Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.
–John 15:13
On the last Monday of May, America pauses. Flags fly at half-staff. Wreaths are laid at granite headstones in places like Arlington, Normandy, in small-town cemeteries, and on foreign soil halfway around the world. We call it Memorial Day, and we mean it as a tribute. But how do you adequately honor a man who left his family and never came home? You cannot. But Jesus did, and He calls it the greatest love.
These words from John 15 were spoken in the upper room, on the night before the cross. Jesus was not speaking abstractly. He was describing what He was about to do. He was about to walk out into the darkness of Gethsemane, stand before a kangaroo court, and carry a cross up a hill called Golgotha for people who did not deserve it. He was defining love not as sentiment but as sacrifice. The greatest love is not what you feel. It is what you do. It is the price you are willing to pay.
There is a reason why soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines understand sacrifice in a way that cuts through the noise. When you put on the uniform, you sign a blank check payable to the United States of America, up to and including your life. Most who serve never have that check cashed. But those we remember on Memorial Day did. They gave everything. And for those of us who remain, who enjoy freedom of speech and worship, we owe them a debt that can never be fully repaid. The least we can do is remember.
But here is what Memorial Day must also do for the Christian: it must drive us back to the cross. Because as noble as the soldier’s sacrifice is, there is a greater love still. Jesus did not die merely for His friends. He died for His enemies. He died for the ungrateful, the rebellious, the prodigal, and the proud. He died for you. He died for me. The soldier lays down his life so his countrymen might live free. Christ laid down His life so that sinners might live forever.
This Memorial Day, shake the hand of a veteran, fly the flag, and pray for those and the families of those who are ready to show the greatest love. And then, in the quiet, get on your knees and thank God for two altars of sacrifice: the ones marked with white crosses in military cemeteries around the world and the one on a hill outside Jerusalem where the Son of God laid down His life for you. Both deserve your gratitude. One demands your response.
TODAY, REMEMBER THE FALLEN, HONOR THE SACRIFICE, AND NEVER FORGET THE CROSS THAT PURCHASED YOUR ETERNAL FREEDOM.
