We saw the movie, Sully, last night, the story of Chelsea "Sully" Sullenberger, the airline captain who landed his plane in the Hudson river a few years ago. I didn't know what to expect, other than the story of the courageous landing and the survival of everyone on board. So I was surprised to find an entirely different slant on the story. Maybe I had missed a lot in the newspapers, but I never thought of him as anything but a hero.
Although the public loved him, the National Transportation Safety Board was not quite so enthusiastic. In fact, the captain was shocked when he was called before them for an investigation. They argued that he could have made it to the airport and landed safely, according to their flight simulators, which re-enacted the event. It was three days before the matter was settled. But I won't ruin the movie with any more details, other than to say the NTSB seemed more concerned that they had lost a plane than the fact that 155 passengers were saved.
It reminded me of another movie, Moby Dick, based on the book by the same name written by Hermann Melville. Melville got his inspiration from the accounts of a real life whaler whose whaling boat was destroyed by a giant whale. In the movie, the whaler was brought up for charges of destroying the boat, although it was not his fault.
Thoughts occurred to me of a parallel between these events and the ministry of Jesus. When Jesus healed the sick and raised the dead, he was wildly heralded by the people. He was a hero, worthy of being king! But the authorities didn't like it; they didn't care that he came to save the people from their sins. Their only concern was that he was going to destroy their religious system! Jesus too, was brought up before officials in a kind of "kangaroo court."
It wasn't until three days after his crucifixion when He rose from the dead that He began to be recognized as Saviour! Ephesians 4:9 says that Jesus descended into the lower parts of the earth. Coincidentally, Captain Sullenberger was in a pit of (emotional) darkness for three days.
When the movie was over, the actors portrayed as the people saved on the flight were shown--happy, well, and celebratory. They looked nothing like the drenched, terrified passengers they represented who almost went to a watery grave. By the same token, the redeemed who die on earth--maybe from debilitating sickness, old age, or in another traumatic way--will look nothing like that in heaven!
My husband had a vision of heaven when he was in a state of altered consciousness coming out of the anesthesia after heart surgery a few months ago. He was in awe at the joy and happiness of the saints he saw descending as from a cloud into heaven. From the way he described the scene, they were "walking and leaping and praising God," like the crippled man who had asked alms from Peter and John and was healed. Acts 3:6.
The people on the airplane trusted and obeyed their captain, and no one was lost. We must trust the "Captain of our salvation" to bring us safely home! "For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings." Hebrews 2:10.
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