Besmirching the Honor of Jesus

On July 4th, we Americans celebrate our nation's founding and independence. During times of patriotic fervor, some will compare the sacrifice of soldiers with that of Christ - which is grossly inappropriate and an insult to our Lord Jesus.

War is often glamourized, but in fact it is a wicked and sinful enterprise, for it is violence and mass murder and cruelty and robbery writ large. When a people is attacked and invaded, it has a right to defend itself, but often wars are started based upon false claims of self-defense.

Oftentimes, a people who seek to defend their homes and their families will come out the tragic losers, because the strong usually attack the weak, leaving the weak at a disadvantage. That is what makes our own nation's fight to independence so miraculous: a weak people repulsed foreign armies which sought to rule over us.

We have not always lived up to the ideals of our founders, and we must be careful to avoid seeking after war and bloodshed. We ought to strive for peace if at all possible. George Washington warned us against meddling in the affairs of far-away nations.

Unfortunately, most lives of men lost on the battlefields of history were tragic wastes, victims of power-hungry monsters who sought to take and destroy.

Our Lord Jesus did not fall in battle. He did not die nobly fighting against our enemy in a military sense.

Rather, he laid down His life in obedience to the divine judgment we ought to have received.

Our Savior did not die to defend the innocent. Rather, He died to save the enemies of God, we who hated and disobeyed our Maker!

The nobility and honor of Christ far exceeds that of any patriot soldier!