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
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