It was June of 1998, hot and
humid in Fort Benning, Georgia, and I was getting ready to make my first jump at
the Army Airborne School. I had spent
the previous two weeks meticulously learning and rehearsing the procedures for
donning my parachute gear, jumping out of a perfectly good airplane, executing
the controlled crash known as the parachute landing fall, then quickly climbing
out of my gear without getting dragged across the drop zone by my
parachute. I was as ready as any
first-time paratrooper could be. I was
confident and sure in my training, my physical ability, and in myself. I had all the right qualifications, I
thought, to become a paratrooper.
And yet, as I ambled aboard the
C-130 Hercules Aircraft, I began to feel anxious. The pain and discomfort I felt from the
tightness of my rig testified that my parachute and gear were securely
fastened. I knew our exit and landing
procedures to a tee. We had executed our
drills hundreds of times so that they became embedded in our muscle memory. I felt comfortable that I could exit the
aircraft safely, and land in a way that properly distributed the shock so that
I would not be injured. Yet, the
nervousness was still there.
As I was fastened into the cotton
webbing cargo seating in the back of the C-130, I realized what the problem
was. During our last day of training
before performing our qualification jumps, we had viewed a training tape of all
the things that could go wrong when you jump, as well as the actions to take if
one of these “unlikely” events occurred.
This video provided all the various nightmare scenarios one could
imagine. In one scene we saw what would
occur if someone had a hole in their chute or a blown section, providing a
partial or total failure of lift capability.
In another scene, we saw a cigarette roll. This occurs when the chute is improperly
packed causing it to fuse together during deployment. The worst scenario that kept running through
my brain was the scene showing a hung jumper.
This occurs if your static line fails to rip open the pack-tray securing
your parachute after you step out of the jump door. The result is a man that is still connected
to the aircraft by his static line, slapping up against the skin of the
aircraft. The only way to correct this
parachute malfunction is for the jumpmaster to cut the static line and hope the
jumper is still conscious to deploy his reserve parachute. Our Airborne Instructors had taught us all
the procedures for correcting these parachute malfunctions, cheerily joking
that should one of these malfunctions occur, we had the rest of our Airborne
lives to fix it.
The pilot signaled to the
jumpmasters that we were nearly over the drop zone. The jumpmasters went through the ritual of
inspecting the cargo area and jump doors to make sure conditions were safe to
jump.
I sat there after our five-minute
warning and realized that my ability to survive my jump didn’t come down to my
own skill or knowledge. My abilities
played little into my success or failure as a first-time paratrooper. All the drills and rehearsals in the world
could prepare me to exit the aircraft in perfect form. However, my life rested on the assurance that
my parachute and/or reserve was properly packed and would deploy without
failure when I stepped out of the aircraft.
Suddenly I recognized my utter
helplessness.
The illusion of control had been
ripped away. I realized that my life was
in the hands of an unknown, nameless Rigger.
Airborne Riggers are a specialty in the Army, trained to inspect and
pack parachutes for use in Airborne operations.
Each parachute contained the ID number of the person who packed the
parachute. This made the parachute
traceable to the individual Rigger who packed it. I suddenly wanted to know this person’s
name. I wanted assurance that my life
was in trustworthy hands.
The jumpmasters began to scream
the commands to prepare for jump operations, shaking me out of my
thoughts. We dutifully echoed each
command.
“Outboard personnel, Stand up!”
“OUTBOARD PERSONNEL, STAND UP!”
“Inboard personnel, Stand up!”
“INBOARD PERSONNEL, STAND UP!”
We all ambled to our feet and
formed a line along the aisles of the aircraft.
“Hook Up!”
“HOOK UP!”
We hooked our static lines to the
cargo cables spanning the rear of the aircraft keeping a bent arm’s distance
between ourselves and the person in front of us.
“Check static lines!”
“CHECK STATIC LINES!”
We verified the static lines were
properly hooked to the cargo cable and passed over rather than under our
shoulders.
“Sound off for equipment check!”
“SOUND OFF FOR EQUIPMENT CHECK!”
Starting from the back of the
aircraft to the front, each paratrooper inspected the parachute of the person
in front of them, making sure there were no visible defects. A wave of “OK,” as each soldier passed the
results of the inspection up the line until the first paratrooper confirmed to
the jumpmaster, “ALL OKAY JUMPMASTER!”
The jumpmaster eyed the jump
light as it turned green. We were over
the drop zone.
“Go!”
“GO!”
We began ambling forward, the
paratroopers in front of me disappearing out of the jump door one by one. I approached the jumpmaster handing him my
static line and made a crisp 45-degree turn. I took my final two steps snapping
my feet together with my body in an L-shaped posture as I began freefalling
from the side of the aircraft.
And there I was, falling through
the sky, completely dependent upon the work of another. I remember seeing my boots and beyond them
the ground blurrily approaching. I began
counting down as I prayed for my chute to open, “ONE THOUSAND! TWO THOUSAND! THREE THOUSAND! FOUR THOUSAND!”
A sharp jerk on my groin and
shoulders as my parachute opened and my descent slowed. My hands went to the risers of my chute and I
looked up. No blown sections, no holes,
no cigarette rolls, or hung jumpers. My
chute had deployed. I would be
okay. My Rigger had proven
faithful.
Scripture makes
clear the helplessness of man in his sin.
In Deuteronomy,
Moses recounts in detail the salvation of Israel and the gift of the Law which
they have received from the hand of the Lord.
And at the end of this recounting, he leaves them with this warning.
“See, I have
set before you today life and prosperity, and death and adversity; in that I command
you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways and to keep His commandments
and His statutes and His judgments, that you may live and multiply, and that
the Lord your God may bless you in the land where you are entering to possess
it.”
And yet, just paragraphs
later, the Lord predicts to Moses that Israel will fall away, just as we do
today. Though they possess the revelation
of God’s law, we and they fail to follow it and are in bondage to sin. God presented us with life and grace, and we willingly
choose death. This is not from our
created nature, but from our rebelliousness.
David makes
clear that he, and by extension we, are steeped in sin from birth.
“Behold, I was
brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me.”
The apostle
Paul in addressing the Church at Rome, strings together the witness of the Psalmists
and Prophets on the matter of sin.
“There is none
righteous, not even one; there is none who understands, there is none who seeks
for God; all have turned aside, together they have become useless; there is
none who does good, there is not even one.
Their throat is an open grave, with their tongues they keep deceiving,
the poison of asps is under their lips; whose mouth is full of cursing and
bitterness; their feet are swift to shed blood, destruction and misery are in
their paths, and the path of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
If somehow we dare
to think that we can of our own effort, skill, holiness, or works stand before
God as righteous, he shoots this down as well.
“Because by the
works of the Law no flesh will be justified in his sight; for through the Law
comes the knowledge of sin.”
When we peer
into the scorching mirror of the law, we see that we are unrighteous, unholy, wicked,
and condemned people before the Lord.
In Paul’s words,
we find that we are “dead in the trespasses and sins in which we once walked.”
We find ourselves
free-falling, daring to hope that there is yet someone faithful by whom we
might be saved.
Today I find the
promise that there is one who is faithful in Paul’s epistle to the Philippians.
“Have this mind
among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the
form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied
himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of
men. And being found in human form, he
humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a
cross. Therefore God has highly exalted
him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name
of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and
every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
In this
passage, Paul describes the pre-incarnate Christ purposefully and willingly
taking upon himself the role of redeemer.
This is the same pre-incarnate Christ, whom John calls the Logos, who
created all things and apart from Him nothing that has its existence was
created.
It is this
pre-incarnate Christ who held the same glory, majesty, and honor that is due to
the Father, who set aside the privilege and power due his divinity so that he
might condescend to us and take into himself humanity.
The God who
created and gave life to all flesh, now became flesh. Though Christ was equal to his Father with
regard to the nature of his divinity, he set this aside and was obedient to the
will of his Father with regard to all things.
It was this Jesus who came to us in weakness as a baby. He experienced all the temptations and
sufferings that we suffer yet without sin.
Is anyone tempted? So was he. Is anyone hungry, or cold, or without a home? So was he.
Is anyone persecuted or facing opposition or betrayal? So was he.
He experienced all of these things on our behalf.
Not only was he
obedient to his Father in these things, but he was obedient even to the point
of death. He was obedient not just to
death, but the horrible death of the cross.
Though he was sinless, Christ bore the sin of us all, and the curse that
the law prescribes for sin upon himself.
He was mocked, beaten, scourged, crucified, and pierced through with
nails and spear for our sake. He took
our sin, and credited to us his own righteousness obtained thru obedience to
the Father.
The author of Hebrews
describes the work of Christ in this way:
“For it was
fitting that He, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons
to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering…Since
therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of
the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power
of death, that is the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death
were subject to lifelong slavery…Therefore he had to be made like his brothers
in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest
in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For because he himself has suffered when
tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.”
Through the
cross, we see that Christ is the faithful one whose work it is to save us from
our sins. He has fully and completely
arrested us from our freefall through his suffering and death. And it is through the resurrection that this
was made publicly manifest to us, that we might have confidence that in Christ,
we too will land safely in God’s grace and mercy.
He has ascended
to the right hand of the Father where he has taken up the glory that he had
before the world was created.
My hope is that
through the Holy Spirit, you too will recognize the hopelessness of your sin
and the faithfulness of the Son of God who became our servant-savior, and that you
also will gladly bow the knee and confess Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Amen.
