the ultimate sacrifice

Last week while in Hawai’i, we took a tour of the memorial in Pearl Harbor to the crew of the USS Arizona.  It is a beautiful and moving tribute to the over 1,000 men who made the ultimate sacrifice, among the first American casualties in World War II.  As we walked quietly over the submerged remains of the ship that became the permanent resting place of those sailors, I reflected on all the others who died in all eras so that we could live freely.  On behalf of a grateful nation, I thank them. 

Because the next day was Good Friday, my thoughts quickly turned to another sacrifice:  the one who knew no sin and became sin for our sake. (II Corinthians 5:21) In Christ, God was reconciling us to himself.  But there are differences between the sacrifice of the Pearl Harbor victims and Jesus.  First, the sailors on the Arizona never saw their imminent death approaching, whereas Jesus did, and knew that for this very purpose he had been born.  Second, the deaths of those on the Arizona actually catapulted the United States into a worldwide conflict, but the death of Jesus was to reconcile a world at war with God, to a loving father who would give all for a relationship free of enmity.  And the deaths of those on the Arizona has had to be repeated all too often to give our country and world the opportunity for freedom, whereas Jesus’ death once and for all provided us with personal access to God and an opportunity to be his ambassadors of reconciliation to a hurting world. 

One way that these sacrifices are alike is that freedom is never free.  Someone must pay the ultimate price.  December 7, 1941 was “a date that will live in infamy”.  But Good Friday is good because a good God gave his good son that we might celebrate a good and glorious future on Easter.

The Lord is risen indeed!  Hallelujah! 

Love, Liz

“He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for him who died for them and rose again.”  II Corinthians 5:15