A Good Friday Remembrance
At noontime today, Good Friday, Don and I worshipped in church in remembrance of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. As I sat next to Don, we sang about the cross and Calvary, prayed as Pastor Bjork led and listened with some 600 churchgoers. As we participated in the Holy Communion, my thoughts led me to an experience I had in the now distant past when I was a young 22-year-old teacher. I reprint it from the Christian Standard, published January 28, 2001, Standard Publishing, Cincinnati, OH.
MEDITATION
Many years ago, one of my students in the Christian high school where I taught in southern Philippines almost gave his life for me. One night two men, attempting to harm me, schemed to use my young student to lure me out of the teachers’ dormitory where I stayed. They were unsuccessful in their plot, however. Frustrated, they assaulted the young man, beating him up until he passed out. They left him on the trail to the dorm, giving him up for dead.
When I visited my young student the following day, I saw what it cost him to protect me. To my dying day, the image of his battered body will stay with me. What the young man did became news all over town. A national Christian magazine published an article about him. They wrote of his friendship, his commitment to his teacher, and his extraordinary loyalty that almost cost him his life.
To be willing to die for one’s friend is indeed exceptional; but far more awesome is the willingness of One to give up His life for His enemies. That is what we were before we knew Christ. Jesus’ love for us, His willingness to die on the cross in our stead, His sacrifice for our sin – these are all beyond our comprehension.
As we come to the Lord’s table, we are reminded that He paid a dear price for us, not because we deserve it, but because of His great love for us. Paul writes, “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:6-8 NIV)
In the epic World War II film, “Saving Private Ryan (1998), Army Captain and Ranger John Miller (Tom Hanks) lies dying on the battlefield from gunshot wounds, as Private James Ryan (Matt Damon) looks on in horror and grief. Miller pulls Ryan close and exhorts him with his dying breaths, saying, “Earn this! Earn it!”[1]
My simplistic mind asks how does one earn his salvation from death? Probably, living one’s redeemed life in a productive and circumspect manner worthy of the redeemer’s sacrifice? How does one do that? I am forever in debt to my young student for what he did for me, but he never asked of me to earn what he did for me. Neither does Jesus Christ, my Savior. He knows I can never earn it. There is nothing I can do to pay Him back for what He suffered on the cross for me. The Apostle Paul, said so, too. “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.” Ephesians 2:8-9 (NIV)
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