I grew up in South Minneapolis and remember the long standing tradition of the ten days of summer, also called the Aquatennial. My favorite was the Torchlight Parade on Wednesday night, because I liked the lights and it looked more festive. Parades highlight a city’s strengths and are supposed to bring pride, honor, and closeness to the city and her inhabitants.
In the Old Testament, and in certain parts of the world, parades are more military in nature and are supposed to show the power and authority of the sovereign. In so doing, they often include a dead body of their enemy, so the people can actually see their tormentor as dead and ineffective. The king, of course, is in the prominent position, yet the parade is designed to yield to that sovereign, as well as to celebrate the victory.
Colossians 2:15 says this: “He (Jesus) disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in Him.”
“Spoiled” or “disarmed” is the Greek word “apekduomai”, meaning “to strip off from oneself, renounce”. It comes from two words: “apo” means “away from”, and “ekdyo” means “completely away”. It means that the people would not be afraid because they would see the enemy defeated. This is why the roads in the Roman world would have crosses lining them, so they could be a deterrent to crime, as well as people seeing the results of bad behavior. If one knows their enemy is defeated, they will not be subject to the fear brought by that enemy. To disarm also means we can diffuse a bomb of sorts – find out the ignition and dismantle it. Jesus defeated fear, shame, anger, etc., when He died for us.
Jesus also put the enemy to open shame. If there’s anything a ruler doesn’t want, is that they are publicly humiliated. Here the Greek word “deigmatizo” means “to expose, make an example”. The enemy forever will be an example of what happens when one turns against God and tries to puff themselves up. To expose is a public embarrassment and the devil was embarrassed before God and his own followers (demonic hosts). He has been stripped of everything, like the serpent in the garden. The head has been crushed, but the body continues its reflex and we think he is still in power. Truth is, it is only his mouth that still spews things forth and we can fight that with the words of God’s holy truth. All he can do is whisper in our ear the things he put there years ago. Thank God for the salvation, healing, and victory in Jesus’ name.
Finally, the Bible says Jesus led in triumph, which is the Greek word “thriambeuo”, meaning “to triumph”. It means to lead the procession and make a spectacle out of the enemy/prisoner. Ultimately it is the Devil who died on the cross, because Jesus died but rose again.
Let’s look through the spectacles of faith and see the great victory Jesus brought. We are, in fact, not to be spectators, but participants; following Him in this procession, making sure He is our leader and our allegiance is to Him.
God never wants us to be ashamed. He took our shame so we could hold our head up and declare Christ the leader triumphant.