Today is remembrance day in England, and it has got me thinking. One of the people on my course is a pacifist, I am not. I have always believed that there are occasions when force is required to address an issue. The age old questions which have been used such as would you shoot someone about to press the button on a bomb which will blow up a school have never seen like much of a dilemma to me, i would pull the trigger.
The question is why do we spend a day a year in which we think of those who have died “serving their countries in wars, having laid down there lives”. Why do we value this more highly than, for example, people who have worked to build infrastructure, or people who take our rubbish away? What is it about dying that makes someone’s contribution worth so much more? And is that someone has is prepared to die that really means so much to us, or rather, that because they are prepared to pull the trigger we don’t have to?
I don’t believe that most people signing up for the Army do so in the thought that they may day, particularly the young believe themselves immortal, but they do sign up believing they may have to kill. It is the scares from that which i think are the hardest to heal. While i would pull the trigger- or rather believe i would, i don’t know if i could live with having done so. This brings me back to the cross, was Jesus death on the cross a bigger sacrifice than someone who will pull a trigger? What is it about the cross that makes it so incredible?
In honesty i find it hard to get my head around crucifixion. It is so outside anything i have ever experienced. However the whipping he received before hand that cuts to the core if you will excuse the phrase. The inner strength it takes not to cry out take him not me, stop, anything if you stop. The thing that makes the cross so incredible, that makes the passion so meaningful, is that there was a supreme choice. For every moment of pain on the cross, Jesus could have stepped down, he could have saved himself, he could have ended his suffering. What kept him there was his love for us. As much as we try to understand what those who have served in wars have felt, it those who have given up there lives protecting colleagues, a solder who jumps in front of a friend, someone who makes a choice that says no, take me not them. It is that beyond all else we remember, and with Jesus, we remember that he repeated again and again for every second that he was beaten, every moment he was on the cross, take me, not them.
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3 comments:
This is an excellent post! I linked to you in my Veteran's Day post.
Hi, BrokenMan, haven't been to your blog for awhile, but keep your page on my Desktop so I can get here quick....You wrapped up this post really well, with a sobering, humbling, powerful ending.
Great post, I spoke to my husband about it as we both served in the British army (he did 22 years i did 6). When we joned we knew we may one day be asked to bare arms, we may one day be asked to lay down our lives in the line of duty. We were well trained. We knew our colleagues would be there for us and us for them. We knew that if we did not "come home" we would still be talked about, remembered and loved. Just as we remember those we have known and lost in Iraq and Afghanistan. "A good soldier trains for war..he prays for peace". Is that not one of the lessons we could all live by, even if our wars do not involve armies but are our life battles? Jesus (i think) gave his life for us to learn and live on. Servicemen and woman (for me) do the same.
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