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While there are conflicting theories as to exactly how the observance of Memorial Day first came into practice in our nation, the Office of Veteran’s Affairs posts the following account as a probable origin.
Three years after the Civil War ended, on May 5, 1868, the head of an organization of Union veterans — the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) — established Decoration Day as a time for the nation to decorate the graves of the war dead with flowers. Maj. Gen. John A. Logan declared that Decoration Day should be observed on May 30. It is believed that date was chosen because flowers would be in bloom all over the country.
The first large observance was held that year at Arlington National Cemetery, across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C.
The ceremonies centered around the mourning-draped veranda of the Arlington mansion, once the home of Gen. Robert E. Lee. Various Washington officials, including Gen. and Mrs. Ulysses S. Grant, presided over the ceremonies. After speeches, children from the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Orphan Home and members of the GAR made their way through the cemetery, strewing flowers on both Union and Confederate graves, reciting prayers and singing hymns.
As this account attests, Memorial Day is set aside on the last Monday of each May as a time in which our nation honors those men and women who laid down their lives so that freedom could be enjoyed. This celebration is a vivid reminder that the cost of freedom is indeed great and yet, many who live under those freedoms comparatively sacrifice little for its purchase.
In the Gospel of John, Jesus states, “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed” (8:36). Jesus speaks to a deeper freedom that can only be found through faith in Him. Greater than political freedom or the absence of tyrannical rule, even greater than the hope that one “does whatever he wants”, true freedom encapsulates four aspects without which one cannot truly be free. In an article on the nature of Christian freedom, pastor and author John Piper proposes that these four aspects can be illustrated for one who is “free” to skydive.
True freedom requires opportunity. One cannot ever be free to skydive if a plane, proper equipment, an instructor, all at a certain time and place are not in order. Plans to skydive may be sincere, but without opportunity, the freedom to skydive is only a dream.
True freedom requires ability. While opportunity may be available to skydive, the participant must have certain physical capabilities and have met certain training requirements. Without the ability to skydive, one is not free to participate.
True freedom requires desire. One may have opportunity and even the ability to skydive, but if he decides not to jump from the plane for fear, then he has forfeited the freedom to skydive.
True freedom requires the absence of regret. With opportunity, ability, and desire, the skydiver jumps from the plane. While he may experience the boundless freedom of falling through the air at the speed of 120 mph, that freedom will end tragically and abruptly if the parachute fails to open.
Unfortunately, many who consider themselves to be living in freedom do not in fact know freedom in each of these four aspects. Even in America, “the land of the free”, countless people fancy themselves to be doing exactly as they want, yet their lives will soon end, and apart from Christ they will abruptly enter an eternity filled with deep and unending regret.
It is for this reason that the Apostle Paul would write, “For freedom Christ has set us free” (Galatians 5:1). Only the gospel of Jesus Christ sets a person free. Only through the gospel do we know and experience the opportunity for eternal life because God’s own Son laid down His life for us as a sacrifice (Romans 5:8). Likewise, only through the gospel can we have the ability to place our faith in God for salvation, because faith is a gift God alone can give (Ephesians 2:8-9). Only through the gospel do we have the desire to follow Christ. As the Scripture attest, God makes us a new person so that rather than being required to obey the law, we desire to obey the law (Ezekiel 36:26-27). Finally, only through the gospel can we live free of regrets. The promise of God is that in Christ, His wrath has been removed from us and we will share in eternal life (1 Thessalonians 1:10).
So, while it is good for us to commemorate and give thanks for those who died so we might enjoy the freedoms of our nation, those freedoms are a cheap impression of freedom that comes only through the gospel of Jesus Christ. Rather than one day of the year, the freedom that comes in Christ deserves nothing less than the complete adoration and surrender of our lives to our Savior. Any sacrifice we render in following Jesus pales in comparison to His sacrifice for us. In order to celebrate freedom, and in order to share that freedom to a world in the hopeless oppression of sin, we must do no less than live in and share the gospel of Jesus. This is freedom!
Jason