Veterans' Day 2014

Veterans’ Day 2014
Pastor’s Theme Interpretation

THE COMMON THREAD:  PAYMENT IN BLOOD

Heb. 9:22,  “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.”

Two soldiers were in the news in the last month.   First Lieutenant Alonzo Cushing and marine Cpl. Jordan Spears were both in the news.  First Lieutenant Cushing received the Medal of Honor posthumously, and Cpl. Spears family received notice that there son died in exercises related to the fight against the Islamic State.  They share much in common.  Both were exemplary soldiers.  Both were only in their early twenties, Cushing 22 and Spears 21.  Both lost their lives defending their country they love.  They did not share the same war.  1^st Lieutenant Cushing died in the Civil War battle of Gettysburg.  Spears died in the fight against ISIS.  They died about the same age, but 151 years apart.   Many soldiers, sailors, and airmen have died in many wars in between the Civil War and our current war against terror.  And, many more will die defending our freedoms until Jesus comes again.  Freedom is never secure, except for the security afforded it by brave men and women of the armed forces.  In order for you to enjoy the freedom you have to be here today, “somebody had to die”—many, in fact millions, have paid for your freedom and mine with a check signed in their blood.  Men, like Alonzo Cushing and Jordan Spears, have been charging bayonets, falling on grenades, and taking enemy fire in hellish, hopeless fire fights with little concern for their own survival.  These are ordinary men and women who do the extraordinary in the course of doing their job.  I can barely fathom such acts of sacrifice.  Jesus said that such heroism is the highest example of love.  Jesus said, “No one has greater love than this, that someone would lay down his life for his friend”  (Jn. 15:13).  So, as we contemplate the significance of this day we call Veterans’ Day, let us be reminded that in order for us to have “political freedom,” a SOLDIER HAS TO DIE.

Now, if the story ended here, we the self-less sacrifice of soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines, it would be a story that merits our most heartfelt gratitude.  I mean, how are you ever really going to say thank you to the thousands, and millions of young men and women who died in your place?  One day a year will never suffice to repay the debt we owe.

The story does not end there, however.  We owe an even greater debt that we need to be mindful of this Veterans’s Day.  We owe an “eternal debt.”  As with political freedom a soldier has to die, in order for us to have “eternal, spiritual” freedom a Savior has to die.  Seven hundred years before Jesus Christ was born, Isaiah prophesied in regard to the mission of the Savior.  He said,

The Spirit of the Lord God is on Me, because the Lord has anointed Me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent Me to heal  the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and freedom to the prisoners (Isa. 61:1)

Our nation has faced many tyrants from Hitler and Stalin in Europe, to Communist dictators in Viet Nam, to the multiple tyrannical maniacs in the Middle East.  These tyrants were all the same—only the names were changed.  They all sought to oppress and imprison those they ruled.  People became prisoners in their own land.  So evil is the reign of a tyrant that men and women gave their lives to set others free.  Jesus did the same thing, but in an infinitely more important way.  The tyrant Jesus set us free from is not a man or a manifest, but it is sin.  Sin holds a person’s soul captive as surely as the prison camps of Japan, Korea, or Viet Nam held our soldiers captive.  Jesus died to “set us free for all eternity.”  Just as our political freedom must be paid in blood, so our eternal freedom was paid in the blood of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.  The Bible tells us,

Heb. 9:22,  “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.”

It is a great thing, beyond description, to live with the freedoms we enjoy in this great country called, the United States.  There is a greater freedom, that exceedingly surpasses our ability to describe it, and that is the freedom we have through the shed blood of Jesus Christ.  What good is it for a man to live in this great country, enjoying our great freedom, but to spend eternity in hell as a “prisoner of war” in the death camp of Satan?  For me, that is what Veterans’s Day is really about.  True freedom is more than being free politically.  True freedom is being free eternally!  And, for eternal freedom, “A Savior had to die,” and that Savior is the Lord Jesus Christ.

There is one more issue we must link together in order to truly appreciate what Veterans’ Day really means.  For our political freedom a “soldier had to die.”  For our eternal freedom, “the Savior had to die.”  But, there is one more death that must occur, or freedom both here and now and for eternity will elude us.  For us to be truly free, “Our Self has to die.”  This is where the principle of freedom really finds completeness.  The Bible tells us,

Lk. 9:23  If anyone wants to come with  Me, he must deny himself,  take up his cross daily,  and follow Me.  ²⁴ For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life because of Me will save it.

What do great military heroes all have in common.  It can be described in one word:  “selflessness.”  When a marine in Viet Nam jumped on a grenade to save his platoon, he can only do so by forgetting himself.  As long as we think more of our own safety and comfort, we will never be the kind of soldiers that make heroes.  That is true on the battlefield, it is also true in the spiritual battle of life.  We will never become “heroes of the faith” if we think more of our own comforts, pleasures, and desires.  In order to be truly free, our “self” must die. 

There are not enough hours in this whole Veterans’ Day weekend to recount the self-less actions of all the American heroes who have worn, and are wearing, the uniforms of the Armed Services.  But, let me give you just one example of a selfless act that represents the essence of a veteran’s service.  Cpl. Jason L. Dunham is one such veteran.  While serving as Rifle Squad Leader, 4th Platoon, Company K, Third Battalion, Seventh Marines (Reinforced), Regimental Combat Team 7, First Marine Division (Reinforced), on 14 April 2004. Corporal Dunham's squad was conducting a reconnaissance mission in the town of Karabilah, Iraq, when they heard rocket-propelled grenade and small arms fire erupt approximately two kilometers to the west. Corporal Dunham led his Combined Anti-Armor Team towards the engagement to provide fire support to their Battalion Commander's convoy, which had been ambushed as it was traveling to Camp Husaybah. As Corporal Dunham and his Marines advanced, they quickly began to receive enemy fire. Corporal Dunham ordered his squad to dismount their vehicles and led one of his fire teams on foot several blocks south of the ambushed convoy. Discovering seven Iraqi vehicles in a column attempting to depart, Corporal Dunham and his team stopped the vehicles to search them for weapons. As they approached the vehicles, an insurgent leaped out and attacked Corporal Dunham. Corporal Dunham wrestled the insurgent to the ground and in the ensuing struggle saw the insurgent release a grenade. Corporal Dunham immediately alerted his fellow Marines to the threat. Aware of the imminent danger and without hesitation, Corporal Dunham covered the grenade with his helmet and body, bearing the brunt of the explosion and shielding his Marines from the blast. In an ultimate and selfless act of bravery in which he was mortally wounded, he saved the lives of at least two fellow Marines.

The price of freedom has not changed since the dawn of time.  In order for us to be politically free, a soldier has to die.  In order for us to be eternally free, the Savior had to die.  In order for us to live to the full extent of our purpose and possibilities, our self has to die.

Freedom’s price is always paid in blood—the blood of a soldier, sailor, airman, or marine pays for our political freedom.  The blood of Our Savior Jesus Christ pays for our eternal freedom.

That is the connection in our service today.   It weaves in and out of everything we will do today.  May God impress upon us the importance of understanding what it means to be free. 

Freedom is not free.  In order for anyone to be free, “Someone Has to Die.”  We owe a debt to brave soldiers, and even a greater debt to Our Beloved Savior.

Veterans’ Day is a great day to give some thought on what it means to be truly free.

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