It was obvious to all that unless someone did something she would slip below the surface of that nearly frozen river for the last time. And someone did act, Lenny Skutnik jumped into an icy Potomac River on January 13, 1982 after an Air Florida plane crashed shortly after takeoff. He managed to save Priscilla Tirado from certain death.
The reality is...she did nothing to merit this great gift. It was an act of compassion that pulled her from those icy depths and certain death. This is such an interesting story because of what it says about our nature, or more importantly, what Scripture says about our nature and where our salvation comes from. David exhorts in Psalm 51:5 that he, like all, "was sinful at birth." Paul expounds on this in Romans 5:12 where he states that "sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men." Bluntly put, we are dead in our sins. Dead is dead, not alive, not living....dead.
So what does this have to do with a plane crash some 30 years ago? The temptation is to think of ourselves as Priscilla grasping to the ring of Jesus' salvation. We aren't doing much, just holding on (and holding on for dear life at that). Jesus is doing all the real work; the towing, the flying, the important stuff. But this idea of salvation is ALL wrong. We must ask ourselves 'What role do we play in our salvation?' and be prepared to look to His Word for the answers.
I immediately think of Lazarus in the tomb; dead, decaying, rotting. Jesus, upon arrival to the tomb, commands dead Lazarus to "Come out!" in verse 43 of John's 11th chapter. But verse 44 says it all, "The dead man came out." Like Lazarus, we are all dead in our sins, cursed from Adam since birth, rightful heirs to God's wrath through our sinful actions. Going back to Paul and his proclamation to the Romans in Chapter 5, he continues in verse 18 "Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life to all men." And in verse 21 "just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." Lazarus did not chose to accept Christ's restoration of life. Christ found him and saved him from the grasps of death itself.
We have life because of Jesus and His death and resurrection. There is no mention of good deeds (not even just a little bit). Salvation, as the Scriptures speak, are solely through Christ (Sola Christus) and His atoning blood. If it's up to us to hang on, what hope is that?! How can a dead person do anything, let alone reach out and grasp a floating ring?
So back to the helicopter rescue. Can we redeem this story, perhaps norm it by Scripture? From a Biblical perspective it would look something like this: Priscilla Tirado lay dead in the water, succumbed to the freezing temps. Her body floating along the river mostly submerged, face down. In the distance you hear a helicopter and begin to see that this helicopter doesn't have a jimmy-rigged life ring tied to a string but a large basket attached to a winch. Precisely, the helicopter maneuvers into position and lowers the basket. Priscilla, being dead, does nothing. The pilot masterfully positions the basket under and around Priscilla's floating body and begins to raise it back to the safety of of the hovering aircraft. The basket has her safely in it's grasps, no frantic grasping, no shouts of "Just hang on," no effort from this dead soul. As the basket is brought onboard, paramedics perform CPR and literally bring her back to life. She was lost but now is found, she was dead but now alive!
May we continue to look to Christ on the cross and see His sacrifice is sufficient!
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