The Mighty Warrior

I will sing to the LORD, for He has triumphed gloriously!  The horse and its rider He has thrown into the sea!  The LORD is my strength and song.  And He has become my salvation; He is my God, and I will praise Him; My father's God, and I will exalt Him.  The LORD is a man of war; The LORD is His name.  Exodus 15:1 - 3

The Rescue Mission Auxiliary held a veterans' tribute today during the monthly luncheon, and we honored about twenty men and women from both our shelter and the community.  Our guest speaker, a local pastor, brought a message on the Lord as the Mighty Warrior, thinking he would be speaking to a room of male vets rather than a mixed crowd.  But we all benefited from hearing his testimony.

Rob was raised in an unchurched family with a father who exemplified and encouraged the extreme macho role model, that men are born to be fighters.  Rob said that he didn't know much about Jesus while he was growing up, but he did know that he didn't want anything to do with someone who would go to his death without putting up a fight.  Like so many others, he thought of Jesus as a wimp. (I think most artwork of Jesus contributes to this characterization, but that is another topic.)  After he graduated from high school, Rob served in the Army Special Forces as a Green Beret, followed by a career with a local police force, continuing in the worldly expectations of macho men.  It wasn't until his son was a toddler that he started evaluating his lifestyle.  He decided he did not want to raise his son in the same manner that his father raised him.  His life was a mess, and it was affecting his family.  

With a Divine calling on his life, Rob (and his wife) responded in faith to the gospel at thirty years of age, and his understanding of Jesus completely changed.  Yes, Jesus went to the cross humbly and without a fight, but he was committed to something greater than avoiding the bodily suffering that would end in his death.  That commitment required him to bear the unleashed wrath of God as he hung on the cross, as he willingly suffered for the sins of those who are His own. In a mystery we may never fully understand, the Father turned his back on his Son until the punishment was meted out. Hardly a mental picture of a wimp, is it?  Jesus' sacrifice on our behalf was acceptable to the Father, and he conquered the power of death through his resurrection.

The book of Ephesians tells us that we are warring not against flesh and blood, but against spiritual powers and principalities, the rulers of darkness and the spiritual hosts of wickedness.  Our Lord, the Mighty Warrior, has given us "battle armor" in the form of His truth, righteousness, the gospel of peace, our faith, our salvation, and prayer.  This life is not about winning our temporal skirmishes; it's about fighting the battles that matter for eternity.  Jesus will return one day as the Righteous Judge and final Victor over all the forces of evil, and that's the way I prefer to think of him.