“The Wounded Warrior”
Isaiah 53:3-5 (READ)
When the Son of God came to earth, he surprised a lot of people. His life was marked by humility. He came as a baby, born in a manger. God’s son lying in a cattle stall. Royalty born in poverty. From the time he was born until the day he died, he was always doing things differently than people expected. He refused to follow the script. He was a man on a mission – but the mission was one few could understand.
Jesus Christ taught us how to love like no man has ever loved. He was full of compassion. He continuously extended grace when others were casting guilt. No one was hopeless. Every life mattered. He loved the prostitute as much as he loved the preacher. He said, “The Son of Man has come to seek and to save those who were lost.” And that is what he did. He sought ought the lonely. The hurting. The destitute. The forgotten ones. The guilty. The hopeless. The rejects of society. And his love transformed them. Everywhere he went, Jesus changed lives.
But his methods were unorthodox. People kept trying to squeeze him into a mold, and he was unwilling. He had obvious power. He could heal the sick. The deaf, the blind, the crippled, the diseased – it seemed his power was limitless. He performed miracles – he calmed a storm, turned water into wine, cast out demons – even raised the dead. But then he would confuse everyone after these awesome displays of power by saying things like, “The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.” He claimed to be the Messiah, but about the time you’d expect him to put on a crown and take the throne, he’d pick up a towel and a bowl and wash his disciple’s feet.
At what seemed to be the very height of his popularity, he rode into Jerusalem as the crowd shouted, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.” Just when it seemed his moment had arrived, he defied logic again, and a few days later the crowd was watching the “King of the Jews” hang on a Roman cross until he died. It seemed like such a waste. In many people’s minds, if Jesus could have just “gotten his act together” he could have been the leader they were all waiting for. Humility, love, and all this power. The Jews were looking for more power and less humility and love.
They wanted fewer parables and more politics. They didn’t want a Savior, they wanted a deliverer. They wanted a warrior; they got what seemed to be a wimp. He wouldn’t play by their rules, so they crucified him. They called him a blasphemer, put him on trial, beat him up, made fun of him for a couple of days and killed him. It was that simple. He didn’t even put up a fight. When they leveled false accusations against him, he kept his mouth shut. The man who had more power than any man who ever lived went to his death as if he were powerless.
What they didn’t realize was, that Jesus was fighting all the way to the cross. He was just fighting things no one could see. The cross was the most courageous display of power and love the world has ever known. Jesus Christ was no wimp. He died as the Wounded Warrior Isaiah the Prophet spoke about. When it looked like he had given up, he was really engaged in the Battle of the Ages. He did not hang on the cross in defeat, but in victory. The people standing around on Golgotha saw a dead religious leader whose followers had scattered, but the man who hung there was a Conqueror. The Savior of the World. The Redeemer. The Wounded Warrior who fought all the forces of hell for our freedom. Let me describe the details of the battle…
Jesus, the Warrior, went to battle long before he made his last fateful trip to Jerusalem. This was a war that began back at the manger when Satan used King Herod’s jealousy to kill all the first born children in the land. He knew that baby wrapped in swaddling clothes was God’s Warrior come to earth, and he tried to kill him right away. But God was one step ahead and through a dream, He helped his son escape into Egypt until the threat had ended. The War had begun.
Satan’s next strategy was to come after Jesus after he had fasted in the desert for 40 days. In this weakened physical condition, Satan came and 3 times tried to defeat Jesus. Each time, Jesus, the Warrior, looked Satan right in the eyes and answered the challenge, until the devil was forced to leave in frustration. The tension was mounting. The battle was getting more intense. Jesus’ earthly ministry had begun.
As Jesus moved from town to town ministering to the needs of the people, he seemed from a human standpoint, to be nothing more than a traveling preacher with his followers. But in the spiritual realm, he was a man continuously at war. Satan sent the Pharisees and the Scribes to try and trick him. Trap after trap was set. A deceiver was sent to infiltrate the ranks of those closest to Jesus. Judas became an undercover agent for the enemy forces. Satan was laying out a well-conceived plan where Judas would betray his Master into the hands of the enemy.
Jesus, the Warrior, didn’t budge. It may have seemed to those who watched him that Jesus was vulnerable and weak, but from a spiritual standpoint, he was making every demon in hell tremble on a daily basis. One of Satan’s favorite side effects from sin’s entrance into God’s perfect world was sickness and disease. Jesus showed with every healing that he had power over every form of sickness and disease. When Jesus came to town, the blind could see, the deaf could hear, the leper was cleansed, and the crippled would leap for joy.
The Warrior would walk right into the enemies’ camp and set captives free! Free from sin. Free from the past. Free to start a new life. “Neither do I condemn you, go and sin no more!” Demons would shriek and cry out for mercy when God’s Warrior came near. He could command legions of demons to leave and they had no choice but to obey. They were powerless against him. Even death, that last great enemy was unable to stop him. When he would speak, the dead would live again! Everything Satan tried was useless. Jesus, The Warrior was a one-man army against the forces of hell. But all this was just the prelude to the final battle.
As Jesus and his disciples made their final approach towards Jerusalem, God’s Warrior knew he was headed for a bloody war. He could see it coming. He talked about it often. He said, Luke 18:31-33 - “We are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written by the prophets about the Son of Man will be fulfilled. He will be handed over to the Gentiles. They will mock him, insult him, spit on him, whip him and kill him. On the third day he will rise again.” Centuries, he had waited for this moment. He knew what was coming. For the 33 years of his life one earth, he was headed for this conflict. He wasn’t backing down. He was ready.
The triumphant ride into Jerusalem was a sham. A fleeting moment of glory. An effort to get him to let his guard down. He knew it. He didn’t fall for it. Satan was gathering every force of hell against him. He could feel it. A few nights later, he shared his last meal with his followers and marched off to war.
In the Garden, The Warrior experienced a heaviness like he had never known. He sweat drops of blood as he considered the battle and the pain that lay just ahead of him. He had never been afraid of the Powers of Darkness, but he had never gone into a battle so hopelessly outnumbered with so much at stake. The Warrior prayed to his Father for the strength to do what must be done.
Suddenly, there was the sound of soldier’s feet and in the light of the torches, Judas appeared. With a kiss, Judas betrayed him as the demons inside him hissed their approval. Jesus refused to resist arrest and was led away into the night. Satanic forces were at work all around the city. The crowd was stirred into an evil frenzy. Before Pilate and Herod, The Warrior stood silent as false accusations were leveled against him. Hatred and prejudice against this man was getting out of hand. Things quickly turned violent.
About this time, something started happening that no one else could see. The Bible tells us that the Roman guards blindfolded Jesus and began to beat him, asking, “Prophesy! Who hit you?” They started spitting on him, insulting him. They pulled out chunks of his beard. They jammed a crown of thorns into his skull. They took him to the whipping post, and tore his back to shreds with a cat-o-nine-tails. Those are the historical facts written down for us to read. Here are the spiritual facts:
When they hit Jesus, they were hitting him for you.
When they spit on him, it was because of you.
When they insulted him and pulled out his beard, it was meant for you.
The Wounded Warrior went to battle for you.
Hell came at him with everything in its arsenal. Someone hit him and jerked out bits of his beard because someone someday in a drunken stupor hit you. It’s called abuse. Jesus knows what it feels like. Someone spit on him and called him a series of nasty names – including racial slurs – because evil men with hate in their hearts would do the same later to the black man or to Jews and others. It’s called prejudice. Jesus knows what it feels like.
When they whipped him, he felt much more than the 39 stripes they tore into his back. He began to feel sickness like you or I have never known. With every lash came a series of illnesses. Cancer, emphysema, AIDS, Muscular Dystrophy, Spinal Biffata, sugar diabetes, multiple sclerosis, liver disease, kidney disease, heart disease, asthma, blindness, leprosy, malaria, the bubonic plague, hardening of the arteries….those pieces of bone and glass on that cat-o-nine-tails would rip into his flesh, and Satan would spread more infection throughout Jesus’ body. And The Wounded Warrior was willing to take it for you and for me.
The Satanic crowd cried out, “Crucify Him!” and The Wounded Warrior was sentenced to die. They took him out into the streets, stripped him, and forced him to carry the heavy crossbeam across his bloody shoulders. That’s what you could see. What you couldn’t see was the weight of sin he picked up with it. The Bible says, “he carried our infirmities….the punishment that brought us peace was upon him…the Lord laid on him the iniquities of us all.”
The demons could smell blood. They could see The Warrior was getting weaker. So they attacked relentlessly. They hit him with murder. They pushed him to the ground with rape, incest and lies. Drunkenness and drug overdose were heaped on his back. Abortion, adultery, prostitution, homosexuality – every sin you can think of was added to the weight. He carried much more than the crossbeam. He carried the weight of the sins of the world on his shoulders. Remember how you felt when you were weighted down by the guilt of your sin. Now, multiply that guilt and shame times every man and woman who would ever live. That’s what Jesus carried. He was a Wounded Warrior.
He was fighting for our freedom. Bleeding, gasping for air, lightheaded from loss of blood, The Wounded Warrior stumbled down the Via Dolorosa until he was too weak to stand. Someone was pulled out of the crowd to carry the crossbeam the rest of the way to Golgotha. All the while thousands upon thousands of angel warriors watched and waited for a signal. They were ready to stand at his side and defeat the forces of evil. But that signal never came. The Wounded Warrior had to fight alone.
He was laid out on the cross. Large spikes were driven through his hands and feet into the wood. The cross was raised and then dropped rudely into the ground with a jerk that pulled at his flesh. He screamed in agony. Blood was everywhere. He could barely breathe. He was gasping for air. Naked and shamed. Bruised and bleeding. Pierced for your sins. Dying in your place. Hell was howling with laughter. Satan was giving the order for every blow. The crowd was mocking. The Wounded Warrior was dying.
They say the sky grew black and the hillside ominously still just before it happened. It was a pitiful sight. He had taken upon himself everything the devil could throw at him. Every sickness. Every sin. Every blow had been for a reason. Every stripe on his back, every drop of blood…there was a purpose for it all. The Wounded Warrior fought off death until he knew the price was paid. When the deed was done, the Bible says Jesus lifted up his eyes toward heaven and let out a war cry that reverberated all the way to heaven. It seemed like an admission of defeat but it was really a victory cry. The Wounded Warrior summoned his last ounce of strength and shouted, “It is finished!” And he died.
Imagine what it must have been like to be all-powerful and do nothing. Jesus knew that the only way to win was to allow these things to happen. He could have stopped it at any moment. He could have fought back and sent those demons running. “He could have called ten thousand angels but he died alone, for you and me.” It was love for you and me that kept The Wounded Warrior on the cross when everything within him wanted to come down and fight. But he knew he had to die in our place as a sinless sacrifice. Only by dying could he win a victory once and for all over sin.
“He was wounded for our transgression, he was bruised for iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his stripes we are healed.”
Have you met The Wounded Warrior?
“The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”
He died for you. Are you willing to live for him? Every day, all around the world, men and women hear the story of The Wounded Warrior for the first time – and their lives are changed forever. What about you? You’ve heard very clearly this morning, what Jesus did for you. The question is, how will you respond to what you know? He fought for your right to be free of sin. He laid down his life for you. You have a decision to make. Will you come to God through faith in Christ, or will you reject The Wounded Warrior and assume your sins can be forgiven by some other method?
Jesus said, “I am the way the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but by me.”
Listen, if there were an alternative way to God, Jesus would not have done what he did. If salvation could come any other way, you wouldn’t have seen Jesus dying on the cross. People want to invent their own methods of salvation. If you’re planning on going to God’s heaven, then you’d better play by God’s rules. You know what God said, “There is no other name, under heaven, whereby you must be saved.” When you stand before God one day, he’s going to want to know one thing: Did you bow your knee to The Wounded Warrior during your lifetime.
INVITATION
COMMUNION
It wasn’t until his death that Jesus Christ truly went to war against Satan. He descended into hell. Walked right into the enemy’s camp and set all the prisoners free. He took the keys of death, hell and the grave. He blew the lid of off the tomb and walked out alive on the third day. The Wounded Warrior walked out shouting, “Where, O death is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” Satan had been defeated. The church was born. The Gospel was carried into all the world. Jesus Christ lives forevermore! And one day he’s coming back again as a Mighty Warrior, dressed for battle.
Let me read about it. (READ Revelation 19:11-16).
The Wounded Warrior will come again to the earth, not as the suffering Savior, but as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Woe to any man who’s not on his side at that time!
