Remembrance of Memorial Day: No Greater Love hath any Man

On Memorial Day we are reminded of what our forefathers, friends, relatives have done in laying down their lives so that we may be free. Jesus who paid the ultimate price said in John 15:13 “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” (NIV) Jesus died so that we may be free of the tyranny that sin had brought down on Mankind.

Also reminded of the Gettysburg Address that was delivered by Lincoln during the American Civil War, on the afternoon of Thursday, November 19, 1863, at the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, four and a half months after the Union armies defeated those of the Confederacy at the decisive Battle of Gettysburg. Here is a portion of that address:

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate, we can not consecrate, we can not hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

There is unfinished work that this country has before us and are we willing to give the full measure of devotion and not let the past die in vain. And so on Memorial Day, we pause to remember the lives and contributions made by those we have loved and still do. It's not so much about the grave as the person. "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints" (Psalm 116:15).

by Jeremiah Williamson