He gave His only Son…

Bulletin Article 6/19

This week’s gospel is one of the most memorized scripture quotes among Christians. However the significance can get lost when it becomes “just a verse of scripture.” To think of what it means to love something or someone so much that we would offer up our most valued possession can sometimes baffle our minds. We have heard the events of the Crucifixion time and time again, yet perhaps a modern experience will put this sacrifice into perspective.

There was a young man in his mid thirties. He had been married for about 12 years to a lovely woman who worked at an elementary school in their mid-west town. They had one son who was nearly 7. Due to complications during the pregnancy, the wife was no longer capable of bearing children. This was their one and only child, so they cared for him and loved him all the more for it. The father loved to bring his son fishing, to baseball games, and coached his little league team. The boy had an intense love for trains. He had every toy, book and model known to man. His love of trains stemmed from his father’s job, working at the railroad switch station around the corner from his house. Everyday in the summer, his son would visit him for lunch. Sometimes he would let his son switch the track for a slow-moving freight train.

One day the man was having a very rough day. Many of the trains were backed up and he had to reroute a lot of them. There were trains full of passengers from all over – tourists from Europe, children on field trips, sports teams traveling to other cities, businessmen and women going to work, and many more. There were dozens of trains filled with people lined up at the local station. As lunchtime rolled around he saw his son coming down the road toward his switch station. As his son was crossing the tracks, he received an urgent call telling him to switch track A to track C immediately. A freight train carrying various military materials was out of control and unable to stop. Track C led to an uphill climb, which would slow the train down. Track A and B were jammed with passenger trains. If the man didn’t switch the tracks, the weapons train would certainly crash and explode killing hundreds, if not thousands of innocent people. As the man turned to his son, he was struck with horror. His son had fallen on track C and was stuck in one of the loose ties.

Turning back at the oncoming train, he was forced to make a decision – switch the track and sacrifice his one and only son, or save his son while allowing thousands to be killed. He looked at his son and said, “You know I love you very much.” With that he pulled the switch and diverted the train to Track C where it proceeded uphill, slowed down, and came to a stop. The passengers were saved, but his one and only son had to die for that to happen.

This story is hard to imagine; it is extremely sad, yet it is the story of God’s love for His people. For He so loved the world that He gave His only son. His son was sent to suffer and die so that we may be saved through His blood. The story of Christ’s death however is not sad but joyous. Through his death, we no longer have to suffer death, but are born to eternal life – that, my dear friends, is love.