Battle Plan: Symbol of Victory

A young man kneels before his king. The king looks down on him solemnly, raises a sword, then brings it down. Tap. One shoulder, with the flat of the blade. Tap. The other shoulder. The newly made knight rises, and the king hands him the sword. It is a symbol of his pride. A symbol of his honor. It is a symbol of his power and authority and strength and skill and wealth. It is who he is, and who he represents. It is not just a weapon at his side. It is central to his identity as a knight.

Take away his fine clothing. Let his beard grow and his hair be unwashed. Put him in a shabby cloak and mudstained boots. When you see his sword, you know he is man of worth. Of integrity. Of chivalry. A righter of wrongs, a lover of justice, and a man who will always treat others with dignity and respect.

It’s a fine picture. It makes for good books, good movies, good TV. It makes for good heroes. But in the real world?

The knight is fallen. The sword is stained. Sin has poisoned the man through and through.

Power corrupts. We see its devastation on the news every day.

Strength is abused. Ask anyone who has been harmed or intimidated by someone larger.

Authority becomes domination. Who can be put in charge of others and not feel the heady desire to flex that muscle and make his will be done?

Skill leads to pride. We preen under the compliments of others and always seek more.

Wealth is too easily loved, and love of wealth always leads to evil.

Honor is quickly cast aside behind closed doors and windows. We might say we live with integrity, but when no one is there to see our actions, how easily we reach for whatever we want, no matter how sinful.

The man who loves control can’t control himself around the bottle.

The man who claims he is honest finds ways to cheat the system.

The man who claims to respect women degrades them in his own mind and on his computer screen.

Knights can carry swords stained with evil. And we carry guilt from sins just as wretched. We are, as the writer says, “dead in our transgressions and sins.” Corpses shambling about the earth, ignorant of the flesh sloughing off our bones.

The knight who has done wrong, when found out, will be put to death with his own sword.

But Jesus.

Jesus comes and takes the bloody, sin-stained swords from our hands. He takes all the violence we have committed, all the abuse we have doled out. All our attempts to dominate he disarms; all our pride he tears from our hearts; all our poisonous love he cures, and all our shameful acts he drapes around himself. And then he kneels before the King and takes the stroke.

Jesus takes our guilt and punishment. And he calls us to be his own.

He calls us to carry a symbol. Not a sword. Not a symbol of power, strength, authority, skill, wealth, status, honor. But a symbol of weakness, humiliation, failure, pain, defeat and shame.

A cross.

The cross proves there is always someone more powerful. Someone you cannot stand up to. All your strength fades; everything you have to offer turns to dust before the one who can nail you to a beam and let you hang there until you can’t breathe any longer.

You’ve felt the cross. In the flashing red and blue lights. In the email from your boss that says, “We need to talk.” In the letter from the IRS. In the sentence handed down from the judge. In the message from the spouse that says, “You’ve hurt me for the last time.” In the face of a parent asking, “What have you done?” In the bad news from the doctor that says disease and death are unbeatable foes. In the haunting voice of the devil himself, saying, “You know what you’ve done. You know who you are. You will never be loved. Guilty. Guilty. Guilty.” The cross says weakness and shame and defeat.

But Jesus.

Jesus turns the cross into a symbol of victory. “Having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.”

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By the cross, Jesus has eliminated sin.

By the cross, Jesus has crushed Satan.

By the cross, Jesus has destroyed death.

Jesus, who had all the power – and used it to carry our guilt. Jesus, who had all the authority – and used it to claim us as his own. Jesus, who had all the skill – and used it to take on death. Jesus, who had all the wealth – and emptied himself to give us eternal riches. Jesus, who had all the status – but humbled himself to die as a man. Jesus, who is worthy of all honor – but endured the shame of the cross for us.

And Jesus calls us now to lay down our swords – all this world would call beautiful and valuable and strong – and take up the symbol of the cross. The symbol of our victory.