Simply Jesus Pt. 20: “I Have Given You Authority to Tread on Serpents…”

Rat snakes are fairly common in my neighborhood. Water Moccasins, however, are not. In fact, until a month ago I had never seen one up close.

My wife and I happened to both be at home that rainy day, and were getting ready to pick my kids up from school. I fed the dogs and then opened the back door to let them go do their business. In a flash, they bounded outside, and in a flash, the deadly serpent slithered across the threshold and right toward my feet.

Even though I was only about a month into recovery from my ACL surgery, my natural reaction was to stomp down using that leg to crush my assailant. The serpent came at my heel, and I stomped him down under my foot. It had to be the grace of God because I got him right beneath his head. A perfect strike.

I realize now that what I did was not too intelligent, but I guess I’ve seen The Passion too many times.

As I stood there over the slain Cottonmouth, these words of Jesus kept replaying in my mind: Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy (Luke 10:19). But there have surely been many Christians through the years that have died by snakebite, so what did Jesus mean?

Second century Christian apologist Justin Martyr gives us insight into the matter:

He said, ‘I give unto you power to tread on serpents, and on scorpions … and on all the might of the enemy.’ And now we, who believe on our Lord Jesus, who was crucified under Pontius Pilate, when we exorcise all demons and evil spirits have them subjected to us. – Justin Martyr 160CE Volume 1, p. 381-382 [CD-ROM]

Aren’t Justin’s words encouraging? Long after the first apostles had died, in the middle of the second century, Christians all around the world were casting out demons and treading on serpents.

Do you believe that promise is for you, though?

When Jesus originally said those words, He wasn’t talking to the Twelve. He was talking to seventy regular disciples. Seventy salt-of-the-earth people who earnestly desired to do God’s will and become like their Rabbi.

Like those seventy, do you truly want to become like Jesus? And, do you believe that He wants to transform and empower you to be like Him and do the works He did?

Do you believe that the kingdom of God is at war against the kingdom of darkness? And, do you believe that the weapons of our warfare are not earthly weapons, but are infused with the power of God to demolish demonic strongholds? If so, what do you turn to when you believe there may be demonic power at work in a situation? 

A church I used to work at had a very important ministry. We would drive the church van and other vehicles to a lower-income apartment complex in the community each Wednesday and Sunday to pick up kids for our services. By God’s grace we built a lot of relationships, and I believe we helped a lot of people.

One week, though, a new kid came along that many of the other kids said had a reputation for being quite wild. Bless our hearts; we had no idea what was coming our way.

All the cursing. All the threats. All the fighting. We had dealt with “wild” before, but not this much “wild” out of one young kid in one evening. Eventually we called his mom to let her know we had to bring him home early for the group's sake.

As we were walking him through the parking lot, one of the volunteers shouted, “That kid’s got a demon!” … and then went inside.

What if he did? What if the kid was demonized? What should we have done?

What I should have done, what we should have done, was not simply drive him home to his mother. What we should have done was believed in Jesus’ promise that we would trample down serpents, and in faith, cast the demon out in His name. We should have simply followed Jesus’ example just like those seventy disciples did.

Since 2004, I have been graced with the opportunity to witness evil spirits come out of several people, both young and old. The confrontations are usually a bit awkward, but words can’t do justice to the feeling of joy one is immersed with when seeing people set free by Jesus.

So let me encourage you to take Jesus at His word and tread upon the serpents and scorpions of the enemy. Don’t overcomplicate things. Remember that Jesus isn’t looking for seminary degrees. He’s looking for childlike faith.

And finally, remember that the same Holy Spirit that empowered the seventy and the second century disciples still enables followers of Jesus today to walk as He walked and trample what He trampled.