This statement of protest and its variants were repeated many times in the 1998 American war film Saving Private Ryan.
This box-office and critically acclaimed epic movie, “Saving Private Ryan” was set during the invasion of Normandy in World War II.
In the movie, eight soldiers were sent on a mission to save one soldier: a Private James Francis Ryan, from the hell of the Second World War within enemy territory, and bring him home to his mother.
The order came about when the condolence section of army headquarters learned that Ryan’s mother was about to receive the news that her three sons were all dead within days of each other in the war. The Chief of Staff of the Army, General George Marshall, ordered Private Ryan found and "get him the hell out of there.”
The mission didn’t make sense to the eight rescuing soldiers. The reason given to them in their seemingly meaningless objective of saving Private Ryan was just to alleviate some of the grief of Ryan’s mother.
The order came about when the condolence section of army headquarters learned that Ryan’s mother was about to receive the news that her three sons were all dead within days of each other in the war. The Chief of Staff of the Army, General George Marshall, ordered Private Ryan found and "get him the hell out of there.”
The mission didn’t make sense to the eight rescuing soldiers. The reason given to them in their seemingly meaningless objective of saving Private Ryan was just to alleviate some of the grief of Ryan’s mother.
“What kind of deal is this? Eight of us for one of him?
Private Jackson: Sir... I have an opinion on this matter. Captain Miller: Well, by all means, share it with the squad.
Private Jackson: Well, from my way of thinking, sir, this entire mission is a serious misallocation of valuable military resources. Private Reiben: You want to explain the math of this to me? I mean, where's the sense in risking the lives of the eight of us to save one guy?
Medic Wade: Reiben, think about the ….mother.Private Reiben: Hey, Wade, I got a mother, you got a mother, the sarge has got a mother. I'm willing to bet that even the Captain's got a mother. Well, maybe not the Captain, but the rest of us have got mothers.
Even Private Ryan himself didn’t think he deserved the rescue. Sergeant Horvath: I don't know. Part of me thinks the kid's right. He asks what he's done to deserve this. He wants to stay here, fine. Let's leave him and go home. But then another part of me thinks, what if by some miracle we stay, then actually make it out of here. Someday we might look back on this and decide that saving Private Ryan was the one decent thing we were able to pull out of this whole god-awful … mess. ..
Why does God love us? Why did he have to go through too much trouble to rescue us? Why did he have to leave his place of bliss and come to where we are in the midst of war? Why did he have to be like us? And why did Jesus have to die?
I often think of the heavens your hands have made, and of the moon and stars you put in place. Then I ask, "Why do you care about us humans? Why are you concerned for us weaklings?” Psalm 8:3-4 CEVDavid was such a genius in his writings.
One way of understanding what he was saying in these verses is this: The psalmist tried to illustrate a seemingly nonsense way that God is so preoccupied with us. He seemed to be saying that compared to the moon and the stars we are so insignificant to merit his attention. If God were to be selfishly concerned about which ones are giving Him glory, He should be spending more time thinking and dealing with the majestic and reliable Moon and stars which without fail declare His glory every night, not like us frail and unreliable humans who without fail “disglorify” God every time.
But David in these verses was actually showing that God is receiving and deserving more glory because of His attention to us “weaklings”, the ones who are unable to or will not return Him glory. God loves the lovable and the unlovable, the sinners and saints, those who love him back and those that turned their back from Him, His embrace belongs to both the son that stayed and the one who left. God is Love and he loves everyone. He doesn’t discriminate. Matthew 5:43-48,” You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
God wants us to think like he does, to love like he does indiscriminately. Just as our definition of neighbor should include everyone including our enemy, in the same way God’s salvation belongs to everyone. Yes, even you.The heavens certainly show how glorious God is, every night and every day without resting, they declare His glory in all their wonders .But with his attention towards us, the ones who tainted his glory, He is magnifying himself more.
“Although the infinite majesty of God shines forth in the heavenly bodies, and justly keeps the eyes of men fixed on the contemplation of it, yet his glory is beheld in a special manner, in the great favor which he bears to men, and in the goodness which he manifests towards them…the design of the Psalmist, which is to enhance, by this comparison, the infinite goodness of God; for it is, indeed, a wonderful thing that the Creator of heaven, whose glory is so surpassingly great as to ravish us with the highest admiration, condescends so far as graciously to take upon him the care of the human race. That the Psalmist makes this contrast may be inferred from the Hebrew word, אנוש, enosh, which we have rendered man, and which expresses the frailty of man rather than any strength or power which he possesses.” Commentary on the Psalms, Vo1, by John Calvin
“David intended this psalm to direct our thinking toward God's greatness and puny man's insignificance. However, that awesome, majestic, glorious God is glorifying Himself in man! He has chosen what the world considers weak and foolish—us—to appreciate and respect His glory, His name.”John W. Ritenbaug
God’s love is for everyone, even you. Even if you think you are a “Private Ryan.”“Why this is so, why God is this way, why the Father, Son, and Spirit set the fullness of their love and lavish grace upon us and determined such a glorious destiny for us, can only be answered by peering into the mutual love of the Father and Son and Spirit. For in one way or another, the existence of everything, not least of every human being, finds its purpose in the deep and abiding love of the Triune God. That circle of purity and mutual delight and eternal wholeness, is the matrix, the roux, of all divine thought and activity…Such love, such giving, such excessive philanthropy…and sacrificial care are not unnatural for God…But why the Triune God would turn such giving and care and lavish and determined love upon us is another question. Such an astonishing act is consistent, perfectly consistent with the being of God as Trinity, but it is not necessary; there is no compelling reason that it should be directed toward us. Before such love, we can only stand amazed, astonished and thrilled. Christian faith begins with such astonishment.” C. Baxter Kruger, Jesus and the undoing of Adam p19
You have been chosen by God to come home. To rest from all the fighting in and around you.So to the question, “Why Me?” we answer ,’Why not?”
