EASTER 2010
Great Victories
We all know stories of great battles through the centuries where kings and armies and heroes won honour and fame. Some of these are victories are legendary and involve great ingenuity. We love the stories of underdogs and the outnumbered getting victory over the bigger more powerful sides. If the underdog and outnumbered side are the good guys and they beat the big bad guys we love it all the more.
The great and unexpected victories are especially worthy of mention. One is the Japanese defeating the invading Mongol army in 1281, the second is the Greeks defeat of the Trojans around 2000BC.
and the third is the daily victory of personal adversity that is seen in the personal lives of thousands of people every day.
The Japanese victory is this. Approximately 40,000 troops from North China and 100,000 troops from South China were transported in two huge invasion fleets that met and converged on the Japanese island of Kyushu. But, fortunately for the Japanese, a colossal typhoon hit the coast, sinking many of the Mongol vessels. About one half of the troops perished or were captured, while those who managed to survive fled back to the Chinese mainland. It was as if the typhoon had appeared because of the prayers of Japan’s religious leaders. It is little wonder that the grateful Japanese termed this particular tempest Kamikaze or "divine wind." They were powerless in the face of so great an enemy and so they turned to God
The Greek victory is this. After ten years of endless battle on the plain outside the city of Troy they came up with the famous strategy of building a giant horse. They built the horse during the night, filled it with soldiers, left it on the beach near the city of Troy and sailed away and hid several miles away. The Trojans saw the horse and thought it was a sign from the Gods that the Greeks has given up and gone home. They pulled the horse into their city and locked the gates and had a big victory party. Early the next morning the Greek soldiers crept out of the horse, opened the city gate and their army swarmed in. What seemed like a victory for the Trojans turned into a victory for the Greeks. The victory was the result of detailed planning over some time and the turning point happened in the quiet of the night from inside a giant wooden horse.
Turning to God to achieve victory was the Jewish way of fighting battles too. The Jewish way was to let God win the battle for you. The great Jewish battles which were God’s battles were
- Moses and the liberation of the Jews from slavery in Egypt
- Joshua and the fall of the walls of Jericho
- and Gideon’s battle against Midianites and Amalekites.
In all these examples God defeated the enemies of the Jews but there was another battle being fought. The other battle was the battle of the Jewish people to overcome their fear and to allow themselves to trust God to win for them.
How do these great military victories relate to the great theme of Easter?
In the death of Jesus and his resurrection we see a massive victory over the power of evil and indeed the most important victory that has ever been achieved. Moreover, the great victories just mentioned happened because the people realised that they didn’t have the power to win themselves and had to rely on God and/or fate. They did what they could do and then waited in silence trusting that all would turn out well.
Jesus lived his life knowing that that God had a mission for him to achieve and his words and actions demonstrated this. He refused to follow the usual strategies for winning the battle he had to fight – armies, horses and weapons – in any case they were useless in the battle he had to fight. Jesus’ fight was against human nature and against the demonic power of evil.
The battle against the power of evil required Jesus to surrender to the powers he battled against. He willingly and silently handed himself over to the Jewish police, the Roman soldiers, the judgement of Governor Pilate and the soldiers with the hammers and nails. Just like the outnumbered and powerless Japanese army, and the outnumbered and weaponless armies of the Jews who turned to prayer so Jesus handed his life and the situation into God’s care and waited for the outcome.
His dead body was then handed over to his friends who put it into a tomb and sealed it up. Just like the Greek soldiers who were locked into the wooden horse by their friends and then put into the enemy camp so Jesus inside the tomb was totally within the camp of the enemy, death.
The battle on Good Friday when Jesus was nailed to the cross and killed seemed to have been won by the people who betrayed Jesus, who judged against him and who killed him. It seemed to have been won by death and evil’s power. All that the battle achieved was to kill one man. The real battle on Good Friday however was Jesus over himself. He had to face fear, the temptation to retaliate, the temptation to run away. He faced them and defeated them – he was brave, he prayed God’s forgiveness on those who killed him and he willingly stayed and walked with the cross rather than avoiding the situation.
The battle was also won by God in the tomb in the quiet of the evening of Sunday. Just when it seemed that evil and death had won the battle, God breathed life back into Jesus and he walked out of the tomb as the sun came up. That’s the way that God works when there are battles to be won and huge changes to be made. God works quietly and patiently. God’s victory over the power of evil and death on Easter Sunday was a long time in the making. God had his strategy worked out ages ago and it came to it’s climax in the life of Jesus. In the quiet stillness of Mary’s womb at Christmas and in the quiet stillness of the tomb at Easter God’s long plan was fulfilled.
So, appreciate the victory God in Jesus has won for the world and for you. For us the victory at Easter means we can share the benefits – forgiveness of sins, ongoing life after the death of our bodies and an eternal future in fellowship with God and those others who have accepted the benefits of victory. HAPPY EASTER
Bishop Doug 