“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you.”
John 15:12-14 (RSV)
I came across a true story that happened during the second world war. In 1943 four navy chaplains restored calm in the chaos of a ship, just hit by the enemy and rapidly sinking. Those chaplains prayed with and escorted 230 soldiers to the lifeboats, even giving up their own life jackets to those who didn’t have one. They saved every man on the ship, just doing what a friend of Jesus would do.
One of the survivors recalls what he last witnessed from his lifeboat, seeing the four chaplains standing on the sinking ship, with hands clasped, praying together as the ship went down into the ocean. What an image to remember. Their last deed on earth was exactly what Jesus described, men who laid their lives down for their friends.
The interesting fact about this story is that those four brave chaplains were of different faith backgrounds. There was a Jewish rabbi, a Catholic priest, a Methodist minister and a Dutch reformed minister. Despite their different ideologies and beliefs, they had two things in common. They had a mutual desire to express the love of God to others, and they shared their last minutes of their lives together.
The apostle Paul wrote that without love we are nothing, Peter wrote that love covers a multitude of sins and Jesus said that there’s no greater love than to give one’s life for their friends. All who do so, Jesus calls His friends.
All mankind is created in the image of God, but occasionally we witness a special spark of God within a human person. It’s evident whenever someone does the unthinkable and selfless act of giving their life for another, or for a worthy cause.
This scripture today seems almost too unreachable to achieve. To put aside our needs for the sake of another’s isn’t easy. Paul wrote, “Forgetting what lies behind, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:14)
The upward call of God, is to abide in the love of Christ, and is a goal for every believer to strive for.
Firemen, paramedics, policemen and military forces, do it every day as a routine duty of their profession, and some even go beyond their routine duty. This Memorial Day, we will remember people like those chaplains, soldiers, first responders and all who have lost their lives for a worthy cause.
On Wednesday of this week, we heard of the tragic deaths of a young Jewish couple employed by the Israeli embassy, who were to be engaged next week, but were shot and killed by an extremist at the Jewish museum in Washington D.C.
There is a little known spiritual side to this sad story, which has been underpublicized. That young couple were “Messianic Jews” in their faith, meaning that they were Jewish believers in Jesus as their Messiah.
Yaron and Sarah were living that upward call of God in their Jewish Christian faith as bridge builders, by promoting interfaith understanding.
I have no doubt that they were welcomed into the arms of their Messiah, who they knew as Yeshua, as He greeted them saying, “Welcome home my friends”.
May God help us to live like friends of Jesus, reaching for the upward call of sharing His love with the world, and to treat each day, as the last day on a sinking ship.
Lord, help us to follow you, beyond the routine as you transform us from within, to reach the goal of the upward call of living in Christ’s love. Amen
Capital Jewish Museum victim Yaron Lischinsky was Messianic Jew – The Forward