Jesu Juva
“The Armor of God”
Text: Ephesians 6:10-20; Mark 7:14-23; Psalm 51 (Introit)
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.
Most people know of the story of David and Goliath. They know of the story. But they don’t know the story. What they know is the little guy beats the big guy. And that has become a well-known image in our world today. David beats Goliath. The underdog wins. The winless team beats the undefeated team. The small neighborhood store beats the big national chain.
But there is much more to this story than that. Because this is not really a story about the little guy winning, as it has become known and used in our world today. It is about God fighting for His people, and faith in God, that He will do so.
And so an important part of this story is that when David insisted on going out to fight Goliath, and King Saul finally gave in, Saul put his armor on David - a helmet of bronze, a coat of mail, and a sword. But David had never worn armor before and couldn’t fight like that, with all that on him. It wouldn’t work. So He went with a different kind of armor to protect him - the armor of faith. Faith that God would fight for Him and protect Him. Something the armor of this world would not and could not do. So David tells Goliath: I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand (1 Samuel 17). And the Lord did. You know the rest of the story.
So, armor. What armor are you wearing? How are you trying to protect yourself? So you don’t get hurt. So your secrets and sins don’t get out. So the sins of others don’t get in. So you’re not vulnerable. We all do it. Put up walls, defenses. Armor. We try to be strong. We try to protect ourselves. We try to save ourselves.
That’s what we heard last week in the Gospel, with the Pharisees and their traditions and laws. They thought that by doing all the right things in the right ways, and even more, they could protect themselves and save themselves. Keep sin out. Keep sin at bay. Keep themselves pure. The traditions and laws were their armor against the Goliath of sin and evil.
And we see this kind of thinking still today, with the religions of the world, like Islam. That with the right laws, with the right traditions, with the right armor, they can save themselves. So, for example, with Islam, according to their law, Sharia law, women have to wear a burqa, a head to toe covering of their bodies, sometimes even with a mesh covering their eyes. This is so men will not look at them perversely; so there will be no lust in their heart. But it doesn’t work. You may remember when Osama Bin Laden was killed and the military was going through the things in his house looking for intelligence, they found a trove of pornography. He couldn’t keep that sin out.
And Jesus today tells us why that is; why this kind of armor doesn’t work. After sparring with the Pharisees, as we heard last week, He continues today with His teaching on this. He says, basically, that it’s not what’s outside of us that’s the problem, because sin and evil are already inside you, in your heart. If your house is infested with termites, you can stop more termites from coming in, but the ones already in are going to eat your house apart. If you have a computer virus, you can stop other viruses from infecting your computer, but you still have to deal with the one that’s already there. So it is with the human heart, Jesus says. The sin is already there. Therefore all the armor, walls, and defenses you put up don’t work. Watching pornography doesn’t make you lust; this lust already in your heart makes you watch pornography. Stealing doesn’t make you greedy; the greed already in your heart makes you steal. Disobeying your parents doesn’t make you rebellious; the rebellious nature already in your heart makes you disobey. All of which is to say, it’s not your sinful deeds that make you sinful; it’s your sinful heart, your sinful nature that produces and shows itself in sinful deeds.
And so, Jesus said today, What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person. This is also why something like monasticism doesn’t work. Monasticism isn’t wrong, per se, but it also doesn’t make you holy. You can take a vow of silence and still think evil thoughts. You can take a vow of poverty yet still think of money and wish you had more. You can take a vow of chastity and still lust and have impure thoughts. You can be alone and still hate.
The armor David tried to wear, the armor of the laws and traditions of the Pharisees, the the burqas of Islam, the walls of a monastery - none of it works. None of these are inherently bad, but they cannot cleanse the heart. We need a different kind of armor, the armor David did go into battle with - the armor of God. Because as Paul said, this is a different kind of battle. A spiritual battle. Even the battle with Goliath was a spiritual battle. And we need to think that way today. That, as Paul said, we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. The battle is greater than we think. So are the stakes: eternal life or eternal death.
So Paul describes different armor and different weapons for us today: truth, righteousness, the gospel of peace, faith, salvation, the Word of God, and prayer. These are things that may not look very strong or seem very powerful, but only if we are thinking of the battle wrong. But these are the very things satan fears. Your walls, your armor, your strength, your efforts - he loves those! Those are a joke! He can get around them and over them and under them and through them easily. You know it. He has for you. But the weapons and armor of God are his kryptonite.
So, Paul says, Put on the whole armor of God. Or another way to say that is: put on Jesus. He is the armor of God. He is the truth, He is the righteousness of God, He has made peace for us with God, He is the object of faith, He is the salvation of the world, the Word of God incarnate, and the one who prayed for us and through whom we now pray. We are clothed - armored! - with Christ when we are baptized (Galatians 3:27). And when we are baptized our hearts are cleansed and the Spirit given to us. When we repent we are again washed, not outwardly but inwardly. And the Body and Blood of Christ are that food that are not eaten and expelled, but that nourish us and work in us to expel the sin and evil that live in us. This is the armor we need. These are the weapons that win. Just ask Goliath. Oh wait, you can’t!
So let’s ask David instead. Yes, he’s dead, but we heard from him today, in the Introit, from Psalm 51, the psalm he wrote after his adulterous and murderous affair with Uriah the Hittite’s wife. David slew Goliath, that was great! But later, the sin and evil in his heart slew him. And when God showed him that sin and evil in his heart, just as Jesus talked about today, it crushed him. It brought David to his knees, and he prayed (as we sang): Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. He was desperately sinful and unclean, and only God could rescue him, save him, make something of him, create in him something from nothing. Because when God creates, it’s always from nothing. We can’t do it, but God can.
And God did. Yes, for David, but even more, for all people. That’s what the cross is all about. On the sixth day, God had finished His creation; and on the sixth day, a Friday we call good, Jesus finished His work of atonement and re-creation. It is finished, He said. And then just as in the beginning, He rested on the seventh day, in the tomb. But then something new happened. Things didn’t just go back to the way they were; start over. Jesus did something new, different. He rose from the grave and started a whole new day, an eighth day, the day of eternity. The day of new creation. The day of forgiveness, life, and salvation.
That new day came for David when after confessing his sin to Nathan, the prophet God had sent him, he heard words of absolution; that God was not going to strike him dead, but had put away his sin. And with that, the great boulder of sin that had been crushing him had been removed. He could breath and live again. Yes, he could cover up his sin, but he couldn’t get away from it. He needed something else. The cleansing of God and the armor of God for his heart.
And you and me, too. Sometimes we do a pretty good job at covering up and hiding our sin from others, but it’s still there, isn’t it? It stick in our minds, it nags the conscience, it drags us down, makes us afraid, and if left alone, in the end, will crush us. We need the cleansing of God and the armor of God. We need Jesus! Jesus to be crushed for our sin to atone for it so it doesn’t crush us, Jesus to be raised to new life to break open the grave we fear, and Jesus to speak to us those words of absolution to cleanse us from our sin and raise us to a new life in Him.
But it’s not one and done. Our sins are like the weeds in my garden - I pull them all but they keep coming back! And we keep needing forgiveness so that the good plants and good fruits and good works planted by Jesus can grow and flourish. The armor of God is for every day. My baptism isn’t past tense but present tense. I AM baptized, that’s who I am. And so I return to my baptism everyday, and repent of how I have not lived as who I am. And the promises of baptism are for everyday, the forgiveness of my sins and the life of the Spirit. And the Gospel is for everyday, the words of God through which the Spirit works in me. And the Body and Blood of Jesus, though received once a week, nourish me all through the week. And with these, the truth and righteousness and peace and faith and salvation and Word and prayer of Jesus lives in me and I in Him. The whole armor and strength of God for me. Given by grace through faith.
So what are the Goliaths in your life? What sins, what regrets, what challenges, what sorrows, what fears? And they’re big, aren't they? And they’re strong, aren't they? And you want to be David, and go up against them and win! But they’re big and strong and fearsome . . .
But remember how David did that. Remember what armor he wore. It wasn’t his bravery, it wasn’t his strength, it wasn’t his ability - it was his faith. His faith that God would fight for him. His faith that God would win. It wasn’t the little guy beats the big guy. It’s that God won. And He did - not just with a headless giant, but with an open, empty tomb. That’s the strength we need. That’s the armor we need. That cleanses sinful, fearful hearts. That makes saints out of sinners. The armor of God. For bodies and souls. For life now, and for life forever.
In the Name of the Father, and of the (+) Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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