I recently heard a story from Pastor John Ortberg of Menlo Park Presbyterian Church.
"A friend of mine named Max DePree was a paramedic in World War II, and he served in Europe, and he told me a story I've never forgotten about how they would save soldiers. They would go into the field after battle, whenever they could, to try to save the soldiers that were there. Sometimes they would be wounded Allied soldiers, sometimes they would be wounded German soldiers.
Max said they always carried with them units of blood for transfusion, and that blood would save lives, and the bags of blood, as part of a kind of moral deal at that time, carried the names of the donors on the bags. Whoever had given that blood back in The States, their name was on that bag, was on that blood, and so whoever got it could know whose blood had saved their life.
Max said they started doing an interesting thing. This wasn’t military policy, just some of the paramedics started doing that. They would save bags that had Jewish names on them for the German Nazi soldiers. Isn’t that wonderful?
Max said they would actually talk to them, if the guys were conscious, and they would tell them, "You know, if I don’t help you, you're going to die. You're lying here wounded, you're going to die, but you can be saved. You don’t have to die. I want to save you, but you will have to receive blood from a Jewish donor, if you want to stay alive," and Max said some of them would say, "Yes, please, yes, I want to live." Max said it was the most amazing thing. Sometimes they would say no. Such was the pride, the arrogance, folly, whatever it is that gets in the human heart. They would say, "I'd rather die, than humble myself to receive life from the blood of a Jewish donor." Max said when that happened, they would let them pass out, and then they would save them anyway.
God is not willing that any should perish, but He gives to everyone a choice, the most important one that you can ever make…Who are you trusting to atone for your sin? Who are you trusting to set things right between you and God?
Who are you trusting to save you? You or Jesus?"
