But now a righteousness from God apart from the law has been made known…. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ.

I was blessed a few years ago, on a trip back to Virginia, to visit a Civil War battlefield. It was a battlefield that not many people have heard of. It wasn’t Gettysburg or Bull Run nor Appomattox. It was called Cold Harbor. It was a piece a ground near Richmond Virginia that was fought over twice. Thousands of men died there.

In reading about the battles I came across an interesting account: It was recorded that in a lull between the fighting during the second battle, after a day of horrendous fighting an officer observed that his men seemed to be darning their uniforms. This was a very curious behavior. After all they’d been through that day and in this campaign they would take time to repair their uniforms – there were so many other important things to do. On closer inspection he discovered that they were not darning their uniforms but sewing their names in them so that if they were killed in the battle their bodies might be identified.

Memorial Day is a day to remember all those who gave so much in defense of freedom. I walked through the battlefield and read the markers describing what had taken place there, how the men had suffered so much. Some men were mowed down by cannon and musket fire. The carnage was so great at one point that they piled up the bodies like sand bags and took cover behind them. Some men lay wounded for hours out in the open- slowly and painfully dying. In one place the Confederates on the higher ground had pinned down a number of union soldiers. If the union soldiers tried to retreat or even crawl away they were shot. Out of water and under a blazing sun they were trapped. Then one of the many fires that often started on a battlefield from the discharge of muskets and cannons began to creep across the field where the union soldiers were trapped. They had no place to go- to stay was to die to go was to die….

These men suffered much. We often want to reward those who suffer much with the ultimate prize of heaven. After all we reason they did so much for others; they suffered enough that God must accept them because of their suffering. We make suffering the good work that over comes sins and merits heaven.

We do this whether it is the men who died at Cold Harbor so many years ago or the person today who loses a slow and painful battle of cancer, or the person who spends a lifetime disabled from a birth defect or accident, or when the unsuspecting get killed when a terrorist crashes a plane into building or explodes a car bomb …haven’t they suffered enough here on earth to merit heaven?

With great respect for all they’ve endured I must say, “No.” If suffering were enough to earn heaven then heaven would be a work. The prophet Isaiah wrote long ago, all our righteous acts, all our works, all our sufferings no matter how noble, are like filthy rags. (Is 64.6) St Paul writes that there is no one righteous before God, not one of us could suffer so much that God would owe us heaven. (Rms 3.10b)

Oh, trust me I weep when I think of what others gave up for and in defense of freedom and for those who have endured much, but I cannot find in scripture where God owes them or us or anyone else who suffered, heaven.

But! There is One who suffered much- and in a way that we can barely imagine- One who sacrificed much more than we could have ever sacrificed that we might be given heaven- One whose sacrifice God deemed worthy that we might be declared deserving of heaven. That One, as most of you know, is Jesus.

His sacrifice began when He willingly set heaven aside and took up our cause. He came to do battle with sin and death. The prophet Isaiah records that He suffered greatly: He took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered Him stricken by God, smitten by Him, and afflicted. He was pierced by God for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him and by His wounds we were healed. (53.4-5)

Soldiers in each generation have had to pay the terrible price freedom demands. Jesus paid an even more terrible price to free us: He took upon Himself our sins and was ridiculed for it. He was denied justice, lied about, spoken against, and spat upon by the very ones He was trying to save. He was flogged and a crown of thorns was mashed down upon His head. He was pinned to a rugged and splintered cross with nowhere to run to. His thirst was so great that His tongue stuck to the roof of His mouth, and His breathing was ragged and labored as the blood ran from His body. If He ran we’d die and if he stayed He’d die…. He stayed and died for us.

He died that we might have freedom from sin. The death He died was the price set to free us from sin and death. He willingly paid that price for us. By His suffering and death for us- in our place- we are truly free. Three days later He rose from the dead that we would know that His victory over sin and death were real and not just some vain hope of a well-intended, sincere man. No we have real victory by and through Jesus- one who could live for us, died for us, and one who could rise again to life for us.

The men on both sides of the battle lines at Cold Harbor believed in the nobility of their cause: for Southerners it was states rights for the Northerners it was to preserve the union. Both sides fought valiantly for family, honor, and duty. Men on both sides were dedicated to their causes to the point of death, but not even this merited them heaven- not suffering, neither the sincerity, nor the nobility of their causes could raise them or us above God’s declaration that we are still sinners, and the wages of sin is death and eternal separation from God.

But there was a noble champion who was promised to fight for us; a champion who could take from us the declaration of sinner and give to us the title of saint- that One was and is Jesus, the Son of God. A special someone had to die for sin; someone had to die to set us free and that noble knight was and is Jesus. Truly by His fatal wounds we are set free from sin and death. Truly, truly I say to you that by believing in what Jesus did on the cross, the promise of heaven is held out to us.

It isn’t the nobility of our cause nor the sincerity of our belief that merit us heaven but only the sincerity of God who sent His only Son to rescue us from the battlefield of sin and death. He did this even though He knew it would cost Him his Son- the Son who died that we might live now and eternally. It is the sincerity of God and the belief that the Holy Spirit raised up in us by Word and sacrament that merits us heaven.

At Cold Harbor I spent some time walking through the cemeteries- marker after marker. I wondered how many of those men had a marker because they sewed their names in their coats. There was one marker- one monument- that caught my attention. I can still see it as I talk to you today. It is a large marble marker which is showing signs of neglect, this marker is over the mass grave of over 800 soldiers who were never identified- never had a chance to sew their names in their coats.

As I pondered that I was reminded that our God, our Jesus, knows who we are. He wrote our names and names of those who believe in His Book of Life at our baptism. He has called out our names across heaven each time we confessed Him, and as the prophet Isaiah records: He even inscribed our names in the palm of His hands (Isaiah 49.16), all this that we would know that He remembers who we are and whose we are. Though the world may not long remember and after a time forget those who fought and died, Jesus remembers all those who fought and died calling upon His name. He remembers all those still living who believe in Him this day. He has declared no one can snatch them from My hand. (John10.28) No one can erase their names from My Book of Life.

All around us are people like us that need to know heaven is not gained nor merited by our suffering, our sincerity, or any other work. It comes to us by and through our Savior. A Savior who came that our names would be known to Him and in that knowing we would have eternal life. Let us go out this Memorial Weekend remembering and respecting what brave men and women did to earn for us worldly freedom. Let us respectfully and boldly share with the living that enduring freedom comes from faith in Jesus Christ. Amen.