The book and film based on ‘Operation Market Garden’ The WWII film ‘A Bridge Too Far’ is based the true story of Operation Market Garden, a failed Allied attempt to break through German lines at Arnhem across the river Rhine in the occupied Netherlands during World War II in September 1944. Several bridges were to be captured in the occupied Netherlands, with the main objective of outflanking the Germans. Capturing the bridge at Arnhem was crucial for the success of the operation. Yet, while other bridges were captured, for a variety of reasons the allies failed to capture the bridge at Arnhem. The title of the book on which the film was based comes from a comment made by the deputy commander of the First Allied Airborne Army, who is said to have told Field Marshal Montgomery before the operation, “I think we may be going a bridge too far.” Building bridges According to the Bible, Christians ought to build bridges with those of other faiths or none, in order to be able to communicate the good news about Jesus effectively. Alistair McGrath even titles one of his books on effectively communicating the gospel ‘Building Bridges.’ Jesus was so used to building bridges with people that he was even at one point accused of being a drunkard (wrongly), like the people he spent so much time with (see Luke 7:33-34). Paul also taught that Christians ought to build bridges, or fit in with the context in which we find ourselves, all for the sake of being able to effectively communicate the gospel and save souls (1 Corinthians 9:19-23). A bridge too far Yet, in John’s gospel, Jesus tells us that we ought not to be surprised when we cannot build one particular bridge with people (John 15:18-16:4). He teaches that we must accept that those who are not his followers will at some point persecute believers. It won’t always happen, because sometimes they lauded Jesus. But they also persecuted him, to the point of death. Jesus tells us that the follower must not expect any different treatment than the master. And that some people will even persecute his followers in the name of their religion, under the mistaken assumption that they are doing God a service! This is all because they do not know him – they do not have a saving relationship with God. As a result, it is futile for believers to try to be completely accepted by the world. If we do, we end up compromising either our beliefs to make them more acceptable to an unbelieving world, or our actions as we sin on occasions because we don’t want to appear to be too different from others. If we try to cross the bridge named ‘Love of the world’, then we will end up compromising our faith. Jesus told us not to be surprised if persecution comes our way, so that we would not lose our way (John 16:1). No matter how culturally-sensitive, culturally-relevant, or how well we fit in with our neighbours, friends, family, etc, for followers of Jesus there will always be one difference that we cannot, and must not, try to bridge. Being a follower of Jesus makes people different to those who aren’t his followers, and that cannot, and should not, be minimised for the sake of getting closer to people. In other words, in the process of building bridges with others who are not yet followers of Jesus, we ought to build as many bridges as we can. But, there is a limit – we must not attempt to go a bridge too far!