“Tombs Of The Unknown Soldiers”
Text: 1 John 3:1-3
11-5-2023
In the name of Him who by His blood made us children of God, dear brothers and sisters in Christ. If you’ve never had the chance to visit the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington Cemetery you really should. It’s a very solemn and dignified memorial in honor of the soldiers and sailors who lost their lives in past wars but whose remains were never identified. Arlington had been a burial place for fallen warriors going all the way back to the Civil War. But Congress eventually approved the building of a beautiful, marble monument there to honor the dead from World War I whose identities were “unknown.” In 1921 the remains of one such serviceman were buried in that tomb. In 1937, a military guard was posted to prevent anyone from disrespecting the site. It seems they had a problem with families using the large marble slab of the tomb for their picnics! In later years, the guard was also there to prevent vandalism. Many of you are probably familiar with the pictures or video of the almost robotic soldiers who are on duty at the tomb 24/7 and 365 days a year.
On the west panel of the monument are inscribed the words: “Here rests in honored glory an American soldier known but to God.” However, in subsequent years that phrase became plural. Because in 1958, the remains of a soldier from World War II and Korea were added to the tomb. Then, in 1984, the remains of an unknown serviceman from the Vietnam War were laid to rest there. But not for long. You see, DNA testing became available and it allowed them to identify that soldier. He was no longer unknown so he was dug up and buried elsewhere by his family. For this reason, there will probably never be another addition to the tomb of the unknown soldier, because their identities are no longer only known to God.
Now technically that’s true. However, Arlington Cemetery is filled with the graves of over 400,000 unknown soldiers and sailors. Oh, if you walk up and down the myriad of rows of headstones, you’ll see names printed on them. But 99.9% of the people who see them haven’t got a clue who those people are and are therefore “unknown” to them. So in reality, those graves could all be labeled as “Tombs of the Unknown Soldiers.” And yet, that phrase on the west wall still stands true. Even if the majority of the world doesn’t know them, their identity is known by God.
We can take that a step further, though. Our private cemeteries are likewise filled with “Tombs of Unknown Soldiers.” I don’t specifically mean the ones who served in our military. Rather, I’m referring to the soldiers that we’ll sing about in the hymn, Onward Christian Soldiers. All the Saints of God are enlisted in His mighty army. The war they serve in isn’t written down in any history books, because it’s an ongoing battle against the devil, the evil world, and our sinful nature. There are no medals of valor or purple hearts awarded. Their graves look pretty much like all the rest. As a result, the majority of the world walks past their graves without recognizing that these are the tombs of Christian soldiers. But God knows each of these fallen saints personally! And really, that’s all that matters.
St. John writes about this in our Epistle lesson and he explains why our souls are not unknown to God. First and foremost, John says God has lavished us with His love by claiming us as His children. That’s a high honor.
But notice that God doesn’t just call us by this noble name. That alone won’t do us any good. No, verse 1 confidently says “and so we are!” That’s what happened in your Baptism. God made you His child and gave you His name. You are no longer just another unknown person, dead in your sin. God loves His children and so He redeems and saves them. Because of that, He intimately knows every last one of us.
There’s a powerful truth in that last statement that needs to be stressed in our day and age. Far too many Christians have fallen into the trap of believing that they’ll go to heaven because they know Jesus and have accepted Him as their personal Lord and Savior. But that’s backwards. A wise old theologian once said, “Don’t rejoice that you know Jesus. Rather, rejoice that Jesus knows you!” Don’t misunderstand, having faith in God for your salvation is essential. However, the point here is that He is taking the action and extending grace to you. He knows you as His child and creates faith within you so that you, in turn, can know Him. That’s the way it must flow. Otherwise, we drift into the ditch of synergism where we claim some of the credit for our righteousness and salvation.
John goes on in verse 1 to explain why we are unknown by the world. He says, “The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know Him.” It really should come as no surprise that the sinful world around us doesn’t acknowledge us as Christian soldiers. If they refuse to know God, why should we expect them to know His children? God has revealed Himself in various ways. His power is seen in nature. And He has clearly revealed Himself in His Holy Word. By the gift of faith, mankind can know God for who He really is. Sadly, though, many reject Him.
Like I said, if they refuse to know God why should we expect them to know His children? On the one hand it’s quite understandable why the world doesn’t know us as God’s beloved saints. When they look at us, they can’t physically see the robe of Christ’s righteousness that we’re wrapped in. They can’t visibly see the salvation that is ours through faith in Jesus. They can’t see the heavenly body that we’ll have in heaven. We look pretty much like any other human being walking on the face of this earth. That’s why John says that even though we are children of God, “what we will be has not yet appeared.” Christians can’t even see that right now, but we know and trust in these promises of God by faith.
However, there is another reason why the world around us may not know us as Christian soldiers. It’s a sobering and humbling reason for the saints of God. Not only do we physically look like all the rest of humanity, but at times we also act like the rest of our sinful world. Our words and our actions are not dramatically different than them. We gossip just as easily as anyone else. Cursing and foul language spill off our lips without hesitation or guilt. Sexual sins by Christians seem to be just as natural as it is for an unbeliever. And even if we’re not committing it, we’re silently condoning it by keeping our mouths shut. Without any shame but with plenty of excuses we neglect God’s call to worship Him. We steal and lie and hurt others physically and emotionally. When you look at it that way, is it any surprise that our world doesn’t know and recognize us as Christian soldiers and saints?
There is a solution to the problem and John points us to it in verse 3. He says, “Everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.” He’s talking about sanctification there, and sanctification is nothing less than the Holy Spirit working in us daily to purify us of our sins. It’s not a purification that we can do for ourselves. Rather, God must first convict us of our sins. He calls us to repent of them. When we do, He removes the guilt of all our sins by the forgiveness that Christ won for us on the cross. By the blood of Jesus, we are purified and made holy. We are sanctified to live once again as God’s beloved, chosen children. He leads us to live our lives in a way that pleases Him. In His work of sanctification, the Lord affirms for us that He truly knows and loves us.
That’s what really matters–that God knows you as one of His beloved saints. The more I think about it the more I like the idea of having a simple, 3-word epitaph on my tombstone: “Known By God.” 100 years from now I doubt that anybody will be able to say they knew me. The rest of the world will walk by my grave and I will be totally unknown to them. The same is also true for you. And that’s okay. Even though the world didn’t know us, the tombs of God’s saints are not filled with unknown people to Him. He knows each and every one of His children. And He has promised that on the Last Day He will raise up all believers and take us to His eternal home in heaven. There we will sing with the angels and all the blessed saints who have gone before us. We will sing praises to the Lamb of God and to the Father and the Holy Spirit. There, we will be blessed to know one another the way that God knows us. May the Lord keep us steadfast in the one true faith so that we may truly know Him as our Savior who has promised us eternal life in heaven with Him. Amen.
Soli Deo Gloria!