THE LORD HAS TRIUMPHED GLORIOUSLY.
M: Alleluia! Christ is risen!
Cong:
He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
In the name + of Jesus.
One of the criticisms lodged against Christianity is that our God is bloodthirsty, violent, and murderous. He destroyed the world in the Flood. He ordered the slaughter of the Canaanite nations. He commanded that Israel stone its adulterers, psychics, and false prophets. The argument concludes, “If that is what your God is like, then I want no part of him!”
Our Old
Testament lesson seems to reinforce that image.
Not only did the Lord act violently in slaying the Egyptian army, the
Israelites took up instruments and sang rousing songs of praise about it. Then Moses and the people of Israel sang this song to the LORD, saying, “I will sing
to the LORD, for he has triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider he has
thrown into the sea” (Exodus 15:1).
This was a violent battle and, in fact, a
massacre. The Egyptian army was utterly
wiped out. Israel sustained no
fatalities or even wounds. There is no
need to apologize for the Lord. Our Lord
is a bloodthirsty God, and he acts violently as he slays his enemies. But if you want to be saved, then it has to
be this way. The Lord has triumphed
gloriously; his victory is absolute and undisputed.
The
Lord's violence against Pharaoh and his army came about because God has a
fierce loyalty to his promises. God had
promised Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that salvation would come through them. God promised to give their descendants the
Promised Land and to preserve them until the Savior came. The Egyptians had other plans for Israel. They were cheap labor. Sure, they had to be coaxed with threats and
whips, but they would build the glory of Pharaoh and Egypt. After the Passover slaughter of their
firstborn, the Egyptians begged the Israelites to leave. But then they had a change of heart. So, Pharaoh ordered the greatest army on
earth to pursue the Israelites.
The Egyptians were not going to ask
politely for Israel's return or to negotiate a labor contract. They were not going to play nice. “The enemy said, ‘I will pursue, I will
overtake, I will divide the spoil, my desire shall have its fill of them. I will draw my sword; my hand shall destroy
them’” (Exodus 15:9). This was a
bloodthirsty enemy, devoted to acts of violence, oppression, and murder. Whoever was not slaughtered by Egyptian
swords would be captives of the Egyptian empire and assumed into Egyptian
culture. It would not just be the loss
of a nation, but the end of God's promise.
But the Lord is fiercely loyal to his
promise of the Messiah. To attack the
promise is to attack the Lord. So, the
Lord acted decisively and destroyed those who threatened his promise. “Pharaoh's chariots and his host he cast
into the sea, and his chosen officers were sunk in the Red Sea. The floods covered them; they went down into
the depths like a stone. Your right
hand, O LORD, glorious in power, your right hand, O LORD, shatters the enemy”
(Exodus 15:4-6). The Lord has triumphed
gloriously. He has defended his promise. He has preserved the salvation of
mankind. If you want to be saved, this
is the way it has to be.
Our songs today are even more robust than
what the Israelites sang. Easter is the
celebration after a bloody, violent battle.
In this battle, it was winner take all, leaving no survivors. Either life wins, or death wins. Our songs ring out because Jesus came out
alive. Indeed, it was a massacre. If you want to be saved, then it has to be this
way. The Lord has triumphed gloriously;
his victory is absolute and undisputed.
If there is joy in having a bloodthirsty,
violent, murderous God, you have to recognize your enemies for what they
are. Every one of us is tormented and
terrorized by sin, death, and the devil.
Sin is not polite. It wounds your
conscience, scars you with shame and regret, and finally condemns you. Death does not negotiate with you. It seizes everyone. The devil does not play nice, and he never
will. He entices you to seize what you
want no matter what God says about it. Then
he accuses you, buries you with guilt, and damns you for the very things he
convinced you were good. These are
bloodthirsty, violent, and murderous enemies who drag their captives down to
hell for everlasting torment. They
boast, “I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil, … my hand
shall destroy them’” (Exodus 15:9), and no one can escape them.
If you want to be rescued from your
enemies and delivered from their deadly grip, then they must be killed
off. No treaties. Not even a cease fire. They must be slain, never to rise again. So, for us fights the Valiant One whom God
himself elected. God took on our flesh
in order to deliver our flesh from sin, death, and the devil. This man, Jesus, single-handedly faced the enemy
to deliver you out of your captivity to your enemies. The enemies drew blood and inflicted wounds
on Jesus. Your bloodthirsty God poured
out his blood for you. Jesus willingly
threw your sins upon himself and threw himself into death for you. He let Satan do his worst, and Satan
delivered the death blow to Jesus.
But now, Jesus is risen! By his resurrection, Jesus has left sin for
dead. Because of Jesus' resurrection,
death is now a corpse. By his
resurrection, Jesus crushed the Serpent’s head, and a dead serpent is no threat. It was a bloody, violent, and deadly battle,
but Jesus lives as the victor. All your
enemies lie slaughtered and massacred.
Today, the sounds on the battlefield are joyful songs of victory and
praise. If you want to be saved, then it
has to be this way. The Lord has
triumphed gloriously; his victory is absolute and undisputed.
The Lord has triumphed gloriously. And Jesus makes this victory yours through baptism. Just as the enemies of Israel were drowned in
the waters of the Red Sea, so your enemies were drowned in the waters of
baptism. For, this is what the Lord
says: “Do you not know that
all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into
his death? We
were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just
as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too
might walk in newness of life.” (Romans 6:3,4). In your baptism, you have been freed from your
enemies. For, baptism connects you to
Jesus who saves you. Your
enemies have been killed—violently and definitively slain by the Lord who lives
and reigns forever. He lives and reigns
for you, and you shall now live and reign forever with him. For, the Lord has triumphed gloriously.
Therefore, let your hymns of praise be sung out with gusto and gratitude. Do not apologize for our Lord's bloody battle or the violent slaughter of your enemies. If that is what your God is like, then he has saved you completely. The Lord has triumphed gloriously; his victory is absolute and undisputed. So, we paraphrase the song of Moses and rejoice in our Easter victory: “I will sing to the LORD, for he has triumphed gloriously; sin, death, and the devil he has drowned in the waters. The LORD is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation; this 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, paraphrase).
In the name of the Father and of the Son + and of the Holy
Spirit. Amen.
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