An ANZAC Day Memorial Message

ANZAC day is New Zealand's national day of remembrance, where we honour, commemorate, and preserve the memory of those who served in the First and Second World Wars—whether they came home or never returned at all.

Yet the best way we can honour the fallen and those who served is not merely with our presence today or our words, but through our actions and the part we can all play in defending freedom from oppression and tyranny for others, however insignificant the ways we may find to do so.

Many Southerners were involved in both World Wars. Last year, we remembered the passing of Tom Heslop in his 101st year, who fought with the 23rd Battalion in World War Two. Tom was just twenty-one years old when he was critically injured and forced to return home. From the Woodlands district, others served, and some died in battle, such as John Trotter, who died on 17 December 1942 at the age of 35.

It was a young generation of New Zealanders who answered the call to take up arms. And as one commentator has said, "The First World War changed the lives of millions of people on a scale never witnessed before. And New Zealand, despite its isolation, was caught up in the whirlwind."

New Zealand's commitment to the Great War and the eventual Allied Forces victory has been described as second to none. Over one hundred thousand men traded in their livelihoods and left their homes and families for distant lands to combat evil, defend the good and protect the freedoms of peoples. One preeminent military historian noted that, due to the Kiwis’ settler independence and skills with rifle and spade, they won the reputation as the best soldiers in the world during the 20th century.

But this came at great cost. Our young men did not understand the horrors that awaited them.

Some 18,000 New Zealand soldiers died in the First World War, and many more were injured or became diseased. They fought bravely, but proportionally speaking, the New Zealand casualty rate was the highest of all the British dominions. Every New Zealand family was touched by these two wars in some way, which is why war monuments are found all across even smaller New Zealand towns.

The 25th of April 1915 marks the disastrous beginning of the nearly year-long Gallipoli Peninsula campaign fighting the Turkish Ottoman Empire. Securing the peninsula would have allowed Allied forces to march on Constantinople and potentially force the Ottoman Empire out of the war. But Allied troops were faced with constant Turkish bombardment, resulting in New Zealand casualties reaching nearly 2,800.

In a letter by New Zealand serviceman Lieutenant Fred McKee, he describes the Gallipoli landing day in 1915 as, quote, a "perfect morning". All that disturbed the atmosphere that morning was gunfire and booming artillery.

McKee also noted the contents of a letter for the troops written just days earlier by their British general, commander-in-chief of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force, Ian Hamilton. It read: "Soldiers of France and of the King. Before us lies an adventure unprecedented in modern war. Together with our comrades of the fleet, we are about to force a landing upon an open beach in face of positions which have been vaunted by our enemies as impregnable. The landing will be made good by the help of God and the Navy. The positions will be stormed, and this war brought one step nearer to a glorious close.... remember once you set foot on Gallipoli’s peninsula, you must fight the thing through to a finish. The whole world is watching our progress. Let us prove worthy of the great feat of arms entrusted to us."

So we will not cease to remember the ANZACs, whether those at Gallipoli or on whatever fronts New Zealanders have taken up the call to defend free lands and people to this day. The Scripture says, “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.”

A parting thought for reflection: Another New Zealand lieutenant by the name of Robert Davies also landed at Anzac Cove on that Sunday, 25 April 1915. He wrote: "We were just clear of the Lemnos harbour when we heard the tremendous boom of guns just 30 miles off. This bombardment had started at 3.30am but had slackened off at 8am and continued again at 9am as we left. We held a church service on board amid the booming of the big guns."

Whether you are a religious person here this morning or not, I think you know there is still something deeply moving as you picture men sailing headlong into the death grip of the evil that is war, yet taking time to reflect on that greater sacrifice which God had already made for them. That because of Jesus Christ, one day wars shall cease and the fight against evil shall be no more. Though around them would soon be the smells and sounds of death, for a moment in their hearts there could be resounding praise.

You see, a Christian church service is like a remembrance day too. We remember what God has done for humanity in the coming of Jesus Christ two thousand years ago.

Jesus was no ordinary man; he was God in flesh, the Bible tells us. He was born according to the prophetic promise of a saviour since we first fell from right relationship with God at the beginning. Jesus lived the sinless life we could not; he was betrayed and unjustly crucified on a Roman cross, yet all in the divine plan, there he paid the penalty for our sins as a substitute. They laid him in a tomb, but on the third day he was resurrected, seen by many witnesses, ascended to glory, and is coming again.

Our soldiers went off to war to combat evil, the story of the Bible is God dealing with why we have war and evil to begin with: the sin in our hearts and our rebellion and rejection of God and his Word.

By repenting of our sins and trusting in Jesus Christ alone, we can be forgiven all our guilt and experience a freedom greater even than that which the soldiers won for us, that is eternal life with God.

A few months back, my wife and I visited the Gallipoli War exhibition at Te-Papa Museum in Wellington. On display was a Māori Christian book of hymns with a partial bullet hole in it that had probably saved the man’s life. One of the hymns on the open page was based on the words of Jesus in Matthew 11:28, a call for people to put their faith in him: “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.”

In this world and in our hearts, there is sin and brokenness. We all know deep down that things are not as they ought to be. The answer to this is that God, in the person of Jesus Christ, is restoring all things. The day is coming when, through the exercise of his just judgments, he shall put all things right and make them new.

The only way we can be prepared for that day is by putting our trust in Jesus, who gave his own life to face the judgment we deserved, that we might be free.