What Does the Bible Say About Memorial Day?
Memorial Day weekend is here, and while the holiday is popularly seen as the unofficial start of the summer holiday season, it's always meant to be a somber reminder that freedom comes at great cost, especially for the brave men and women who die serving in the armed forces. It's always a good opportunity to open the Bible and look up some verses to help commemorate their sacrifice.
In the same way that soldiers of the U.S. military have laid down their lives time and again in the name of freedom, these men and women have also made the ultimate sacrifice not just for their country, but for their family and friends as well. Such is the weight of a life given up in sacrifice that John 15:13 called it a love that surpasses all others.
13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.
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It's the same peerless love shown by Jesus when he died in suffering to save mankind from sin, and the faithful Christian are called upon to follow him as soldiers, as Timothy 2:3-4 pointed out.
3 Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. 4 No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him.
For those who have fought so that others can go on living and enjoying freedom, their service and self-sacrifice are being remembered on this day. Men and women who have laid down their lives in active duty will never return to their family and friends, nor would they be able to see the day that the fighting came to an end.
There's a reward for them beyond this life, however, and it's a faith that those left behind can keep this Memorial Day.
3 Though an army besiege me, my heart will not fear;
though war break out against me, even then I will be confident.4 One thing I ask from the Lord, this only do I seek:
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life,
to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple.
As Psalm 27:3-4 states, there's a great reward at the end of all things for the brave men and women who have fallen believing in the Lord. As John 14:27 also assures the faithful, there is no need to be afraid even in the face of war and death. There's a peace that can only be found in God, one that nations should always aspire to.
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.
This Memorial Day, take a minute to pause at 3 p.m. local time to remember the brave men and women who died serving this country and to pray for freedom and enduring peace.
