Wafts of hot dogs, burgers, chicken, steaks, and other yummies fill the air in neighborhood after neighborhood throughout our cities, country-sides, mountain tops, beaches, and everywhere we can gather to honor and remember those who gave their lives defending our country. Whether male or female, rich, poor, or a regular average Joe, this a day to pay our respects to them all. Yes, we may go ‘all out’ in our get-togethers, parties, or gatherings eating and sharing stories, but deep in the hearts of most Americans, we acknowledge the great price paid for our freedom by those we knew or have heard of.
Some of our boys returned home in great shape, some injured, some with medals of honor and courage while others only with medals of stress, tension, fear, valiant stories as well tales of horror which no one but those who experienced them could know. The term “War is hell” was a common one in the 1960’s from those who battled in Viet Nam.
Two centuries ago, a man lived and died a brutal death. Instead of hundreds of thousands of men dying for peace and freedom, only one man died hundreds of thousands of deaths (all at once) for all humanity. He suffered and experienced what every human who ever lived and will live was guilty of. He fought your battles and mine. He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities, and the punishment of our sins was laid upon Him, and with His stripes/wounds we are healed (Isaiah 53:6).
Even hundreds of years before His birth, God had instructed His people Israel to honor Him by holding special memorial days to reflect on God, His goodness, and His faithfulness.
In Exodus 12:14, God writes: “And this day shall be unto you for a memorial; and you shall keep it a feast to the LORD throughout your generations; you shall keep it a feast by an ordinance forever.” God instructed His people to follow a mandate that foreshadowed the coming of Jesus, the Messiah. Following it proved their belief in Him and in His word. Striking the blood of a perfect lamb on their homes’ two side doorposts and on the upper lintel spoke of Christ, the perfect lamb’s shed blood for all humanity. Today, make time to honor not only the men and women who spilled their blood and laid their lives for our freedom, but honor and remember Jesus who shed His blood and laid His life for all humanity. He did so for His undeserved creation: We punished Him and nailed Him to a cross. He returned from the toughest war ever: The War for the Souls of Men to share His story of triumph over sin, sickness, Satan, and over death. In fact, while many cried that war is hell, Jesus actually descended into it; to the pit of darkness and stripped Satan of his power. He holds the keys of life and death (Revelations 1:18. He made a spectacle of Satan and his fallen angels. Today He holds the highest medals of honor any man can ever aspire to: The Son of God, The Almighty, The Lamb of God (who takes away the sins of the world), and The Great I Am, among hundreds of others. So, eat and celebrate. Read His story. Share His story around the grill, around the campfire.