I don’t want to be naive. I know that we can cite bushels of stories about people doing bad things to people. All you have to do is turn on the TV news, three children were decapitated this week, the Laci Peterson murder trial started this week and another college student made the national news because she has been kidnaped. Yet, we also hear, almost most daily, of people who give their lives for others.

I ran across this story from the Vietnam war era. There was an orphanage near an American Marine Base in Viet Nam. One day the Viet Cong fired mortar shells into the orphanage, killing dozens of children and wounding many more. A boy named Kai had a seriously wounded friend who needed a blood transfusion. Kai’s friend had a rare blood type and only Kai’s blood matched it. Little Kai had never heard of a blood transfusion but when the American doctors explained it would save his friend’s life, little Kai volunteered.

As the blood began to flow from Kai to his friend, Kai began to whimper. When the doctors asked if it hurt, he said no. A little later he whimpered again. Again he told the doctors it did not hurt. The doctors asked, "What’s wrong, Kai?" With tears coursing down his light brown, dusty cheeks, Kai asked, "When am I to die, sir, when am I to die?" You see, little Kai didn’t know that you only give a little blood. He thought you gave it all, and he was willing to do so for his little friend.(www.bible.org)

Is it natural for us to give our lives for others? There has been a lot of debate about this in recent years. Altruistic acts defy Darwinian evolution. Giving one’s life for another does not fit the pattern of survival of the fittest or of genes set on self propagation. Is that why a small child would give his life for another? On the other hand, there is a wall in Washington, D.C. that bears the names of over 53,000 Americans who died in Vietnam. Could it be that such an example inspired a child?

In Ernest Gordon's Miracle on the River Kwai, the Scottish soldiers, forced by their Japanese captors to labor on a jungle railroad, had degenerated to barbarous behavior, but one afternoon something happened: a shovel was missing. The officer in charge became enraged. He demanded that the missing shovel be produced, or else. When nobody in the squadron budged, the officer got his gun and threatened to kill them all on the spot . . . It was obvious the officer meant what he said. Then, finally, one man stepped forward. The officer put away his gun, picked up a shovel, and beat the man to death. When it was over, the survivors picked up the bloody corpse and carried it with them to the second tool check. This time, no shovel was missing. Indeed, there had been a miscount at the first check point.

The word spread like wildfire through the whole camp. An innocent man had been willing to die to save the others! ...The incident had a profound effect . . . The men began to treat each other like brothers. (Leadership, Winter 89, 47)

Laying down one’s life for another has a powerful effect on others. Every war has produced stories of extraordinary sacrifice. Yesterday, I read stories from WWII and Vietnam and cried at some of the selfless acts. I watched the dedication of the WWII Memorial on TV as we honored the hundred of thousands who died. We have watched as over 800 soldiers have died in Iraq, almost 600 of those combat deaths. And only this weekend I, hard that one of our community members, the Lambert family, lost a son in a bomb explosion in Iraq.

Why do men and women give their lives for another? Why do men and women leave families and go off to a foreign land and lay down their lives? It is against every selfish notion that is drilled into our being. It flies in the face of current evolutionary theory. It is the most unprofitable thing we can do. Yet, daily, men and women are laying down their lives. In interviews this week, WWII veterans, well into their 80s, said they would be willing to parachute into Iraq and fight if they were allowed!

The fact is, these men and women, serve and live and even die out of love. Love of country, love of neighbor and love of family. Giving one’s life for another is one of the greatest expressions of love. Often, men and women give their lives for total strangers. It is a recognition that we are made in the Image of God and we are infinite value.

The greatest act of love the world will ever know took place 2000 years ago. God became flesh and died for us as our sacrifice so that those who believe in Him may have eternal life. Love is the motivation for God’s great sacrifice. God loves us. Jesus said, "Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends." We may not understand the depths of God’s love. We may not understand the motivation of God’s judgments and actions. But we understand what it means for someone to die for us.

Even though we are sinners, God has loved us. God expressed His love for us by giving us his only begotten son. This word only begotten is a special word. It means that there is only one like him. He is unique. And God gave him to us and for us. We who are parents flinch when we think of the heavenly father giving his only son. I have a son, an only son, I could never give him up for someone else's life. But It this case, we peer into the mystery of the Trinity. Within the confines of the Holy Trinity, there is a perfect relation between the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Within the perfect relationship abides perfect love. That Love compelled God to give his son, his only unique son.

Jesus said that you are my friends. We have been included in that wonderful circle of friends that finds its center in Jesus. We have been chosen by him. We did not invite ourselves into this unique circle, Jesus called us. He names us as his friends.

Jesus has made us his friends so that we might bear good fruit. If we are motivated by the costly sacrifice of those who give their lives for their country, how much more should we be motivated by Jesus? He did more that die on our behalf, he died as our sacrifice. His sacrifice makes it possible for us to be supernaturally changed by God himself. We are given a new life in Christ and it makes it possible for us to bear what Jesus called good fruit. Part of that fruit is that we love one another. It is Jesus’ commandment to us, love one another! Why? Because Jesus first loved us. We are to love each other as God has loved us!

What an obligation we are under! If we love God, we must love our brothers and sisters in Christ! We love God by loving others. In fact, it is the act of loving others that perfects us for the coming day of judgment. Loving others, God give us confidence for that day. Godly love becomes evidence of God’s presence in our lives.

During those difficult days of World War I, a man was walking with his young son in the quiet of the evening. The boy noticed that several of the homes had stars in the windows.

"Daddy, why are there stars in some of the windows?" he asked.

His father replied, "That comes from the terrible war, son. It means that these families have given a son."

The boy walked along in silence thinking about what his father had just said. Then he stopped and looked up into the dark, night sky and there was the evening star shining brightly and majestically in the heavens.

"Daddy," he said, "God must have given a Son, too."(L. Morris reflections on the Gospel of John, vol. 1, 100)

This Memorial Day, may we learn again to live worthy of those who have laid down their lives for their friends and neighbors and their nation. And may we find ourselves faithful to the One who died for us. May we fulfil his commandment, "Love one another."