Luke chapter 10 offers us a unique expression of the meaning of the cross. There, in verse 18, as nowhere else in scripture, Jesus describes his crucifixion experience. In just one brief, astonishing, line he projects himself forwards in time to tell us what he sees at the moment of his death: ‘I see Satan fall from heaven like lightning,’ he said. If you want a definitive description of the most powerful moment in history, then this is it. Here is Jesus describing what his eyes see from the cross, at that pivotal moment of his death. ‘I see Satan fall from heaven like lightning.’ It is so intense an image, like a scene from a motion picture, that it is likely to become fixed forever in our own mind’s eye once we’ve visualised it for the first time.

In homage to the work of Rene Girard, a talk for The Third Sunday after Trinity , 3 July 2022.

Find the text to this and all my talks at bit.ly/johndavies-talks.