Greater Love

When you think of Jesus Christ, what do you think about?

I think about someone who is constant, compassionate, capable of great joy, whose greatest defining characteristic is the love He has for others. I think of someone kind, loyal, dependable, and obedient. I think of someone protective, teachable, wise, and honest.

But I also think of someone misunderstood, chastised, hated, and suffering. I think of someone who needs solitude, who struggles under many burdens, who chose pain as the path for His life.

"Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." John 15:13

"He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows; and acquainted with grief; and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not... But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed." Isaiah 53: 3, 5.

With the advent of this Memorial Day weekend, I want to reflect on others who made a similar sacrifice to that of the Redeemer of the World.

There are thousands who laid down their lives for their friends -- countrymen, comrades, and citizens.

There are thousands who were despised and rejected for that sacrifice, brave men and women who are not remembered, not honored, and not respected for the pain and trauma they experienced on behalf of others.

There are thousands who bear constant sorrow for the loss of a brother, father, sister, son, daughter, or friend.

There are millions who look away or, like the priest on the road to Jericho, pass to the other side instead of stopping to help the man by the wayside, because they are too uncomfortable to face suffering.

From small things.

There are soldiers who do not get esteem for what they have done. There are men lying in forgotten graves, men who were never recovered, men who are still missing in action after seventy years.

But they were wounded. They were bruised. And most importantly, the chastisement of our peace was upon them. They allowed their personal peace to by assaulted so that countless others could live without experiencing that same pain. Often with their personal wounds, free countries can be healed from the threat of war, from natural disasters, from oppression, and from pride.

The ultimate gift we receive from Christ is peace and healing. He can fix what we cannot fix, repair what we personally broke, stand between us and our enemies, taking blows so that we do not have to suffer them. There will come a day when that peace will heal the world.

Until that time, there are good people who go forward, willing to lay down their lives for their friends.