunday and discussed what each day must have been like for the disciples and the world around us. Keep in mind these next 3 posts were on my Facebook. I had to keep them to a certain amount of characters.
Friday —- Erika and I just talked about the loneliness and fear that must have been felt by the disciples on this day. Their Jesus had been crucified. What would happen next? The sounds of victory and sorrow must have filled the streets. What now? Why now? Little did they know that Jesus was just 2 days away from doing exactly what He said He would do. A day the world would never forget.
Saturday —-Today would be the first day they were without their King. Erika and I were just talking about how Peter must have felt on this day. He was such a passionate man. I wonder how many doubted Jesus would come back? I wonder how many of them knew in their hearts that He would be back tomorrow. They spent 3 years with Him. I can’t imagine how much they missed Him. Tomorrow it changes. They’ll come face to face with grace.
Sunday —-The earth shook. The stone rolled. The angels rejoiced. The savior rose. Hell shook. The Nazarene did exactly what He said He would do. The most important moment in history had just taken place. We would never be the same. There was always something different about this carpenter. Now the world realized what that was. The grave couldn’t hold Him. Hell couldn’t keep Him. Jesus is alive!
Just a few thoughts….God bless.
I think the deceiver fools himself with his goal to be equal to God and won’t give up until Jesus returns and gives him his eternal reward. I don’t think his ego allowed him to realize Jesus had already won. Like the Bible says…”Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall. ” Proverbs 16:18. That means when I let my pride get the best of me I’m behaving like that fool.
Carman did a great job with that song.
Satan has been working to derail God’s plan of salvation for mankind (including us female-types) since the very beginning. We see it as early as the deception in the Garden of Eden, we see it in his attempt to have Jesus killed as an infant, we see it in his attempts to derail Jesus in the desert, we see it at Calvary. He must have thought he had some chance of success or he wouldn’t have bothered. I’m thinking he was very surprised when Jesus rose from the dead. God is omniscient, so of course He knew how things would work out. We have the benefit of seeing events from this side of history, but Satan didn’t have either of those.
He isn’t done yet either. We can see his attempts to draw people away from God and His salvation today, and sadly, he is more successful on that front.
I see that you were sick a couple of days ago, I do hope that you’re feeling better now. Blessings to you and yours, Tess
My guess (and it’s only that) is that Satan wanted Jesus dead because he wanted to stop the spread of the Kingdom of God. He was being defeated pretty regularly by Jesus, who had already refused his offers to turn. My guess (and I can only guess) is that Satan wasn’t thinking about atonement or anything like that. He was just destroying something that was good and beautiful. Because that’s what Satan does.
The resurrection was God’s victory over Satan and it delivered him a mortal wound.
With the resurrection God says to Satan, “You lose. Love wins.”
I personally think that the devil was so full of himself that he didnt realize what was even going on. He just assumed that he had won. But he needs to just figure out that he will never win the war!
I believe that Satan knew exactly what it meant for Christ to die on the Cross. Scripture is not hidden from him and he was very aware of the old testament prophecies. He also understood the concept of the old testament covenant that God made with His people. He knew that each year a pure unblemished sacrificial lamb would be offered for the forgivness of sins to restore fellowship between God and His people. He knew that Christ was referred to as the Lamb of God and understood the meaning. The only thing he could do was to try to keep Christ from the cross and to release his hatred toward God on the Son. He knew that the choice was up to Christ who chose obedience to the Father consistently. He did everything he could to prevent Christ from making it to the cross, to destroy the purity of the unblemished sacrificial lamb in order to taint the sacrifice and make it unworthy. But Christ is Worthy!! Unblemished, Sinless, Perfect, and VICTORIOUS!!! Christ had 12 legions of angels at his disposal that he could call upon anytime to deliver him to the Father. He Chose obedience and Love.
I think that the Devil was expecting one thing with regard to Hid death–defeat in man’s heart. But what was found? People hanging onto the promise of rising from the dead. Satan was not liking that.