1.
Please pray with me. May the words of my mouth and the meditation
of our hearts be pleasing in Your sight, O Lord, our Rock, and our
Redeemer. Amen. Christ is risen. He is risen indeed! The strife is o’er, the battle done. Christ
has fought, and Christ has won. The
message on this Easter Day we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord is taken
from 1 Samuel 17:40-51, (READ TEXT), it’s
entitled, “The Battle Done,” dear
brothers and sisters in Christ.
2.
Some years ago, in a history class
at Ohio State University, Harold Grimm was discussing the art of the
Renaissance. Donatello’s ‘David’ was
introduced. The story of David was retold to provide the biblical context for
this bronze. Then Grimm asked, ‘How did
little David slay the giant Goliath?’ A student answered, ‘With a slingshot.’ But Grimm asked
again, ‘How did little David slay the giant
Goliath?’ There was silence. Finally, the instructor offered his answer. It
was a theological one—one implicit in the biblical account, one explicit in the
Donatello statue. David overcame not by strength or reason (as suggested in
Michelangelo’s ‘David’), but by faith.
3.
In his own time David struck people
as comparatively scrawny. When the Lord told the judge Samuel to go to the home
of David’s father, Jesse, and anoint the new king to replace Saul, Samuel was
more impressed with David’s brothers than with David. The Lord looked on the
heart, though, and he wanted that youngest brother of the bunch. The same Lord
won the victory for David over Goliath.
4.
God wins the victory for us over
death and unbelief in the risen Christ and through the good news of his
resurrection. The Easter message is that the strife is o’er, the battle done, for Christ has fought and Christ has
won. How we need this! We may think
of ourselves as very capable and sophisticated. We have our devices and our
comforts. From our comfortable seats, we can find it easy to sneer cynically at
the plight of others. Yet a plight grips
us. A 20th century philosopher described it by picturing people
living on an iceberg. They can think beautiful thoughts on that iceberg and
come up with great ideas. If the great thoughts and ideas prove false, they can
indulge in cynical criticism. Yet this is all temporary. The iceberg is
constantly melting.
5.
The world in which we live is coming
to an end. We have no way around it. Either we will die or the world will end
first. Whichever way, we will come face-to-face with God and his perfect
judgment. You will, and so will I, sinners that we are. That is a losing
proposition. The only way we can win is with the Lord. For this reason, and out
of his great love for us, God sent his Son to be our Savior.
6.
There was a reference a few sermons
back to a way in which some of the ancient Church Fathers illustrated the
battle between Christ and the devil. They compared the divine nature in Christ
to a sharp metal hook, and the human nature in Christ to a worm with which that
sharp hook is baited. Jesus looked like an ordinary man. The devil, who is like
a great predator fish swims along and sees the worm looking helpless in the
water. Like a fish, the devil bites on the worm. Then it becomes clear that he
is the one who is helpless against the fishhook.
7.
Today, however, I ask you to think
about a question raised by this illustration: Why did the devil do what he did? Why attack Christ? The devil knew
very well that he was more than a mere man. Whenever Jesus encountered demonic
forces as he went about Palestine, the devils consistently identified him even
when no one else did. So why would the devil attack Someone against whom he
would most certainly end up helpless?
8.
We might as well ask: why did
Goliath fight David? Before the battle, David had told Goliath what was going
to happen and in some detail. David said, “This
day the LORD will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down and cut
off your head” (1 Samuel 17:46). Why did Goliath not turn, go back behind
friendly lines, and begin organizing a retreat for the entire Philistine army? It’s
simple. Goliath didn’t believe a word David said. Instead of believing the
Lord’s warning through David, Goliath trusted in his own strength and his own
reputation as a fearsome warrior.
9.
Back, then, to my question about the
devil attacking Jesus. Why did Satan do it, even though he knew who Christ is? Scripture says that from the beginning the
devil has been a murderer, a liar and the father of lies (John 8:44). The
father of lies starts believing his own deceptions, buying his own lies. The
devil tried to defeat Christ, and for a while all may have looked good. But the
devil was not going to win. “The Foe was triumphant when on Calvary, The
Lord of creation was nailed to the tree.
In Satan’s domain did the hosts shout and jeer, For Jesus was slain,
whom the evil ones fear. But short was
their triumph, the Savior arose, And Death, hell, and Satan He vanquished, His
foes; The conquering Lord lifts His banner on high, He lives, yea, He lives,
and will nevermore die.” (TLH 198:2–3) Jesus is like the strong hook that
captures the big fish, for Jesus is God himself. When he fought the devil, even
in a fight to the death, Christ had to win. He would not stay dead, for he
could not stay dead. He had to live. Life, not death, is the order for a
sinless Man. Jesus, the sinless One, had had the sin of the world laid on his
back. Once he paid for it all, there was no reason why he could not live again.
10.
God is all about life. He’s the
Living One who has life in himself. He lives eternally and has immortality. He’s
the One who can kill and make alive. Christ had to live because he is God. “Because
life was immortal, it emerged victorious when it had been conquered, conquering
and killing death in turn.” The
strife is o’er, the battle done because Christ has fought, and Christ has won.
11.
He keeps on fighting for you and me,
to this very day. In the early 19th century, when Napoleon’s armies
were making their way across Europe, gobbling up everything in their path, they
approached a little town on the Austrian border. In the town, a meeting was
called to discuss what to do. A preacher stood up and said, “This is Easter Day. We have been counting on
our own strength, and that will fail. This is the day of our Lord’s
resurrection. Let us ring the bells and have services as usual and leave the
matter in God’s hands.” The church bells rang out in the town, calling
people to Easter services.
12.
The French heard the bells too and
concluded that Austrian army reinforcements had arrived during the night. They
called off the attack, and the town was safe.
That is about the oddest circumstance I know in which people were saved
by going to church. Make no mistake, though: people are saved by going to
church all the time. Mighty and miraculous things happen when people hear
Christ’s Word. By the power of God’s
Word, David believed and won. Goliath, for his part, did not believe. He lost.
13.
Christ comes to you and to me in his
Word, in Baptism, in the Lord’s Supper, to fight and to win the victory over
unbelief. He sets our minds on the things that are above, not the things of
this world. Then we can look at tears and grief and say, “I can’t do anything about you. But Christ can. Christ did, and Christ
does.” We can look at our sin and guilt and say, “I can’t do anything about you. But Christ can. Christ did, and
Christ does.” We can look at anxiety and worry and say, “I can’t do anything about you. But Christ
can. Christ did, and Christ does.” We
can even look at death itself and say, “I
can’t do anything about you. But Christ can. Christ did, and Christ does.” God
wins the victory over death and unbelief for us in the risen Christ and through
the Good News of his resurrection. The
strife is o’er, the battle done, for Christ has fought and Christ has won. He
is risen! He is risen indeed.
Amen. Now the peace of God that passes all understanding guard your hearts
and minds in Christ Jesus until life everlasting. Amen.
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