“Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God. Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceedingly glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.” (Matthew 5:3-12).
As Y’shua of Nazareth was set on the mountainside, he opened His mouth and invited all who had gathered to embrace the path of the warrior. In this teaching, known as the Beatitudes, our Master describes the code of service exemplified by the samurai of Japan in their service to their emperor. Rectitude, courage, benevolence, politeness, veracity, honor and loyalty are all at the heart of the Gospel message proclaimed by the Warrior who had come to serve mankind. The warrior ethic is one of service. Since we are bond-servants of the Master we must take on the mantle of warrior servant. As we look at the tenets of the warrior ethic of Japan, we see each and every one perfected in our Master. We also see the template for how we are to serve the Master and how we are to serve each other.
“The warrior must always bear in mind his moral duty. A good heart and the faith of a warrior are like the two wheels of a carriage. The faith, the moral duty of a warrior, which is called giri, is described as even at the cost of your life and your family, holding to the good, not yielding to the strong; this deep faith is what makes the warrior.”[1]
Rectitude, or duty, is at the core of the warrior’s essence. As warriors, we have taken on the mantle of service. Because this service has been taken on voluntarily, we have the responsibility of seeing our service through to the end, whatever the circumstances. After the baptism of our Master, He went into the wilderness to fast and pray for forty days. At the end of the forty days, when He was hungry and thirsting, the adversary came to tempt Him. Satan appealed to His flesh by challenging Him to turn stones into bread, to throw Himself down from a high place to see if His Father in heaven would send His angels to save Him, and finally, offering to give Him the throne of every earthly kingdom if He would but throw Himself down and worship Satan. With each temptation our Master recited the written Word, rebuking Satan, reminding him that His duty was to His Father in heaven. He would carry out His duty knowing precisely what the end would entail.
“Courage was scarcely deemed worthy to be counted among virtues, unless it was exercised in the cause of Righteousness.”[2]
After His final Passover Seder with His disciples, our Master went to Gethsemane to pray. After asking Peter and the sons of Zebedee to keep watch and pray with Him, He went and poured out His spirit to the Father asking that the cup of redemption be taken from Him. After seeing that the three that came with Him had fallen asleep, He returned to prayer and, accepting the will of the Father, He embraced with courage the fate which awaited Him: “behold, the hour is at hand, and the son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us get going: behold, he is at hand that doth betray me.”[3]
“Love, magnanimity, affection for others, sympathy and pity, were ever recognized to be supreme virtues, the highest of all the attributes of the human soul.”[4]
In Matthew chapter nine verse eleven; the Pharisees approach the disciples and ask them why their Master eats with publicans and sinners. Our Master’s response speaks to the heart of all that would serve Him: “They that are whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”[5] Our Masters ministry was one of service to the outcast. Those that were downtrodden, infirmed or cast out were neglected by the very people who were supposed to care and minister to them.
“Politeness is activated by tender feelings toward the sensibilities of others. Weep with those who weep; rejoice with those who rejoice.”[6]
We see politeness acted out of love in the response of our Master after the death of His friend Lazarus. In John chapter eleven, Y’shua returned to Bethany after He received news that Lazarus had died. When He arrived at Bethany He saw Mary, who had anointed His feet with ointment and wiped His feet with her hair, weeping along with the Jews that were with her. Seeing this troubled Him and He groaned in the spirit. He wept. Even though Lazarus’ death occurred so that He may show all present that He was indeed sent from the Father, He still grieved for, and with, the family.
“According to the code of Bushido, lying was deemed cowardly. As such it was regarded as dishonorable. Indeed, the word of a samurai guaranteed the truthfulness of an assertion. Usually no oath was necessary.”[7]
The words proceeding from our mouths come from our hearts. If we do not have truth in our hearts then truth will not flow from our mouths. The Elohim of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob commanded the Israelites to swear and make vows in His name.[8] In time however these vows were broken because man had returned to the bondage of sin. Again, our Master came to burden us with a lighter yoke. In Matthew chapter five, verses thirty-three to thirty-seven, our Master tells us that although it has been said of old that we should not swear by ourselves but by the Lord, we should not swear at all. Neither by heaven, for it is Elohim’s throne: nor by the earth, for it is His footstool. We are not to swear by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King, or by our own heads because we can not make one hair white or black. Rather, we are to let our communication be yes or no, anything more than that comes from evil.
“The young novice was often asked, Are you not ashamed? The sense of shame was regarded as one of the earliest indications of moral consciousness. Disobedience to a code or to a superior produced feelings of guilt and shame.”[9]
In our Masters own words He did not come to receive honor from men, but honor from His Father in heaven. His mission in this world was specifically laid out by the Father. The honor that He received came not from men but from His obedience to the Father: “I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me” (John 5:30). Repeatedly, He told those that questioned His authority that He was only doing the works that the Father had sent Him to do. He was obedient to His Father in heaven, which in turn gave Him honor from man.
“A samurai was obliged to appeal to the intelligence and conscience of his sovereign by demonstrating the sincerity of his words with the shedding of his own blood.”[10]
The greatest measure of loyalty is the laying down of your life for that which you serve. Y’shua of Nazareth knew the mission that was set before him. As the scriptures foretold, His life was to be a sacrifice, to die a hideous death for a creation that did not deserve to be saved. Knowing this, our Master endured to the end and faithfully served the One who had sent Him. In His teachings to those that would follow Him, our Master told of a similar fate that was in store for many that heeded His call. However, those that would be loyal and endure to the end would be saved.
We see in the life of our Master the essence of the warrior code. Call to duty, courage, mercy, love, truthfulness, honor and loyalty. As we search the scriptures we see the warrior ethic exemplified by the many saints who went before us. And as we shall see, when the Master returns, He will return as a warrior.
[1] George Sansom, “A History of Japan to 1334” (Stanford University Press, 1999), 367.
[2] Inazo Nitobe, “Bushido: The Warrior’s Code” (Ohara Publications, 1979), 28.
[3] Matthew 26:45-46.
[4] Inazo Nitobe, “Bushido: The Soul of Japan” (Tuttle Publishing, 1969), 36.
[5] Matthew 9:12-13.
[6] Inazo Nitobe, “Bushido: The Warrior’s Code” (Ohara Publications, 1979), 37.
[7] Inazo Nitobe, “Bushido: The Warrior’s Code” (Ohara Publications, 1979), 43.
[8] Deuteronomy 10:20.
[9] Inazo Nitobe, “Bushido: The Warrior’s Code” (Ohara Publications, 1979), 49.
[10] Inazo Nitobe, “Bushido: The Warrior’s Code” (Ohara Publications, 1979), 56.
Ephraimite Warrior 