Jesus...and Angels
Okay, I’m picking up now where I left off, with Jesus, and His relationship to Angels.
It’s true that He seems to have believed in Angels...in some fashion. But it is going to get complicated so stay with me.
About the image: This is “Christ and Child” (1873) by the Danish painter Carl Bloch (1834-1890). It is believed to be in the Public domain and can be accessed via Wikimedia Commons.
First, he refers to them often. Depending on how you count the numbers, he speaks about them at least 24 times. I’ll put them all in a footnote, below.(*) It is a heck of a lot of references.
Except...except...again, there is something odd. He never calls them by name. He never says “Michael” or “Gabriel” or “Uriel” or whoever. They are just “angels.” We’re back, it seems, to the earlier part of the Bible where, when God wants to talk to his charges, he does so directly.
Also, for Jesus, it seems that angels have pretty specific functions. They minister to Him in the wilderness (Matthew 4:11, Mark 1:13). They rejoice when we poor humans repent our sins (Luke 15:10). They witness our loyalty to Jesus (Luke 12:8–9). At the end of our lives, they escort us to the afterlife. And, at the end of time, they will accompany the Son Of Man when He comes in glory.
But...notice, Jesus is not interested in Angels as heroes. He is not interested in them as, well, fiction. These are not the Caped Crusaders of the Book of Daniel, there to do battle with the Great Beast. He *is* interested in them only insofar as they are part of people’s lives, or in that they are present at the end of their lives.
It is a bit startling. You’d think that Angels ... and the named Angels particularly...would loom rather larger in His thinking. But, no. And maybe that fits in with His message. As I said before, Jesus as *I* read him (and, admittedly, I could be wrong), is focused on life in the here and now. Yes, he believes that great celestial events are coming, and we should prepare for them, but...for the moment, we need to live in the present. We need to care for one another. We must feed the hungry, rescue the prisoner, protect the innocent, welcome the stranger, and show mercy when we can.
As such, angels are interesting, but, for Him, they are just on the fringes of things. We normal humans are at the center of His story...we are the true heroes, and, alas, too often, we are the genuine devils.
Or, at least, that’s what I think.
Anyway... after the crucifixion, angels do show up again. In all four gospels, they are at Christ’s tomb--as in, Matthew 28:2–7, “His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow.”
Then, they appear again in the Book of Acts, always helping and comforting the Apostles, as in Acts 5:19 when two angels open the doors of the public prison and release Peter and the other apostles from captivity. Then, too, they show up in the Letters of Paul, though not very often. And, interestingly, Paul warns his readers against “the worship of angels” (Colossians 2:18)--which, I’m guessing, means there was a lively interest in angels in the early Church, lively enough, indeed, to make him worry.
And then there’s the Book of Hebrews, where they show up twice. In Hebrews 1-14, we learn that “...all angels [are] ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation...” In other words, angels are doing what they do best--ministering and comforting. Also in the same book, we have what may be the world’s most famous lines about angels, “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.” (Hebrews 13:2)
All very helpful to one’s spiritual life, I’m sure. But, let’s face facts, it’s not particularly exciting. And we’ve completely lost sight of our boy Michael.
But not to worry.
He, and all angels, are about to go, as it were...
All blockbuster.
More to come.
Footnotes:
* Verses Where Jesus Mentions Angels
GOSPEL OF MATTHEW
Matthew 4:6 – Angels will bear him up (temptation narrative; quoting Psalm 91)
Matthew 4:11 – Angels minister to him after the temptation
Matthew 13:39–41 – Angels are the harvesters who separate the evil from the righteous
Matthew 13:49 – Angels will separate the wicked from the righteous at the end of the age
Matthew 16:27 – Son of Man will come with his angels in the glory of the Father
Matthew 18:10 – Angels of children always see the face of the Father in heaven
Matthew 22:30 – In the resurrection, people will be like angels
Matthew 24:31 – Angels will gather the elect at the end of time
Matthew 25:31 – Son of Man will come in glory with all the angels
Matthew 26:53 – Jesus could ask the Father to send twelve legions of angels
GOSPEL OF MARK
Mark 1:13 – Angels minister to him in the wilderness
Mark 8:38 – Son of Man will come in glory with the holy angels
Mark 12:25 – In the resurrection, people are like angels
Mark 13:27 – Angels will gather the elect
Mark 13:32 – No one knows the day or hour, not even the angels in heaven
GOSPEL OF LUKE
Luke 4:10 – Angels will guard him (temptation narrative; quoting Psalm 91)
Luke 9:26 – Son of Man will come in glory and with the holy angels
Luke 12:8–9 – Angels will acknowledge or deny people based on their confession of Jesus
Luke 15:10 – Angels rejoice over one sinner who repents
Luke 16:22 – Angels carry the poor man (Lazarus) to Abraham’s side
Luke 20:36 – In the resurrection, people are like angels
GOSPEL OF JOHN
John 1:51 – Angels ascending and descending on the Son of Man (allusion to Jacob’s ladder)
Copyright©2026 Michael Jay Tucker
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