I have been stunned afresh by the compassion, love, and ministry of Jesus Christ this past week as I have prepared tomorrow’s message on Luke 15.  I don’t know much about Steve Harvey, but saw this about six months ago, and love it.  Oh to cheer for Jesus!

We are in a new series at Calvary Community Church called The Good News.  Last week we spent time in the message in John 4.  The next three weeks (or so, we’ll see how God leads) will be in Luke 15.  I am blown away by the love of Jesus for the lost.  It is stunning, convicting, and beautiful, all at the same time, how much he goes after people who do not know him, that they might know him, believe in him, and be saved by him to the glory of the Father.

Why don’t we look more like him in this way?  Think of what joy is in store in the sharing of Jesus with others, and seeing their lives changed.  Maybe it has been so long since it has happened for you, since you’ve seen it, since you’ve heard it, you’ve forgotten how beautiful that salvation is.

I just became aware of a new website called I Am Second.  I share at a little risk, because I am not fully aware of its aims, but I want to post here two videos from the site.  They are stories of people you may know because they are in the entertainment industry.  They are telling of how Jesus – sometimes radically and sometimes surprisingly, humorously – changed their lives, and the direction of their lives.  Their stories are beautiful.  I pray that all of us would want to hear more of them, so that we would weep for joy, and rejoice.

Luke 15: 5-7   And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. 6 And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ 7 Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.

Memorial (noun).

Something, such as a monument or holiday, intended to celebrate or honor the memory of a person or an event.

I was reading 1 Chronicles in my communion time this morning.  It struck me, on this day, that this was the intention of the Chronicler – a memorial of sorts.  He wanted, and he wanted his audience, to remember.  He encouraged Israel, he recalled their history, their former kings David and Solomon.  He recounted the glorious reality of being the chosen people of the God of the universe.  He writes celebrating and honoring the sovereign purposes of GOD.

I must admit that I am not good at this in connection with this day, Memorial Day.  I am convicted of being a chronological snob.  Of not being a good student of history.  Of not remembering well.

My grandfather, Gene Mount, is still alive.  He served in World War II.  I remember asking him, a number of years ago when our whole family was together, to share some memories of the war with my children.  He spoke for just a couple of minutes.  It is difficult to get him to speak about the war, because I think it is painful for him to recall those memories.  This is one tiny yet weighty example that there is a very real, and very human, cost to the life that I now live in this country.  It would be good for me to remember that.  It would be good for my children to remember that, and they will not know unless Susan and I teach them.

This day began as part of our history because of a vivid connection to slavery and freedom.  Wikipedia records:

According to Professor David Blight of the Yale University History Department, the first memorial day was observed on May 1, 1865 by liberated slaves at the Washington Race Course (today the location of Hampton Park) in Charleston, South Carolina. The site had been used as a temporary Confederate prison camp as well as a mass grave for Union soldiers who died in captivity. The freed slaves disinterred the dead Union soldiers from the mass grave to be inhumed properly reposed with individual graves, built a fence around the graveyard with an entry arch, declaring it a Union graveyard. On May 30, 1868, the freed slaves returned to the graveyard with flowers they had picked from the countryside and decorated the individual gravesites, thereby creating the first Decoration Day. Thousands of freed blacks and Union soldiers paraded from the area, followed by much patriotic singing and a picnic.

Isn’t that stunning?  Those who received the priceless gift of freedom marched with those who fought to provide it, celebrating and honoring the cost and sacrifice of what had been purchased for them.  This is good, right, and honorable.  And it is a pointer to something far grander.

I know you’ve seen, heard, and read this connection before, but I am going to make it anyway.  I’m not trying to be trite, but I want to push this idea of memorial even higher.  I want to remember that this kind of human sacrifice for freedom is an echo to the kind of sacrifice that Jesus made for us.  The picture in John 8 is so similar to the picture from Wikipedia:

John 8.34 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. 35 The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. 36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

Do you see?  We were slaves.  Our bondage was not like that of those at the time of the Civil War, our bondage was spiritual, with eternal consequences.  Slaves to sin, and therefore all of its rightful judgment.  But Jesus came to set us free forevermore.  His power is without question.  If he sets us free, we are free indeed.  This is worth remembering, worth commemorating, worth celebrating!

On this Memorial Day I think we can do both.  It is worth celebrating what immensely brave soldiers have done to purchase civil liberties for all of us here in America, and in many other countries.  And, it is worth celebrating and proclaiming what Jesus has done to give us freedom to glory in his presence for an eternity.

Do both today – with your children, your friends, and your families.