Memorial Day is all about remembering. Specifically, it’s about remembering those men and women who have died in active military service. We remember them because of the important role they have played in the preservation of our freedom and our way life. They are our heroes and we honor them because they gave of themselves for our sake. Of course, the best way to honor them is to exercise our freedoms in a responsible way.
Scripture tells us of another who gave himself to others. And his sacrifice wasn’t just for one nation or people group, but for the whole world (1 John 2.1). The writer of Hebrews tells us concerning the Christ: “But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself” (Hebrews 9.26 ESV). The sacrifice that Jesus did was to overcome the greatest enemy and enslaver of humanity—sin. Because of Christ’s death on the cross, freedom from bondage under sin is possible for those who put their trust in him.
The promise of this freedom was validated when the Father raised Jesus from the grave, pronouncing that the cross had dismantled the stranglehold of sin on humanity. The One who died for our sins is the One who is now the living Lord. And so we are also invited to “Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead” (2 Timothy 2.8 NIV).
Christians therefore remember Christ’s death, not as a time of mourning, but of celebration. Jesus himself instituted what we now call the Lord’s Supper. In it Jesus invites his followers to eat the bread and drink from the cup “in remembrance” of him. And the apostle Paul tells us that “whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes” (1 Corinthians 11.26 NIV).
Yet honoring the One who gave himself for us does not end in religious ritual. And so, “do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace” (Romans 6.12–14 NIV).
Christ is properly remembered when we order our lives according to the purpose for which he died—our liberation from sin. “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free” (Galatians 5.1 NIV)!
—Keith Y. Jainga