06/21/2025
Japanese fighter planes had routinely destroyed American bombers in the South Pacific because there was no way for the American bombers to refuel. These Japanese planes took off from one particular island that the Japanese held. It was called Iwo Jima. It stood between Japan and the rest of the South Pacific, a pork chop shaped hill two miles by five and a half miles, but only 750 miles from Tokyo. If secured, it would bring American bombers within range of all of Japan….but there was a massive problem. The Japanese general in charge of Iwo Jima had instructed his troops to construct a complex network of tunnels and fortifications underground. They could not be seen from above. On February the 19th, 1945, the 3rd, 4th, and 5th Marine Divisions began the invasion at Iwo Jima. The deadliest place in the invasion would be the left flank because it was those American marines that would have to take the highest point of the mountain, Mount Suribachi. In fact, General Holland McTyeire "Howlin' Mad" Smith of the Marine Corps, in charge of the three marine divisions, said before the invasion started that medals should be given now before the battle to those on the left flank because of what they will suffer and endure for the cause of freedom. The battle was not to be brief nor easy. It took 36 days of mud-soaked fighting. There were 25,000 American casualties, 7,000 dead soldiers. On the fifth day of the Battle of Iwo Jima, five Marines and one Navy corpsman raised an American flag on top of Mount Suribachi. It became the most famous photograph of World War II, and if you go to Washington DC today, out near Arlington near the National Cemetery, you will see the monument to the United States Marine Corps. They picked this moment in all of their history, the raising of the flag at Iwo Jima, as their iconic memorial. On the monument beneath the flag are these words, “Uncommon valor was a common virtue.” Ordinary people sometimes do extraordinary things. So an ordinary young teenage boy, 19 years of age, from the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas, was one of the six. He would never leave the island. Three of the six would be killed in the next five days. It was a hill worth dying on because it broke the back of the Japanese military and paved the way for America to plant the flag of freedom for the world to see. In a marvelous lecture at Pepperdine years later, Ross Thompson of Atlanta, Georgia, said these words: “There is no such thing as cheap grace. Someone must become our grace.” Our Lord and Savior became our grace on the cross of Calvary on a Friday some 2000 years ago. It was a hill worth dying on for Him, and He made the decision to die on that hill while alone in Gethsemane, engaged in fervent prayer with His Father, and in the mental anguish of eminent death. And now, he calls on ordinary people to do extraordinary things if we agree that His cause is a hill worth dying on. So, will we engage in the battle to secure the hill of faith, or will we not. He has left the choice to us. What is your hill? Money we don’t need, fame, the praise of men? Or is it the challenge to spread the gospel to all who will listen? A hill worth dying on….we all pick our hill. So, what is a hill worth dying on to you?
