We've all seen it, The Photograph, the flag raising over an island called Iwo Jima.  The tiny sulfur island almost isolated in the massive Pacific Ocean, definitely not worth the 22,000 United States Marine casualties it cost to win it.  The battle for the island itself was over a month-long campaign, and it was bloody, there was no beauty in it.  Yet, we can look at this picture of six Marines and call it an honorable thing; a symbol of hope for generations.

   Like most battles that are well known, Iwo Jima has become somewhat of a legend.  It is thought to be a place where the United States Marines walked in at breakfast, in neat, orderly rows of course, and took the island in time for lunch.  Any man who was killed had time to pray and say memorable last words to report to his family, not so.

   For some reason, I can think of another battle that has become so well known that it's significance, it's reality, is often overlooked and unheard.  The battleground chosen for this war was unlike any battlefield known to man, and like our enemy at Iwo Jima, this enemy had an elaborate defense system that was deemed unconquerable.

   Jesus Christ went into battle an unarmed man, stripped of the flesh on His back, beaten, marred and humiliated beyond recognition.  If this wasn't enough, He was forced to walk through the streets carrying a wooden cross that He was nailed to and raised upon for every person to see.  He hung there for hours, totally exposed, taking upon Himself the sin that we had caused and the shame that we deserved.  Then, He died.

   Satan thought that the war was over, Jesus was dead wasn't He?  Ah, but three days later, after what seemed to have been the greatest loss in history, Jesus Christ broke the grip of death itself and walked out of the grave!

   The reality of the atrocities commited against Jesus Christ are as real as the atrocities commited against our Marines on Iwo Jima.  Jesus, like the Marines fought for the freedom of a people - and, like the Marines, He won His battle.

   Agnostics pose a question, "If Jesus Christ was so powerful why didn't He order Himself down from the cross?"

   Because. . . He loved you that much.