Saving Private Ryan, And Us

Let's just go ahead and say it...it is the unacknowledged elephant in the room for Jesus-followers every Easter weekend. Many places of worship will be packed-out tomorrow. It's an odd mix of joy and discouragement. It's great to have that many people present to hear or hear again the proclamation of Jesus risen. It's discouraging that a good number of those people won't be back in worship until maybe Christmas Eve.

I don't want to be negative or unrealistic. Easter is a good-feeling day, just like Christmas. For folks who believe such things, it is the central good feeling of our faith. Execution and the grave cannot hold the one who is both fully God and fully human. In and through the risen Jesus we are rescued from bondage to Sin, death, and alienation from God and each other. We like that... it ranks right up there with the message that God is now with us through the baby of Bethlehem. Easter actually ranks a significant notch above that, for folks who understand the theology of it all.

So once the good news is in, why are so many people content to head back to business as usual? I guess if Jesus is risen and we're saved that's all that matters, right? After all, we cannot save ourselves by our own good works - worshipping regularly, or whatever those good works may be - so I guess we just accept the rescue of the Resurrection Day and go on with business, until the time comes and we punch our get-out-of-hell-free card and head on to glory, right?

Musing on this, a friend of mine recently thought about the end of the movie Saving Private Ryan. In this film, Tom Hanks plays Captain John Miller, a G.I. who survives the first wave landing on Normandy Beach on June 6, 1944. Miller is given command of a small detachment with the mission of locating and extracting a Private James Ryan (Matt Damon). Ryan is to be returned home to his family, as two of his brothers in uniform have already been killed in action.
Ryan is rescued, but Captain Miller is mortally wounded in the effort. In his dying breath Miller pulls Ryan close and whispers into his ear, "Earn this!"

Ryan didn't do anything to effect his rescue other than to be found by those who would save him. He didn't earn it or achieve it. Once he had been given this great gift of deliverance, and once he had accepted it, he was expected to live out the gift with gratitude and purpose. This may be a loose analogy, but it makes sense to me. Once the gift which is Easter is given, we are to live that gift, not just claim it as a personal prize. If we don't, I'm not sure the gift which is the resurrection of Jesus really has impacted us. I hear the risen Jesus saying to us, "Live this!"

Last year, on the Sunday after Easter, I had the privilege to worship with a congregation that planned a special service of celebration and commitment for the Sunday following the biggest Sunday of the year. On that day, among other things, they best their yearly average for worship attendance by well over 100 people. That's the kind of thing I like to see. Anybody can get happy, excited, religious, or whatever on Easter Sunday - and that's important and necessary. In a larger sense, though, it's what happens on the Sundays following that tells the tale.

Have a blessed and powerful Resurrection Day. I'll see you around the next bend in the river.