The more I
travel to other countries, and the more I interact with the people there, the more
I am convinced that people are all the same. We may speak different languages,
celebrate different traditions, and experience different ways of life; but deep
down, in the very core of our being, we are really very much alike. I realized
this once again during my recent trip to northern Europe. Among the many things
I saw there were a several monuments honoring soldiers who were killed in
battle. One was a memorial in Gdansk, Poland that honored Poles who were killed
during World War II. Another was one in Tallin, Estonia. It also honored that
nation’s World War II dead. And a huge memorial in Copenhagen, Denmark
remembered Danish soldiers who died during World War I. You see – we’re all the
same. Every country honors the brave men and women who died defending their
country during wartime. We even say the same things about those men and women. We
call them “heroes,” and we bitterly grieve their loss. We mourn with their
parents and their spouses and their children who are left behind, and we call
their deaths tragedies.
But there is
one thing that we Christians should never say about those men and women who
died in battle: that their lives were wasted. I’ve heard that statement more
than once. When a young soldier just a few years out of high school returns
home in a flag-draped casket, and we hear the strains of “Taps” played at the
grave site, I sometimes hear people comment, “What a waste! He had all of his
life ahead of him.” We know what they mean. They consider the potential of that
young man or woman; and they mourn the loss of what might have been. He might
have become a prize-winning journalist. She might have become a great
statesman. Why, she might even have cured cancer! And now, since none of that
will ever come to pass, we are tempted to say that their lives were wasted. But
that’s not true. The lives of soldiers that have been sacrificed down through
the ages haven’t been wasted at all. No sacrifice is ever wasted in God’s eyes;
and no sacrifice can be greater than the gift of one’s life!
The greatest
sacrifice of all, of course, is the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, who willingly
gave up his life for all of us. That’s what Paul was talking about in the
portion of the letter to the Romans that you heard this morning (Romans
5:18-21; 6:8-9). I imagine that when Jesus taught that his followers that he
would be crucified, they thought that it was a waste. After all, Jesus had his
whole life ahead of him! Think of all the lepers that he could have healed, all
the outcasts he could have welcomed, all the people he could have taught about
God’s love! But none of that potential was realized, because he died on a cross.
In the eyes of the world, it surely looked like a waste. But we Christians know
the reality. Because Jesus did offer
himself as a sacrifice, he brought about a good much greater than just healing
lepers and welcoming fallen women. By sacrificing himself, Jesus defeated death
and opened the way to a life that, as Paul puts it, “goes on and on and on,
world without end.” By sacrificing himself, Jesus opened the way to
resurrection! A waste of a life? Of course not!
Now, no
fallen soldier can do what Jesus did. There was only one Jesus Christ. But
every sacrifice offered on behalf of others is a small part of Jesus’ great
sacrifice. And because that is true, it is also the case that every sacrifice
of ours helps to open the door to resurrection for other people just a little
bit more. That’s what Paul meant when he said, “If we get included in Christ’s
sin-conquering death, we also get included in his life-saving resurrection.”
Maybe you’ve never thought of that. Maybe you’ve never thought of personal
sacrifice as helping to open the way for someone else’s resurrection. But
that’s exactly what happens! Let me give you an example. Ask people in Normandy
who lived through the Allied invasion on D-Day how they feel about the soldiers
who sacrificed their lives for them. In particular, ask the folks who live in
Sainte Mere Église, the first
French town that was liberated on D-Day. The tears in their eyes, even to this
day, will tell you better than words how the sacrifices of those Allied soldiers
helped resurrect their community.
And it’s not
only fallen soldiers who can open the door to resurrection by their sacrifices.
People like you and me can do it, too, through the choices that we make as we live
our lives. Caregivers sacrifice their time and emotional energy to care for
others. And those others often have a quality of life that would be impossible
without them. Little resurrections, day in and day out. Food banks and soup
kitchens rely on the sacrifices of their donors to help feed the hungry. Those
sacrifices may not be large ones, but to the people whose empty stomachs are
filled, they are everything. And we certainly know that parents who are raising
children sacrifice all kinds of things – time, money, peace-of-mind, sleep… Many
of them wouldn’t call it a sacrifice, but that’s what it is. Every one of those
sacrifices is a little part of the great sacrifice of Jesus Christ! That’s our
job as Christians, after all: to join in Jesus’ sacrifice so that others might
experience resurrection in this life.
And so, as
we remember our fallen soldiers, we honor their sacrifice. I hope that, as you
pursue your Memorial Day plans this weekend – a cookout, a graduation party, or
a family reunion – you remember that many sacrifices, great and small, made all
of it possible. And as you breathe a prayer of thanks for all those sacrifices,
you might also offer thanks that you, too, are able to sacrifice for others –
and that no sacrifice is ever wasted.
