The movie “Saving Private Ryan” begins with a graphic portrayal of the invasion at Omaha Beach on D-Day in World War II. Cutting back to the United States, a scene in the War Department shows a secretary receiving notice that a Midwestern family has just lost three sons to war. One has been killed in the Pacific and two have just died on the beaches at Normandy. Their fourth son is a paratrooper now somewhere in France. The general makes the decision that no mother should suffer the tragedy of losing four sons to war. So they send a team after this last son, Private Ryan.
The team must overcome countless obstacles, not to mention the enemy, in their search for Private Ryan. Along the way, members of their team are wounded and killed. They begin to ask why the life of this one private should be more important than their lives being sacrificed. Why is his welfare held in higher regard than theirs?
Tom Hanks is the leader of the outfit in search of Ryan. He does his best to maintain the focus of his men, telling them that it’s not their place to question, but rather to accept their mission and carry out their orders. Their duty is to their country, and their country has asked this of them.
Finally, they locate Ryan. They tell him that they have orders to retrieve him and get him home, but Ryan doesn’t want to leave his unit. Ryan’s unit has orders to keep a group of German tanks from crossing a bridge, until air support arrives. If they can’t hold off the tanks, then they’re to blow up the bridge.
Ryan’s honor and sense of duty to his unit would not allow him to walk away from an encounter that could cost his comrades their lives. He didn’t feel justified in leaving for freedom and safety and leaving them to fight.
Ryan convinces Hanks and his outfit to stay and fight, promising to leave with them after the battle. Hanks agrees, but only if Ryan will stay out of harm’s way, so he can make it back home.
A bloody battle ensues in which many lives are lost. Most of Hanks’ outfit is killed, but they save Private Ryan. There’s a gripping scene at the end, in which Hanks is dying on the bridge. Ryan comes to help, but Hanks tells him to go on, and then he says to Private Ryan, “Earn this.”
The movie concludes by flashing forward about 50 years. Private Ryan is standing with his family amongst thousands of white crosses in a cemetery for those killed in WW II. He is at the graveside of Hanks’ character, remembering those events in France. With tears in his eyes he turns to his wife asks, “Did I earn it?”
It is not just Hollywood – the movie was inspired by a real episode in World War II. Fritz Niland and his three brothers from New York state all saw action during the war. Two Niland brothers were killed on D-Day, while another was missing in action in Burma and was presumed dead. In the space of one week, the mother received three telegrams, and the fourth son was reported as missing in action.
Fritz was located in Normandy by an Army chaplain, Rev. Francis Sampson, and taken out of the combat zone. As it turned out, the missing brother was not dead but a prisoner of the Japanese and was liberated by the British Army.
While no one can “earn” salvation, many passages in the Bible speak of living in such a way that we bring honor to the God who paid such a high price for our salvation. As Paul says in Ephesians 4:1, “I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.”
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Most of this illustration is derived from the sermon “Earn This” by Rev. David Washburn, Kerux Sermon #16482, originally at www.SermonCentral.com .
The Niland material comes from several places on the internet that I have since lost track of. Contrary to what some books say, the mother did not receive three telegrams in a single day but over the space of a week. Some authorities say Fritz Niland never made it to the front line and was not reported missing in action, but his grandson reports this.