It’s Easter! Time for family and friends to gather together in celebration of our Lord Jesus Christ. Time to pick out fancy new clothes for church, stuff the eggs, and stuff ourselves too with traditional holiday fare. There is so much to thank Jesus for each Easter. But did you know that you should also take a moment to thank Satan too?
Ok, I’ll wait while you recover from that statement.
You heard me right. We should be thanking Satan too. He was a huge part of the Easter story, but it is often overlooked. He has been in every story in the Bible since Adam and Eve, which of course means he wasn’t about to let Jesus, the Son of God, to get off easy. In fact, as you well know, he threw everything he had at Jesus- even death.
Evil, definitely. Ugly, for sure. But it was all part of the Father’s master plan whether Satan knew it or not. God is still God, after all.
“This was God’s plan which He had made long ago; He knew all this would happen.” Acts 2:23
Satan’s overexcitement and enthusiasm were supposed to lead to tragedy, but instead it led to the greatest triumph of all. So here are three reasons why I believe we should remember Satan this year.
The Empty Cross Jesus knew that His death would occur, and so did Satan. Satan made sure to harden the right hearts and keep shields of pride and jealousy plenty fortified among the scribes and Pharisees. He was at work making sure that Pilate passed the buck and let the people decide Jesus’ fate all the while making the people change their minds about who they truly believed Jesus is. He made sure that the Roman guards beat and whipped Jesus sufficiently and to continually mock His majesty. And he gave his best effort to make sure Jesus was completely humiliated.
It breaks my heart to even think about it.
But we can thank Satan for all of this because despite all of Satan’s efforts to hang Jesus on a cross in shame, he never succeeded. What happened instead was that Jesus proved His obedience to the Father and died on the cross to redeem all of us from sin– the sin we should have hung on the cross for. And now the symbol that was supposed to signify His death is now the symbol of His life and His amazing love for us.
The Empty Tomb With Jesus’ death, Satan thought for sure he had won. He put doubt and fear in the Pharisees to convince Pilate to put guards outside of Jesus’ tomb. They were so paranoid that someone would steal His body and spread rumors that He had risen from the grave as He said He would. Satan also put fear in Pilate to go along with the Pharisees’ plan so that there wouldn’t be a Jewish revolt of any kind.
Here we can thank Satan again. No matter what paranoia and fear he tried to spread, no matter what measures he took, he had forgotten that he is no match for the power of Heaven and the Lord’s angel armies. What resulted was a stone rolled away, an empty tomb, and Jesus’ ultimate domination over death. It also proved again that nothing was going to stop God from redeeming His people. His love conquered anything Satan could try.
Empty Power Over Us And now Jesus sits at the right hand of the Father ruling in complete glory and majesty. What’s just as true and great is the same power that Jesus had over sin and death is now ours too. The Father allows trials and tribulations to come to us courtesy of Satan to test our faith, but we will always have the victory every time. And that’s definitely something to celebrate! We can be assured that our faith and salvation will grow and be strengthened if we are obedient to the Lord. Which means that Satan will never have power over us if we don’t let him.
I’m always amazed and humbled by Jesus’ love for us. To think that He went through so much torture and pain just so that we can be considered blameless before the Father leaves me simply awestruck. I am so thankful for all Jesus did on the cross for me. And you! I’m equally thankful that Satan played right into the Father’s hands and now the victory has been won. Now we can enjoy an intimate relationship with our loving Lord, just as He had always intended.
Thanks, Satan! Happy Easter!
Related Post: “Easter: Born Again to a Living Hope”
