After Easter
Some reflections on the Monday after
Yesterday for our Easter Sunrise service I had an Army Ranger speak. And it reminded me of this…
Saving Private Ryan is the story of some Army Rangers who went in just after the Normandy Beach invasion of World War II to try and extract a paratrooper with the 101st Airborne somewhere in Normandy - a Private James Ryan.
Ryan was the fourth of four brothers - three of which had already given their lives in the war and Gen. George Marshall wanted to prevent Ryan's death that the loss might not be total for the family.
Captain John Miller (the Tom Hanks character) who led the 7-man squad to save the Private lay dying at the end of the film, and in a gripping scene looks up at the saved Private Ryan and says “Earn this.” Most of the squad, including the Hanks character, had died to save Ryan. So... "James...earn this. Earn this."
The last scene of the film shows an anguished and elderly Ryan now visiting Miller's grave and asking his surrounding wife and family with great emotion and tears, “Have I lived a good life…Am I a good man?” He had lived in agony all these years with those words "Earn this" ringing in his ears.
I have read a couple of accounts by Rangers in the last few years (not the least, Charles Colson) doubting that Miller would have ever said "Earn this" in such a scenario. Those two words would, indeed, cause anguish and soul questioning but, alas, the Ranger motto would have been much more appropriate for the moment.
For the U.S. Ranger motto is..."Sua sponte" - I chose this.
Jesus, from the cross, knows full well we could never earn a worthy life. The blood of Christ - what a price! - how could we ever earn that?
No, Jesus' death is much more grace-giving than that. The spirit of the moment seems much more in line with "I chose this…of my own accord, voluntarily, in pain and agony...sua sponte. For you."
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Acts 1:18 says that "With the payment he received for his wickedness, Judas bought a field; there he fell headlong, his body burst open and all his intestines spilled out."
Judas was "a man who has been subjected great tension - the pull of Jesus Christ (the prophetic message of the Gospel) and the pull of Caiaphas the high priest. The pull of this professional religious establishment and the pull of this prophetic Gospel pulled the man in two and broke him. His body symbolized what had already happened to his spirit. Judas was what we might call a busted gut Christian. And let me tell you his number is legion." (Clarence Jordan, The Substance of Faith)
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Christian comedian Brad Stine weighed in on the gay marriage debate with this insightful line:
"Guys want to marry guys? Cowards."