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PILOT’S SACRIFICE

Topics: Cross; Jesus Christ; Sacrifice; Salvation

References: John 15:13; Philippians 2:5–8

I was leading a beach mission with children on the sands of Scarborough, North Yorkshire, when a Royal Air Force Lightning jet flew by, skimming the surface of the sea before it turned and flew inland. A minute or two later it returned and went into a steep incline over Scarborough Castle. I thought the pilot was doing a stunt. Then, to our horror, the plane flipped and dropped to the sea. It crashed less than two hundred yards away from the beach. The pilot was killed.

The next day the newspaper headline on the crash was “Pilot Gives Life to Save Crowds.” The story reported how, when his plane began to fail, the pilot chose not to eject himself and risk having the plane crash onto the crowded beach but instead steered it away from the crowds.

When the pilot climbed into the plane that day, he had no idea that he would sacrifice his life to save us. By contrast, the Lord Jesus deliberately left heaven and came to earth with the express intention of going to a death to “save the crowds.”

—Roger Carswell, How Small a Whisper (Kregel, 2000)