Who is like God? [St. Michael and all angels; St. Matthew 18:1-11]

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Who speaks to you today, in your hearing, saying:

“At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, ‘Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?’”

Michael’s name literally means, “Who is like God?” and it can be taken as a question rather than a statement referring to Michael as being “like God”. This question, then, is asked throughout holy Scripture and it gives us a little better picture of St. Michael and all angels than our department stores and tattoos do.

We will start off with the answer to this question first, then move on to where and how the question is asked. The answer is, of course, “no one”. No one is like God.

When Israel saw the dead Egyptians on the shore of the Red Sea, they sang,

“Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods?

    Who is like you, majestic in holiness,

    awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders?

You stretched out your right hand;

    the earth swallowed them.” (Ex. 15:11-12)

Not too many people have those accomplishments under their belt, other than the unreachable, infinite God.

In Psalms, King David asks “who is like God who is seated on high, doing great things, and rescuing the poor?” (Psalm 113:5, 71:19, 35:10) “Rescuing the poor” is a funny thing to just throw in among the almighty things God does, but as we see in Jesus’ answer to St. John the Baptist, it is precisely in the rescue of the poor that announces the Messiah. Yet, for King David, that time had not happened yet. So God was still infinitely unique.

Isaiah and Jeremiah both record the Lord being aggressive against His wayward people as He demands to know who is like Him, who can predict the future, and what shepherd can stand before Him? Again, adding a shepherd in there is only awkward if we don’t know that Jesus is the Good Shepherd. No one is like God.

So at this point, St. Michael’s name becomes a conundrum as a question. Since there is no one like God Who rescues the poor and Shepherds His own people, then it has almost nothing to do with Michael. More importantly, it seems to have nothing to do with us. God is far away, doing those things for other people, in an invisible way and still we have no idea who is like Him.

Even so, as our reading from Revelation pointed out to us, “Michael” is the angels’ war-cry during the clash of good and evil angels. “Who is like God”, they would shout. And the enemy would shout back, “Who is like the beast”. The closest I can come to what that name sounds like is from one of Daniel’s friends, Mishael, who had his name changed to Meshach. Meshach would mean “who is like Aku” or the beast, who was believed to be the lord of the world, the father of the gods, and the creator.

You can see what kind of religious mess we are getting into in this war. Worse, everyone looks the same. There is no distinction between the good and the bad angels, they look alike, and the others fighting are humans. How to tell the good from the bad? “Michael”! “Meshach”!

Michael is the war cry and the question. You tell the good from the bad by seeing who looks like God and who doesn’t. It is only those who look like God who will escape this war, but God is spirit so can physical beings look like that? Or is it only angels that get this promise, since they are also spirit??

Dear Christians, the dragon is waiting for the day God screws up, leaves an opening in His defenses. Christmas is that day. It is the day that God traps Himself in time and confines Himself to a body. A body that can hunger, a body that can thirst, and a body that can die.

It is in this act of God that instigates and decides this battle, because God did not become an angel! He did not give that honor even to St. Michael or St. Gabriel, and especially not to Lucifer. He did not say to any angel, “You are my Son, this day have I begotten thee”.

God was born of a virgin and made man. He was a human infant in every way, indistinguishable from any other infant. He grew and matured as a toddler, as a teenager, as a young man with nothing that would make Him stick out of the crowd. Completely ordinary, completely human, completely vulnerable.

Yet, this God-man is Whom all God’s angels worship. This is Whom all angels derive their being and to Whom all swear their fealty. Why? Just because He is God? No, because He is the crucified God. Because He did not just become a man to prance around, have a good time, and show off. He became a man in order to die.

Deep within the dragon’s victory plan lies the diamond he chomped on and broke his teeth. The dragon tried to chew the Son of Man and cracked down on God Himself. Defanged, he retreats to the Church and attacks us instead. Shattered, death holds no more dominion over Jesus or those who are baptized into Him.

And with this baptism, we will not only see His face, but we will look like Him. “For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” (2 Cor. 4:6)

In Christ we receive a new life, a clean heart, and a fresh face. We no longer look like an odious, miserable sinner in front of God, but we look like His Son. By virtue of the Word and the Sacraments we are changed. And it should be no surprise, because it is by the same Word and Sacrament that the devil is overcome and conquered, not by the angels, but by the brethren; by the baptized.

St. Stephen gives us a picture of this great, free gift from Jesus as he is brought before the council. “And Stephen, full of grace and power, was doing great wonders and signs among the people… and they came upon him and seized him and brought him before the council… And gazing at him, all who sat in the council saw that his face was like the face of an angel.” (Acts 6:8, 12, 15)

So we must ask the question again: who is like God? Because, now we have a dilemma, rather we would call it a great and wonderful gift given to us. That now we look like Christ. Right now. At this moment. Not because we work hard at it, but because His Name was placed on our foreheads in baptism. His robe of righteousness is draped around us. His life-blood courses through our veins.

Who is like God? No one is like God, because no one suffers, dies, rises again all in order to make everyone look like Him. For not only do we do the works God does, i.e. rescue the poor, shepherding people to Church, among other things, but we commune with Him. He comes to our house, to our table, and declares this His house and His table as His own.

We must not fail to notice verses 10 and 11, in our reading from Revelation this morning, because it tells us exactly what to do. It gives us the exact prescription and strategy to fight in this war and to win this war against sin, death, and the devil. The strategy is the blood of the Lamb and the word of testimony. In other words, Sacrament and Word.

We do not fight like angels. We do not live like angels. We are not angels. We are human and God came as a human, so in faith we fight like Jesus, live like Jesus, and will be made to be like Jesus. In sin, we are like the beast and train for war in his camp. In baptism, we are like God: forgiven, saved, and sanctified completely. Who is like God? We are like God.