HONORING THE ULTIMATE SACRIFICE

Honoring the Ultimate Sacrifice, Normandy

Black Friday, Jerusalem

 We’re once again immersed in this season of Lent leading up to Black Friday afternoon and Easter Sunday morning.  I was drawn to the realization of the same raw emotions I experienced regarding the sacrifice of Christ for all mankind on that cruel Roman cross plus the beginning and ending scenes of the movie, Saving Private Ryan, in the midst of thousands of white crosses.  It’s the first time that I’ve made the connection and it happened while I was preparing a study of three of Christ’s parables as told in the gospel of Luke.  The common theme of these parables is “lifting up the lowly”.  These parables involved a Pharisee and tax collector praying, a destitute prodigal son returning, and a rich man and poor man dying.

John 15:12-13 quotes Christ in making the connection that “My command is this: that you love one another as I have loved you.  There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”  The movie poignantly opens and closes with an elderly Private James Ryan and his family at the Normandy Military Cemetery.  He is paying his respects to Captain Miller who lost his life saving Ryan’s.  His dying words were “James, earn this, earn it!”  Standing alone at the gravesite, Ryan says “Every day I think about what you said to me that day on the bridge and I’ve tried to live my life the best I could.  I hope that was enough.”  When Ryan’s wife gently approaches, he begged her to “Tell me I’m a good man” and his wife immediately replies “You are.”

Christ’s message for us in the parables is to honor his sacrifice with a life well lived in service to others, especially those huddled masses that cannot help themselves or are shunned by others.  That also was Captain Miller’s final command to a young Private Ryan as he reflected back upon a life well lived, while daily honoring the men who sacrificed their lives for him.

https://youtu.be/IZgoufN99n8

EARN IT

Merci, Normandy, France
Uncle Lewis, Emporia, KS

Our Memorial message this past Sunday included a reflection back on the final scenes from the movie “Saving Private Ryan”. A small squad led by Captain John Miller had been ordered to find the last surviving son of a family so that he could be sent back home from the Normandy invasion. The dialog in those final scenes stirred up my curiosity enough to review them again last night. I fast forwarded to the final gruesome battle scenes when the soldiers were defending both Private James Ryan and a strategic bridge from the advancing German Nazis. The action was intense and gut wrenching, although I’m certain nothing Hollywood can create could come close to the horrors of actual combat.

Captain Miller was mortally wounded as the tide turned in favor of the American troops when reinforcements arrived at a the bridge. Captain Miller beckoned Private Ryan close. He whispered with his dying breath, “James…earn this. Earn it”. Those two words were obviously seared on Private Ryan’s heart for all eternity. The camera then focuses on his face which morphs into that of an aging veteran standing in the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial many years later. It’s one of those hallowed places you encounter in Europe upon cresting a hill to discover that all the memorial markers were set in place at the same time and aligned in perfect rows. There’s no mistaking their origin and there are not too many locations in America like them with the exception of Civil War battlefields in the East.

Like so many other veterans before him, Ryan has returned to honor his fallen comrades and specifically the man who gave his life so that he would live. His family is standing in the background, giving him space. When Ryan’s wife approaches him, he turns to her and asks “Did I live a good life? Am I a good man”? He desperately needs his wife’s affirmation because he deeply understands the ultimate price that has been paid. She quietly responds, “You are”. That poignant exchange choked me up as much as any experience in my life, perhaps because I had just finished my lesson plans to teach a session on Jesus’ final week on this planet. He made the ultimate sacrifice for all of us so that we may have eternal life. My Uncle Lewis served in the medical corps in WWII and tragically lost his life at the all too young age of twenty nine. I too should be living my life to honor their sacrifice. God gave all of us the priceless gift of life. And how we live it is our gift to him. Earn it.