Hold on, this Satan stuff is not meant to be a turn off. Rather a reality that benefits all of us when we are aware of the power of its influence and control. In Mark 3:23 we hear this question: How can Satan cast out Satan? Girard comes back to this verse quite a bit. He notes that the Passion is called by Jesus - the hour of Satan. Girard says it is because it is Satan's attempt to cast out Jesus - to expel him as if he were another Satan, a worse Satan than Satan himself. That is, Satan attempts to cast out Satan through murder, especially collective violence. Satan cannot cast out Jesus because Jesus is not a part of this power of separation. Satan doesn't get that. Even with all the power to bring together a collective group that will use Jesus as a scapegoat, the disciples (by the power of the Holy Spirit) will help break his cycle of violence. They will be empowered to give witness to another way that breaks from the mimetic consensus that is usually the engine behind the social order. This social order is ruled by a scapegoat mechanism that the resurrection reveals and defeats. Jesus does not take part in the collective violence of the world. He is no part of it. Satan, on the other hand, is at the heart of it. Where collective violence will always come up with a scapegoat to blame and to offer as a sacrifice to keep things as is, Jesus will be that victim - dying like other victims of society - but the Holy Spirit (defender of the falsely accused) will not let the same old story rule the day. Satan cannot cast out Satan because as one system or people act as those who cast out, that same system stays in place - because it is accepted as the way things are done. So, Satan wins every time mimetic rivalry shows its head and repeats the never ending lie. Connection: How often have we all seen one lie lead to another - or one power of destruction and divisiveness lead to another - or name-calling of one become name-calling of another? This is the cycle. This is the lie. This is Satan whose rule stretched back as far as humanity. Jesus will live and die as though there are no more victims. Instead he becomes the victim of this age old lie whose cycle is broken by the event of eternal love alive for the well-being of all - without pointing a finger or creating separations. As you walk with us, O God, remind us of the power of the Holy Spirit that raises up among the followers of Jesus a people a truth-telling and abounding love that stand with and for all the victims of the endless cycle of our violence. Amen. |
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