Les came back from World War II without one arm and missing several fingers on the other hand. He has carried the price tag of freedom in his own body ever since. He is like so many who are among us who purchased and preserved our freedom at great cost. It is a cost they can never forget because they bear on their bodies and their psyches the horrors of war. But Les came back. Tens of thousands of others never came back from World War II, or Korea, or Viet Nam. The bombing in Saudi Arabia is just another reminder that the vigilance and cost of freedom is high. The old Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young line is true:   “Find the cost of freedom, buried in the ground.”  On Independence Day, July 4th, let’s remember that cost!

        There was a war for all the human race in which freedom was purchased. This freedom was purchased at great cost as well. But unlike the freedom purchased for Americans, the symbol of that cost is not a hillside of white crosses or the Tomb of the Unknown or a black wall of names. As precious as these symbols are, they do not compare to the symbol of the Empty Tomb. This symbol transcends ethnic and national boundaries.

        The Empty Tomb is the symbol of the cost of true freedom for all people—the cost of Jesus leaving the security and power of heaven and becoming earthbound and mortal. It is the symbol of the degradation of a crucifixion and mocking and agonizing death on a cross and three days in the ground. But the words to this tune are different.  “Find the cost of freedom, no longer in the ground.”

        You see, the Empty Tomb is the sign of ultimate freedom. It is the reminder that we no longer have to fear death. All of our mortal fears are conquered. As the apostle Paul says,  “Death has been swallowed up in victory: 'Oh Death, where is your victory? O Death, where is your sting?”

        For the Christian, Independence Day doesn’t come once a year, but every week. The early Christians met on the first day of the week, Sunday, to take of the Lord’s Supper. This is their Independence Day. By the end of the first century, Sunday had become the Lord’s Day. On this day they remembered the Lord’s death and anticipated his return because freedom from death had been won. Independence Day is the day of the Empty Tomb! So as each Sunday approaches, let’s remember the cost of our freedom and give thanks!

“Since the children have flesh and blood, he (Jesus) too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death—that is the devil—and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.” (Hebrews 2:14-15)