Easter 2010
Exodus 15:1-
THE LORD IS A WARRIOR
The words of the text this Easter morning come from the book of Exodus. The people of God had just come out of their Egyptian slavery. Pharaoh chased them. They fled into the deep places of the sea and then came out the other side. Pharaoh pursued them into the deep places of the sea and he didn’t come out the other side. God smote his chariots and charioteers. The wheels came off their chariots and the wheels came off their ability to wage this relentless war against God’s people. They died. The water swept over them at God’s glance. Their bloated bodies swept up on the shore the next day.
And God’s people sang. They were wildly encouraged in their faith and life. You could imagine their elation and joy. (When you have enemies like Pharaoh and the devil, you don’t feel bad at their demise.) The people put their trust in Moses…When the Israelites saw the great power the Lord had displayed against the Egyptians. God “had become their salvation.” They thrilled at the thought of what had happened. Now, this enemy from Egypt was no longer going to be able to enslave and pursue and capture and torment and kill them.
It was in this time that the words just rolled off their tongues, “The Lord is a Warrior.” The Lord was that at Moses’ time. The Lord Jesus still is that today. Jesus is a warrior. On Good Friday we saw him horribly and fatally wounded. The wounds he endured as the Prophet Isaiah even foretold it were not wounds that happened because he wasn’t skillful in defending himself. He is the warrior who sacrificing himself and saved his people, taking the barbs and points and lances of his people’s enemies in his own chest and heart and side. He was wounded for our transgressions but it wasn’t because he was an inept warrior. Just the opposite. He chose to lay down his weapons and become like us on our weakest day. He is the great warrior who chose to go it alone that day and leave his angel legions behind and step out to fight for his followers.
This word of God rolls off our tongues on this Easter day too. We stand this morning surveying the carnage God has wrought on carnage! The Revelation of St. John reveals the sight: I looked, and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him. Revelation 6:8 That was the purview of the field of battle on Good Friday. Death and hell rode rampant. Jesus said to Judas, “This is your hour when darkness reigns.” But the Lord is a Warrior. He fought and he won. We see what he has done to death. We know he has won the fight and completely overcome our worst nightmare and enemy. Death has been done in. The place death meant for Jesus is now the place where death is doomed to be. In a grave. In the locked coffin God provides. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. Revelation 20:14 Jesus left the field of battle triumphant. Death didn’t leave the field that day. Death died. Jesus planted the insignia of his cross in death’s heart that day.
Death is dirty. Death doesn’t fight fair. Since when did it do that? It takes our babies. It takes our friends and family members. It takes our beloved old ones. It takes us too. It comes stalking us. Every day. Death is your worst enemy, but the Lord is a Warrior. We sing the triumph song with Moses and his people that we read about this morning. We sing the song of Johann Altenburg of 1632,
“Amen, Lord Jesus, grant our prayer;
Great Captain, now Thine arm make bare,
Fight for us once again!
So shall Thy saints and martyrs raise
A mighty chorus to Thy praise,
World without end, Amen. (TLH 263)
There is a fight going on. The Lord is a Warrior. We who follow must be warriors too. It is hand to hand combat. It is done in warrior fashion: with breast plate of righteousness, sword of the Spirit, helmet of salvation, feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace. It is hand to hand…heart to heart…warfare. There were soldiers out and about in the story of Lent. There was an armed guard at the tomb. Someplace in the area a man with a spear with Jesus’ DNA on it was resting. There was Pilate and Roman legionaries and centurions. There were Herod’s henchmen and soldiers.
Someone is fighting for us but this means that someone is also fighting against us.
This is a motif of the whole Bible. “And there was war in heaven. Michael and
his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back.
(Remember that the name Michael means, ‘Who is like God?!’ Who is like that Warrior?)
But he was not strong enough and they lost their place in heaven.. The great dragon
was hurled down-
God’s people have seen the Warrior too. Jacob wrestled all night with the Lord in prayer. Joshua when he came across the Jordan to take the Promised Land saw the Warrior before him. He said, “’Are you for us or for our enemies?’ Neither,’ he replied, ‘but as commander of the army of the Lord I have now come.’” The Lord is a Warrior indeed! Elisha lamented when the whirlwind took Elijah into heaven, “My father, my father, the chariots of Israel and the horsemen thereof.” And later as the Syrian army encircled him, this same Elisha prayed, “Lord, let my servant see that those who fight for us are more than those who fight for them.” And of course the reading before us is speaking of the Lord as the Warrior that does Pharaoh in. Pharaoh said, “I will draw my sword and my hand will destroy them.” God said, “No, you won’t. The Lord is a Warrior.”
Someone needs to tell us that our warfare now is finished. That is what Isaiah said
in chapter 40, “Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem
and proclaim to her that her hard service (warfare) has been completed, that her
sin has been paid for, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all
her sins.” The reason the warfare is finished is because Jesus finished it. He
is the warrior who was capable of ending the fight. He did not fight death and the
devil to a draw or an uneasy truce. He completely destroyed them. He did it with
his life. He did it with his death. This is also in shades of Genesis 3:15. He
crushed the head of his foe. He has his heel on the throat-
When we say the Apostles Creed, we acknowledge that the Lord is a Warrior. We say about Jesus and about Easter, “He died, was buried, descended into hell. On the third day he rose again, ascended into heaven and sits on the right hand of God the Father almighty. From there he will come to judge the living and the dead.” Jesus does so as the Warrior. There is a Greek word: thriambeuw. This is the word which is in this Scripture: And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross. Colossians 2:15 This Greek word thriambeuw is the word that describes the action of a warrior when he has conquered over his vicious enemy and makes a public display of the victory by dragging his vanquished enemy along behind him. That’s the way it is this Easter. Jesus won in the no holds barred fight against our enemy. This is our chance to join the victory parade and to honk our horns in hell. “We won!” The Lord is a warrior!
To everything that is against us (sin, death and the devil) “The Lord is a Warrior!” To every fear. To death itself. To worry. To sickness and disease. To bleak political outlooks. The Lord is a Warrior. To lean and hungry times, the Lord is a Warrior and gives rich provisions to his followers. He prepares a table before us in the presence of our enemies. Our cup overflows. Surely goodness and love will follow us all our days. Because the Lord is a Warrior!
If the Lord hadn’t been a warrior who wins, our lot would have been bleak today.
We have big enemies that take a mighty warrior to overcome them. We need a champion.
And we have one! I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse,
whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and makes war. His
eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has a name written
on him that no one but he himself knows. He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood,
and his name is the Word of God. The armies of heaven were following him, riding
on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean. Out of his mouth comes
a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. “He will rule them with an
iron scepter.” He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty.
On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF
LORDS. Revelation 19:11-
The Lord is a Warrior! Amen.