St. Michael and All Angels, 2023 (Preached at Trinity Lutheran Church in Clinton, Iowa for St. Michael and All Angels Solemn Vespers)

Rev. Thomas Van Hemert

(Preached at Trinity Lutheran Church in Clinton, Iowa for their Solemn Vespers observance of St. Michael and All Angels)

Daniel 10:10-14; 12:1-2; Revelation 12:7-12

October 1, 2023

In the name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Who is like God? That’s what the name Michael means—Who is like God? St. Michael, the chief of angels, in a sense, is like God as are all the other holy angels since they are without sin. Typically, when we use the word angel, we mean the holy beings that attend God, singing His praise. They are in God’s service and they fight for us. They are created beings but invisible to human eyes, for they do not have bodies. They have, however, at times made themselves visible to men, sometimes appearing as men and sometimes not, sometimes appearing in terrifying forms, which causes them at all times to say to those to whom they are appearing, “Fear not.” The angels are described in the Bible with male pronouns but they seem to be sexless. Jesus says that they do not marry. From this we gather that they do not procreate. Unlike the number of human beings, the number of angels created at the beginning has remained stagnant. No new angels are ever added. We do not know what day they were created because Moses doesn’t single them out, but we expect that they were created in the first six days when everything else was created.

As created beings, they are finite. They are not omnipresent. They cannot be in more than one place at time. At the same time we do not know what sort of space they occupy or how they occupy it, how large or small they might be. We also know that they are not all-powerful. They are bound by God and subject to His will. But compared to us they are exceedingly powerful and beautiful.

They are not omniscient. They have intelligence and understanding, will, and language. They can communicate with us at will with our words. They are older than us and have observed more. They likely know far more about physics and how things actually work and have been put together than we do and probably understand us better than we understand ourselves. At the same time, they do not know the future and there is no reason to think that they can read our silent thoughts or hear our prayers.

Some confusion can creep in because some of these beings rebelled against God at some point between the creation and before the fall of man. These angels are God’s enemies as well as our enemies. We usually call them “demons” but they are still angels and are sometimes called such in the Bible.

Further confusion creeps in because the word “angel” in Hebrew and Greek means “messenger.” In addition to being used to refer to these created spiritual beings without bodies, it can also be applied to human beings. St. John is called an angel in Malachi and Matthew quotes it. We usually translate it as “messenger” but the word is “angel.” So also in St. John’s vision, the pastors of the seven churches are called “angels” because they are God’s messengers to the congregations. 

Now the angels that we commemorate today—those created, holy beings who are sealed and conformed to God’s will are like God in a sense, as they are sinless and powerful and without a physical body, but they are not equal to God in power, majesty, or knowledge. They are not gods themselves. They are creatures that serve God. Who is like God? We can say, in a sense that the holy angels are like God. They, like God, desire our salvation. We know this because Jesus tells us that there is great joy in heaven, even among the angels, when a sinner repents.

The holy angels are ordained by God to fight for us and to protect us from demonic forces. This is not only proved by the Daniel reading and other various passages of Scripture, but this fact is also employed in Luther’s Evening Prayer in the Small Catechism, where Christians pray, “Let your holy angel be with me, that the evil foe may have no power over me.”

God sends His holy angels to fight for us. We need them to fight for us and we are fortunate that they do. We should be glad that they are on our side because we cannot fight this great spiritual battle against the sinful world, the devil, and our sinful flesh by ourselves. We are utterly and completely powerless against the devil and his angels. We are powerless against our own sinful flesh and our own sinful nature. Who is like God? Not us. We are not like God. To be sure, we, like the holy angels in the beginning were created sinless, and even in the image of God. But ever since the sin of our first parents, and because of all other sins we have added since, we fall short of the glory of God. The image of God has been lost in us.

This is what many writers of Holy Scripture would have us know. St. Paul would have us know that we are, by our sinful nature and left to ourselves, and without God’s intervention, enemies of God. Just as a dead man cannot raise himself from the dead, so also a spiritually dead and sinful person cannot make himself righteous and sinless by his own powers. We, unlike the holy angels, are not like God. We are stained with sin, corrupted by our own sinful thoughts, words, and deeds. And in case there might be some semi-pelagian tendencies and leanings within you, that is, if you think that, apart from God’s grace, there is some good in man or some good in you, hear the testimony of Holy Scripture:

St. Paul says in his first letter to the Corinthians, “The natural person—that is, the sinful person, all who are born in sin—does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.” (1 Cor. 2:14) If we, because of our sin cannot and do not accept the things of the Spirit of God, then we are against God, enemies of God, set apart, separated, dead. Jesus speaks to this in the Sermon on the Mount when He says that no one can serve two masters. Either you hate the one and love the other or you are devoted to the one and despise the other. There are no fence-sitters in Christianity. Either your father is God the Father or your father is the devil.

St. Paul also says in Romans 8 that “The mind that is set on the [sinful] flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot.” (Romans 8:7) Paul also clearly and succinctly speaks of the entire human race in our state of sinfulness and our innate opposition and hostility toward God when he says, “No one is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one. Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive. The venom of asps is under their lips. Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood; in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes.” (Romans 3:10-18)

So also David, twice in his Psalms, speaks of how the entire human race is born in sin and thus are set as natural enemies of God. First in Psalm 51, “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me.” (Psalm 51:5) Second, in Psalm 53 where David sings, “They are corrupt, doing abominable iniquity; there is none who does good. God looks down from heaven on the children of man to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. They have all fallen away; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one.” (Psalm 53:1-3)

Much of Holy Scripture was written in order to show the natural state of fallen man. All of these passages answer the question, “Who is like God?” The obvious answer being, not men. Not us. This is because these passages of Scripture point out a glaring and obvious need, which is, in fact, the chief function of the Law: we are not like God, thus, we need a Savior who is not only like God but who is Himself God.

Since the Law shows us a need for a Savior, we can only cry out with St. Paul, with David, and with the whole body of saints who have gone before us, “Who will deliver us from this body of death?” The One who will and does deliver us from this body of sin, from this body of death is One Who is God in the flesh. He is no angel, though at times He has been called an Angel. The Second Person of the Holy Trinity, who, though was known by Old Testament saints as the Angel of the Lord, is Himself the Lord. He is the Lord of Sabaoth, which means that He is the Lord of Hosts, commanding legions of angels, all of whom fight for those whom He loves. And His love is given to those who are not like God, who cannot be like God, who are natural born enemies of God because of sin. 

Even though Jesus Christ, Second Person of the Holy Trinity, God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, He who is like God, because He is God in the flesh, is above all of creation and above all of the angels, He came down to earth to be made lower than all the angels, to suffer the greatest taunts and evils of man. He came to suffer, in our place, the fiery wrath of His Father on the cross. There upon that cross, He who is like God, who is God, who was higher than the angels but became lower than the angels, for a time, shed His blood for those who are sinners and not like God.

If it were not for the Blood of Christ, there would be no defense against the accusations of the devil, for indeed, we were guilty in our sins. There is no way to face the devil or the Law or our sins but with the Blood of Christ. But with His blood, we not only stand, but we sing and we march and we revel in the joy of war that trounces evil. For Jesus shed His blood for our sins. He has appeased His Father’s wrath on our behalf, made Himself our Substitute and reconciled us back to Himself by grace.

We were guilty, to be sure, but there is no one left to accuse us. Satan is cast out, away from us by Jesus’ blood. And behold, Mystery of mysteries, joy beyond all music or words, greatest of all gifts: Jesus gives us that same Blood, the Blood of life, the Blood of wisdom, the Blood of exorcism which casts away all of the devil’s demons. It is the blood of forgiveness, the Blood of peace, the Blood of God, which is given here and now, in real time. And it enters into us in the Divine Service, regenerating and renewing us, giving us His Holy Spirit.

What we’re doing as Christians is fighting a war. We are at the same time soldiers and the prize and beneficiaries. We come to Church to get our marching orders and our rations in the Holy Communion and our weapons. We come for the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ for the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ, who was slain but who lives, who has set us into the wonderful order of angels and men, who comes here on earth for us in the Sacrament of the Altar. There is strength for every day: freedom from demons, victory over death, and plenty of reason to sing and give praise.

In +Jesus’ name.