Last night God’s angel stood at my side, an angel of this God I serve, saying to me, ’Don’t give up, Paul. You’re going to stand before Caesar yet-and everyone sailing with you is also going to make it.’ So, dear friends, take heart. I believe God will do exactly what he told me. But we’re going to shipwreck on some island or other.” (Acts 27:23-26 MSG)
We’ve all been asked the annoying question: “I’ve got good news and bad news which do you want first?”. Normally I will pick the bad news first so I have something to look forward to. It’s kind of the same reason I eat my vegetables or salad first, you know, something to look forward to…like steak! Anyhow, I digress. Paul stood with a prophetic word in the midst of the storm and chaos and told essentially told everyone, “The bad news is you ignored me when I warned you not to set sail earlier and it’s going to get worse before it gets better. The good news is that we’re going to shipwreck. If you all stay on board the ship though we will all survive”. You know you are in rough spot when shipwrecking is the good news. I find it ingesting that the caveat for everyone surviving according to Gods plan was that everyone stays on board, no matter what. What was God up to with this? Why not just let those faithless fellows who choose to not listen to Gods instructions a second time find their own fate in Davey Jones’ Locker? Why do they all have stay together to make this work? The captain, the soldiers, the prisoners, the slaves- no one gets to jump ship. Could it be that even in the midst of this horrific storm on ship filled with unbelievers and hardened criminals Gods primary priority was still their souls? Whether they believed in God or not, by the end of this journey the Captain himself was choosing to go with Gods plan, even if it didn’t make sense. In the midst of a life threatening storm there are not many excuses for unbelief that don’t get thrown over board. To use a different analogy ” There aren’t any Athiests in foxholes”. Luke goes on to describe how this all played out 14 days later adrift at sea: Some of the sailors tried to jump ship. They let down the lifeboat, pretending they were going to set out more anchors from the bow. Paul saw through their guise and told the centurion and his soldiers, “If these sailors don’t stay with the ship, we’re all going down.” So the soldiers cut the lines to the lifeboat and let it drift off. The soldiers decided to kill the prisoners so none could escape by swimming, but the centurion, determined to save Paul, stopped them. He gave orders for anyone who could swim to dive in and go for it, and for the rest to grab a plank. Everyone made it to shore safely. (Acts 27:30-32, 42-44 MSG)
This whole narrative is a powerful challenge against the “us four and no more” mentality the church can often get stuck in. As we look at the world around in the midst of overwhelming storms of every kind- financial, physical, mental, spiritual…and actual storms- what is our reaction as Christians? “Well, it serves them right. Thats what they get for turning their backs on God.”. Somehow we can feel justified in this self righteous attitude even though it doesn’t remotely reflect the heart of the Savior we say we serve. Jesus Himself left the glory of Heaven’s shores and joined us on a ship destined to shipwreck on the rocks of sin so that everyone would have a chance to believe and find salvation. We have been put on this sinking ship in the middle of a storm as hostages of hope. This hope is not just for those who already believe, but is for those we do not yet believe. The amazing truth is that God loves the ones who want to kill us as much as He loves us. He laid His life down for them just as He did for us. He wants us to look at the motley crew around and say with boldness ” God is with us in the midst of this storm! He will get us through if we stay together. My fate will be the same as yours”. Then maybe, just maybe as we walk onto the shores of heaven we will look beside us and find fellow sailors, soldiers, and slaves all singing the songs of freedom!
