Following Orders
“And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.” – Matthew 26:39
On February 22, 2000, at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, Jeff Lewis was ordered to parachute out of a C-130 aircraft. Normally, an army specialist with the Eighty-Second Airborne Division jumping from an airplane isn’t noteworthy. Paratroopers do this all the time. But Jeff was a supply clerk, not a paratrooper. He had no experience with parachutes and had never been to jump school. The order for him to jump was the result of a clerical error.
Even so, the young supply clerk reported for duty, strapped on a parachute, stepped out of the plane on the wrong foot, and began his freefall. Although his equipment got tangled, he was able to open the canopy by kicking with his feet, as instructed in the refresher course he took for soldiers who are already airborne-qualified. That cursory training probably saved his life and, amazingly, he landed unhurt.
When he was later asked what went through his mind during the ordeal, he said he was just doing what a good soldier is supposed to do: following orders. “The Army said I was airborne-qualified,” Lewis said. “I wasn’t going to question it.”
Like Jeff Lewis, Jesus knew how to obey orders. In John 2, when the wine ran out at a wedding in Cana, He showed us how to be obedient to an earthly mother. More importantly, in John 6:38, Jesus states, “For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me.” The note from the margin for today’s passage reads, “Jesus knew what it was to be obedient, to please His Father. Despite the brutal suffering and cruel death that would result, He followed orders.”
If we’re going to be followers of Christ, we must learn what it means to be obedient. Confession without obedience is meaningless. Repentance without obedience isn’t true repentance. In James 1:22, the half-brother of Jesus, said, “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.”
God doesn’t call the qualified—He qualifies the called. When He tells us to live obedient, impactful lives—to leap and trust that our parachutes will open—we need to jump!
