I had 30 minutes left of the movie.
I had to finish.
As the credits rolled I said two things:
I hate war
I hate the ending
30 minutes of watching the most horrifying moments of war. Scenes that will haunt my memory. A last battle as the Americans fight to defend a crucial territory from the invading Nazis.
But the reason they were there was one man. Private Ryan. A team of soldiers had been specially commissioned to risk their lives to save his. They had traversed enemy lines and been subjected to the darkest parts of war to bring this man home.
And in his final breath, the captain looks at Private Ryan and says, “Earn this.”
My heart broke.
After two hours, those two words are the opposite of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
We are all Private Ryan. Our Father loved us enough to send his one and only son to die in order that we might come home. He traversed enemy lines. He fought the most gruesome battle. And in His dying breath on the cross he said, “Father forgive them.”
Jesus looks at us and says, “You can’t earn this. But you’re worth it.”
50 years later Private Ryan stands in front of the graves of the men who lost their lives to save his. Full of guilt he asks the question, “I’ve tried to live my life the best I could. Was it enough?” A weight that could never be lifted. How could he ever live a life worthy of what those men sacrificed?
2000 years later we can stand before a cross. Living in the radical truth that we could never earn it yet, “You were worth it.”
John 3:16 - For God so loved the world that He gave his one and only son.
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