What Price Freedom?
Hebrews 9:11-15
By Harold Dinsmore, M.Div
© 2008 Harold Dinsmore.

Last week we learned how to celebrate the Christ event through the Lord’s Supper.  This week, I would like for us to consider the Christ event.

With all the national hoopla that goes along with our annual holiday known as Independence Day, I would like to center our thoughts on the cost of freedom.  Now, we all know that our particular freedom in America came with a very heavy price tag.  Many lives have been lost since that day when our forefathers signed the Declaration of Independence.  The British crown didn’t back down, but sought to keep its interest in the new world.  The Revolutionary war was a result and many lives of the colonists and the British were lost.

Freedom is very rarely something that is handed over with no cost.  Our soldiers have been fighting for our continued freedom ever since that day when the shot was fired that was heard around the world.  In fact, you will recall that about 150 years ago, Americans began fighting each other about this thing called freedom.

We have fought world wars over this belief in freedom of the individual.  We hold freedom high in America.  But we were not the only ones to have ever had to fight for freedom.  We are not the only persons to have ever had to pay a price.  I hold high those who have paid the price of freedom with their lives.  From the battle for independence to Viet Nam, the Gulf war, the War on Terror and beyond, we owe our gratitude to those individuals who have fought for freedom and those who have paid dearly with their lives.

The price for freedom is not cheap.  Our nation expends billions of dollars each year, but that is not to be compared with the blood that was shed on our behalf so that we could worship today as we see fit.  Blood – we have paid for our freedom with the blood of our forefathers, the blood of our recent ancestors and the blood of our contemporaries.  Freedom comes with a high cost.