Pentecost 7, 2011
“War and Peace”
Zechariah 9:9-12
Matthew 10:34-42
Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
“Well, Prince, so Genoa and Lucca are now just family estates of the Buonapartes. But I warn you, if you don’t tell me that this means war, if you still try to defend the infamies and horrors perpetrated by that Antichrist—I really believe he is Antichrist—I will have nothing more to do with you....” With these words starts the novel “War and Peace” by Leo Tolstoy.
Throughout this novel by Tolstoy are the constant themes of the Napoleonic War with the peace the aristocracy of Russia enjoy as they gather for social events. War and Peace…these opposites exist in our own lives today and are also found throughout Scripture from Old Testament times through the End of the World.
War and Peace. They don’t seem to go hand in hand…but that is very much what the world is like. War is something that we see happening somewhere else. It is something we as Americans are very detached from. Even during the Civil War the aristocracy went out to watch the Battle of Bull Run. The people didn’t think of war in all of its terribleness but soon had to flee as gunfire and artillery came to them. Today isn’t much different. Instead of riding horses or taking a carriage to the battlefield we turn on the TV and watch as Reporters stream videos of battles in far away places to our own home.
War is all around us. Listen again to the Gospel text from last Sunday. “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn “‘a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law— a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.’” (Matthew 10:34-36)
Yes…we know all too much about war. We have felt the pain of husbands and wives fighting and divorcing. We have seen the conflict between children and their parents. How sad it is that we can watch the news and see Parents killing their children and Children murdering their parents. How horrible it is to watch the news and see Parents kill their estranged families and then themselves. What an atrocity it is to count the number of unborn children murdered by abortion or the elderly killed because they can’t contribute to society anymore. To see war…we don’t have to watch the news. We can walk into our living rooms and see it just fine! War isn’t just something done in far away places. War exists in our own homes. The truth is that we know much more about war than we do about peace.
We wonder why our Lord would come not “to bring peace, but a sword?” (Matthew 10:34) Christ came to defeat sin, death, and the devil. Satan will not be defeated quietly. Sin is overcome by death. The warfare that Scripture speaks about is physical but it is also spiritual. All of the warfare that happens in our families and outside of our families is due to sin. Sin is at the heart of it all. Yes, Jesus came to overcome sin…but sin, death, and Satan had to be defeated. There is no peace without a Savior dying on the cross...and there is no value to the cross without a death. There is no peace through the cross without warfare with sin, death, and the devil…a battle that Jesus won.
Through warfare there is peace. Jesus died on the cross and was raised by the Father. The war has been won! But then where is this peace? Where is the peace that is described in our Old Testament lesson? “Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. I will take away the chariots from Ephraim and the war-horses from Jerusalem, and the battle bow will be broken. He will proclaim peace to the nations. His rule will extend from sea to sea and from the River to the ends of the earth. As for you, because of the blood of my covenant with you, I will free your prisoners from the waterless pit. Return to your fortress, O prisoners of hope; even now I announce that I will restore twice as much to you.” (Zechariah 9:9-12)
This peace is found in only one person…in Christ Jesus. As Isaiah wrote of old “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” (Isaiah 9:6) Jesus did not come to bring peace but is the Prince of Peace. Jesus came to battle and defeat sin, death, and Satan once and for all. Through this warfare comes the peace of God.
Though we continue to battle with sin, death, and the devil we also have peace through Jesus. Though we feel the burdens of this sinful world we are refreshed by the Prince of Peace through His body and blood. While sin continues to plague this world we look forward to a new world in heaven free from sin; free from death; free from Satan.
Saint Augustine wrote: “Our soul was created by and exists for God and is therefore never quiet till it rests in God. It is with a person’s soul as with Noah’s dove in the Deluge. The dove, after it left the ark, found no rest for the sole of its foot in the world till it returned to the place from which it had come. So there is no sure rest for the fallen soul in the world till it returns to Him from whom it came.”
Only in Christ do we have rest. Only in Christ do we have peace. While we live in this sinful world we have War and we have Peace. We are continually at war with our very own sin and Satan and yet we have Peace in Christ. Here in this place we are given respite from the world. Here in this place we receive forgivness from our sin and strength to overcome sin. Here in this place we have peace that surpassess all human understanding as we are lifted to heaven in worship.
My brothers and sisters in Christ. The war has been won by Christ. As we continue to battle sin and Satan look to Christ who says, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28) Look to the cross for comfort. See Jesus in the bread and wine; body and blood of the Lord’s Supper and “Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation.” (Zechariah 9:9) He comes to you now in the Lord’s Supper. He comes to you on the last day with healing on His wings. Then you the Church Militant shall be the Church Triumphant for all eternity. Amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all human understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior. Amen.
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