EARNED!

This past weekend TNT was showing Saving Private Ryan and The Patriot. I call those justice movies. Movies like Braveheart and Gladiator would be included as well. I have seen the movie Saving Private Ryan several times but I never grasped the final battle until now.

Throughout the movie Tom Hanks plays the captain and in the middle of the movie is rationalizing death and life of his fellow men. This is the night they were explaining the mission. A profound statement was said that the man is the mission. Captain went on to say that he better cure cancer and do something great. He said that because essentially he is risking his life for the life of another man. That was the mission.

The image above is the final scene where Captain Miller and Private James Francis Ryan meet on the battle field. Captain Miller's last words, "earn it."

For Christ also suffered once for sins,
the righteous for the unrighteous,
that he might bring us to God,
being put to death in the flesh
but made alive in the spirit,
1 Peter 3:18

He also came to call sinners to repent. To turn from a life that will bring separation from God. To turn to Him "...the Way, the Truth, the Life."

For God so loved the world,
that he gave his only Son,
that whoever believes in him should not
perish but have eternal life.
For God did not send his Son into the world
to condemn the world, but in order
that the world might be saved through him.
John 3:16,17

We have a Samaritan woman who comes to draw water in the middle of the day. Jesus ask her to give him a drink. She is confused because his a Jew and she is not. Beyond the confusion, He tells her about her past and that a time is coming when worship will not be geographical. A time when worshipers will worship "...in spirit and in truth."

The woman leaves and tell the town to come see Jesus. The town's people response to the woman.
They said to the woman, "It is no longer
because of what you said that we believe,
for we have heard for ourselves,
and we know that this is indeed
the Savior of the world."
John 4:42

Again in John 12.

If anyone hears my words and does not keep them,
I do not judge him;
for I did not come to judge the world
but to save the world.
John 12:47

We are enemies of God because of sin. Sin separates us from God because God is holy.

He is the propitiation
for our sins, and not for
ours only
but also for the sins of the whole world.
1 John 2:2

I love the word propitiation. It is not a theological term that only theologians should know. It means the wrath of God the we are suppose to receive because we have sinned against a Holy God is put upon Jesus.

In this is love, not that we have
loved God but that he loved us
and sent his Son to be the
propitiation for our sins....And we have seen and testify that
the Father has sent his Son
to be the Savior of the world.
1 John 4:10,14

When Captain Miller said "earn it," to Private James Francis Ryan he remembered that until the day he died. The next scene in the movie shows him and his family. He was uneasy in bringing his wife, children and grand-children. A now older James Ryan cries to his wife and asked her if he was a good man. He wanted to earn it.

Jesus's last words.

I thirst.
John 19:28

It is finished.
John 19:30