He Stepped Out of the Line
“Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends.”
— John 15:13 (NIV)
Jesus said this hours before His own arrest. In July 1941 a prisoner went missing from Auschwitz, so the camp commander picked ten men to die of starvation. Franciszek Gajowniczek cried out that he had a wife and children. Maximilian Kolbe stepped forward and said he would go instead. Kolbe died on 14 August 1941. Gajowniczek survived the war and lived into his nineties.
Nobody is asking you to die for another person today. But almost everyone has someone they could take something off. It might be an uncomfortable conversation another person keeps postponing. It might be blame that would be easier to leave where it fell.
Take Something Off Someone
- 1Do one thing today that someone else would otherwise have to do, and do not tell them.
Jesus, show me one thing today I can take on instead of someone else.
I will carry something today instead of someone else.
Who was Maximilian Kolbe?
A Polish Franciscan friar imprisoned at Auschwitz. In 1941 he volunteered to take the place of another prisoner condemned to death by starvation.
What happened to the man he replaced?
Franciszek Gajowniczek survived the war and lived into his nineties, telling the story for the rest of his life.
Does this verse only apply to dying for someone?
It names the furthest edge of love. The same direction runs through smaller costs carried for another person every day.