You Can't Just Jump Up

I remember Bill Cosby doing a routine years ago about what to do in a plane crash. He had decided that all you have to do if your plane is crashing is to wait until just before the plane hits the ground… and then jump up. That’s all you have to do— just jump up. Of course, that doesn’t work too well if you’re in a helicopter. But in a plane, just wait until right before it hits the ground and jump up.

I thought that was funny... because I remember having the same idea when I was a kid. Why not just jump up at the last minute? Why wouldn’t that work? Well, it wouldn’t work because you are moving at the same speed as the crashing plane. You can’t jump up fast enough or far enough, and even if you could... you would still land in the middle of a plane crash! No, its best to stay in your seat with your seatbelt securing fastened leaning over in crash position. That at least makes it easier for them to find you later!

What brought that up? My reading this morning was in Matthew 24, Matthew’s version of the text in Mark 13 we slogged through in Bible class last night. Jesus ends the chapter with a parable of a wealthy landowner who goes on a trip and leaves his servant in charge. Jesus asks what would happen if the servant goofs off the whole time the master is gone, thinking he has plenty of time to get ready? Matthew 24:48-51 (NCV) reads—

48 But suppose that evil servant thinks to himself, ‘My master will not come back soon,’ 49 and he begins to beat the other servants and eat and get drunk with others like him? 50 The master will come when that servant is not ready and is not expecting him. 51 Then the master will cut him in pieces and send him away to be with the hypocrites, where people will cry and grind their teeth with pain.

What the servant was trying to do was waiting until the last minute and jumping up. Unfortunately, the master came home unexpectedly. And by that time, the servant was already falling at crash speed, and nothing can prevent him from crashing and burning.

If we are to be ready when Jesus returns, then we must stay ready all the time. We can’t live our lives as we please and wait until the last minute to get ready. We don’t know when the last minute will be. And by that time, we may already be in such a nose dive that we can’t pull out. You can’t wait until right before the crash and just jump up.