What are we to make of Jesus’ frequent encounters with the devil and his legion of demons? Evil spirits don’t seem to have the same prominence today as they did in Jesus’ time. Here is my take on things. When God comes to earth in Jesus Christ, the devil and his legion of demons go on high alert. Jesus is the one person able to smoke evil powers out of their hiding places. The forces of evil intensify to do battle with Jesus.
The devil’s mission in our time is more often clandestine. He prefers to work behind the scenes and not draw attention to his diabolical evil. Perhaps the devil’s greatest ploy is to deceive us into thinking he cannot be real. We scoff at the caricature of the devil in pitchfork and tails. Since we cannot possibly believe in this parody of the devil, we confidently conclude he must not exist.
In his preface to The Screwtape Letters, C. S. Lewis writes, “There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devil. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them.” While some among us might be guilty of having an excessive and unhealthy interest in devils, most of us dismiss them altogether.
Paul writes in his second letter to the Corinthians that the devil masquerades as an angel of light. Evil portrays itself as something attractive and alluring. We read in the creation story in Genesis that the forbidden fruit “looked pleasing to the eye” (Gen. 3.6). Would any of us be attracted to evil if we realized how monstrous and evil it really is?
We dismiss the devil too easily to our peril. The following prayer is attributed to Benedict of Nursia (480-547):