What do we do when our Plans Fall Through? When it Feels like Jesus Left Us.

The soldier answered his nation’s call. He left behind his family, friends, and fortunes – personal treasures that so many take for granted. He is the warrior who was called upon to fight our nation’s enemies. He fought in distant lands to keep the battle far from our homes. He fought against tyranny. He fought to keep the darkness and evil away. He fought in exhausting heat and bitter cold. He fought in deserts, mountains, and bombed-out streets.

But he wasn’t only a warrior. He was also a son, a brother, a husband, a father, a co-worker and friend. He wanted to see his daughter score the winning goal and walk her down the aisle. He wanted to see his son in the school play and running across the finish line. He wanted to see his children graduate and get married and give him grandchildren. He wanted to see his wife and give her a kiss again.

He promised everyone that he would return.

He wasn’t able to keep that promise. He wasn’t able to do any of the things he wanted to do. He became a casualty of the darkness and evil and bullets he fought against.

He is the soldier who died so we might be free. He sacrificed everything for us.

This Memorial Day, we remember the fallen soldier. He is the soldier who gave up everything so we might have the opportunity of having everything. He died so we might live. He fought so we might be free.

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Jesus is the Solder who answers his Father’s call. He left behind the saints and angels, the safety and glory of Paradise to come to a world at war. He is the Warrior who fought against our enemies of the unholy trinity of the devil, the world, and our sinful nature. He is the Lord of Light who went into battle against the Prince of Darkness.

Jesus bled to pay the price. He died so he might defeat death. He allowed the Serpent to strike his heel so he might crush the Serpent’s head. He took humanity’s sin upon his perfect body so he might make sinless all those who believe in him.

He sacrificed everything for us. He died so we might be free.

The fallen soldier promised he would return. He was unable to keep that promise.

His wife, parents, and children must learn how to live without their husband, son, and father. But they are proud of what he did for others who may never know his name.

Our fallen Savior promised to return. After his death, he rose from the dead and ascended into heaven. One day, he will return and keep his promise. We praise Jesus for what he gave up to gain eternal salvation for us. We proudly and gladly share his name with others. Then they can share in the gift of eternal salvation with us.

We don’t have to learn to live without our Brother, Savior, and Redeemer. Though he has left us to ascend to his Father’s right hand, he prayed for us before he left.

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Jesus prays for you because he has left you – left you in this world but not as part of this world.

“I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, because they are yours. All that is mine is yours, and what is yours is mine. And I am glorified in them. I am no longer going to be in the world, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you.”

John 17:9-11

Jesus is leaving. He is leaving his followers behind. We are in this world, but Jesus prays for us to be different from the world. Basically, Jesus is praying that the Father make us “weird.”

We are seen as “weird” in our world. Weird for wanting to get back to worship in our church. Weird for giving money to our church for ministry work. Weird for waiting to have sex until marriage. Weird for not watching certain shows or talking certain ways. Weird for putting so much money and effort to send our children for a Lutheran education.

Since we are so weird, people will notice. We are Christ’s soldiers living in Enemy territory. We live and eat and drink and speak and act differently from those who belong to the Enemy. We are trying to win them over to our side, to Christ’s side.

Why has Jesus left us in this spiritually hostile world? He doesn’t pray to the heavenly Father that he take us out of the world. “I am not asking that you take them out of the world, but that you protect them from the Evil One” (John 17:15).

Jesus has left you here for a distinct mission. Not a super-secret mission. But a well-publicized and visible mission.

“Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son so that your Son may glorify you. For you gave him authority over all flesh, so that he may give eternal life to all those you have given him. This is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you sent. I have glorified you on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. Now, Father, glorify me at your own side with the glory I had at your side before the world existed.”

John 17:1-5

Your mission is to receive and believe in the eternal life Jesus has won for you.

You are different. You are weird. You are in the world, but not of the world. You hear all the news, but you only believe Christ’s truth. You are strangers here and citizens of heaven.

You thank God for the freedom won for you on the battlefield by the fallen soldiers who will never return. Fallen soldiers whose names you may never know. You thank them for that freedom. You appreciate that freedom. You stand up for that freedom. You fight for that freedom.

You thank God for the freedom Christ won for you on the battlefield of Golgotha’s bloody hill and the garden tomb’s empty grave. A crucified Solder whose name you know and you will honor and praise now and throughout eternity. You appreciate that freedom. You live in that freedom. You fight for that freedom. You share that freedom.

What do we do when our plans fall through and it seems as if Jesus has left us? Remember that Jesus has left us to ascend into heaven.

He prayed for us. He promised us. He will return for us.