To End All Wars

I was reminded of one of my favorite movies "To End All Wars" as I was reading Philip Yancey's book "Rumors of Another World." It's about a British officer named Ernest Gordon, who was captured by Japanese soldiers during World War 2 ("the war to end all wars," hence the name of the movie) and forced to do manual work in a prisoner of war camp to help build a railroad line. Over 80,000 men died during the construction of the track, of sickness, starvation, and being shot. Naturally, the bloody realities of the camp led to a spirit of competition and every man for himself. Yet God's spirit was moving beyond the understanding of any of them--for a singular event happened which catalyzed a movement of unity that is practically unmatched in the history of human struggle. During roll call one day it was discovered that a shovel was missing, and the guards asked who had stolen the shovel. When no one answered, the guards threatened to kill them all, until one man from the line of men stood forward, claiming, "I did it." The angry guard quickly fell on him with blows all over his body, but he still stood to attention. Enraged, the guard crashed his rifle butt down on his skull, and he fell down, dead. This event had an unexpected result among the prisoners--one of them remembered the words of Jesus--"Greater love has no one than this that he lay down his life for his friends," and the whole direction of the camp changed. Instead of fighting and stealing, the men began to live sacrificially for one another. Gordon felt the direct effects of this as his comrades helped revive him when he had become so sick he was on the verge of death. One exchanged his personal watch for some medicine to help him with his fever. The men were now living in spiritual community that no ruthless guard could take away from them. By the end, when they were finally freed, the men treated the sadistic guards with love and kindness instead of revenge. I like the way Yancey uses the miracle of this POW camp to illustrate the way the church is in the world--
"In the soil of this violent, disordered world, an alternate community may take root. It lives in hope of a day of liberation. In the meantime, it aligns itself with another world, not just spreading rumors but planting settlements-in-advance of that coming reign."