War has been a blot upon the history of humanity. With wars have come carnage and death, bringing an endless toll of human suffering.

Again and again, wars have been driven by man’s insatiable lust for power, territory and wealth. With new discoveries, inventions and technological advances, man’s capacity to pursue these ambitions through cruelty and violence has only increased.

This is a bleak picture of human history. Yet it is more than a commentary upon history. It is the news. From the Middle East to Europe, and across the wider world, war is either being waged or threatened. Our world seems constantly embroiled in conflict or standing on the precipice of something even more terrible.

Into this arena of human conflict, with all its misery and brokenness, God in His goodness has raised up men and women prepared to take up arms in the defence of freedom, the protection of the innocent and the pursuit of justice. Through their courage and sacrifice, tyranny has been resisted and peace has been secured.

The post-war generations, here and across much of the world, have enjoyed the benefits of that peace. It is a peace dividend won at an extraordinarily high price. Our war heroes would not allow evil to triumph. They stood in the gap, and many paid for their courage with their own blood.

What Sir Winston Churchill said of the young men of the Royal Air Force in 1940, during the Battle of Britain, might fittingly be applied to that entire generation of fighting men and women:

“Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.”

Across the world, in the Far East, another remarkable act of courage and endurance helped to halt the Japanese advance into India. In 1944, during the Battles of Kohima and Imphal, British, Indian and Gurkha forces faced a formidable Japanese offensive. At Kohima, a garrison of approximately 2,500 men, including around 1,500 combat troops, found itself surrounded by some 15,000 Japanese soldiers. Against overwhelming odds, the defenders held their ground until relief forces broke through in April. The wider battle continued until July, when the Japanese offensive was finally abandoned. The Allied victory came at a terrible cost, with approximately 16,500 Allied casualties across the two battles.

In the cemetery at Kohima, a famous inscription captures something of the debt we owe to those who laid down their lives:

“When You Go Home, Tell Them Of Us And Say,
For Their Tomorrow, We Gave Our Today.”

At Clogher Free Presbyterian Church this Sunday, we will fulfil our Christian, moral and patriotic duty: not only to remember those who made the supreme sacrifice, but also to pass on their story and the responsibility of remembrance to the next generation.

As we do so, we remember all those who mourn as a result of conflict, and we pray that God will bring peace to our troubled world.

Ultimately, however, lasting peace for this broken world will only be found through the Prince of Peace, the Lord Jesus Christ. He laid down His life, not merely to secure an earthly peace, but to heal our deepest brokenness, reconcile sinners to God and bring us into peace with Him.

The Saviour Himself declared:

“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”

John 15:13 (KJV)