Throughout human history, we have honored those who die courageously for a noble cause. We write stories and make statues and establish holidays in their honor. And in our culture, especially, we make movies. And what draws us to these movies isn’t just the way a hero lives. It’s the way a hero dies! In a sense, death is the final measure of a man. And it’s how they die that makes their stories epic.

There is a movie at the box office right now, 300, that critics didn’t expect to do very well. But it was one of the largest grossing R-rated films in history on opening weekend. It’s the movie about the three hundred Spartans, led by King Leonidas, who resisted the Persians in the Battle of Thermopylae and fought to the death. I’m no movie critic, but I think the movie is doing as well as it is because we are mysteriously drawn to a courageous death.

So some of us watch a movie like Braveheart or Gladiator over and over again. And we are drawn to a William Wallace who scoffs at death: “Every man dies. Not every man really lives.” Same with Maximus Decimus Meridius. He says, “Death smiles at us all. All a man can do is smile back.”

We admire those who live well. But the final test is really how someone faces death. Do they die well? Do they die with their integrity intact? Do they die for a noble cause? Does their death make a difference?

It’s hard to measure the way someone dies, but I think it’s safe to say that no death was more noble or more courageous than the death of Christ. And no death makes a bigger difference!

That is what we celebrate on Good Friday.