Franz Stigler sat at an airport base, he was a fighter pilot for Germany, and it was world war 2. Franz was an ace, he had been credited with 27 victory points. Some of these were 4 engine American bombers, which pay 3 victory points each because of how well defended they were and how hard they were to knock out of the sky. Franz had not gone home with his squad, he had landed here for fuel. He was only 3 points away from the prestigious Knight's cross award. He wanted to get back up there and knock out another bomber. Even though there was a bullet in his plane's radiator, he would go back up.
Charlie Brown sat in his cockpit, fiddling with his throttles, he was an American bomber pilot, flying a 4 engine bomber plane called Ye Old Pub. He had gotten separated from his squad and then German fighters had ganged up on him. He knocked down a few of them but they had riddled his plane with bullet holes and destroyed the tail section. Only one engine was running right, one engine was dead, and the other 2 were hit and miss. The tail gunner had died when his section was destroyed. Most of the guns were out of action. Another gunner was bleeding and needed medical attention. Then another bullet came and knocked out the oxygen supply. Charlie and his co-pilot passed out. Ye Old Pub went into a dive. Down went the pub, below the clouds, 10'000, 9'000, 8'000, 7'000, 6'000, 5000....and at some point, with oxygen rich air Charlie regained consciousness, he woke his co-pilot and they fought the controls. The Pub leveled off just in time as it's engines blew the leaves from the trees. The German people in the town just below gazed up at them in amazement. His navigator found the closest course to England and the wounded pub flew along, low to the ground and very slow, right over an airport base.
Franz Stigler's plane was just about finished when suddenly, an American bomber roared just overhead! Franz jumped in and took off. He caught up with the plane and saw the bomber with the words Ye Old Pub on it's front. He saw the nose section was shot up and open to the outside, he saw the sides had so many bullet holes in it that he could see through it and see the crew attending to their wounded. He saw the tail section was destroyed, the gunner there was dead, he saw one of the rear wings was shot off. He flew alongside the Pub and their wings overlapped, he looked in at the pilots, they stared back like they knew their time had come. Something welled up in Franz, he found himself unable to shoot. He tried to communicate with the pilots through hand signals, they refused to land and surrender. So he flew with the Pub, when they came to flak guns, he pulled out so that the German gunners on the ground could see his plane, and would hold their fire, it worked. He flew out into the Atlantic with the Pub. When an American gunner onboard the Pub, pointed a gun at him, he saluted, and left.
Franz went on to shoot down many more planes, but he stopped counting victory points, it no longer mattered. Now he was just trying to protect the German people from the bombs. He survived the war. Charlie flew more missions, and also survived the war. He never forgot the German and wondered why, why was he still alive? The men found each other, and Franz found in Charlie another brother, Franz's own brother had died in an accident while taking off in a German bomber. However now, late in life, in Charlie Brown who he had spared at a time when the American did not have anyway of defending himself, he found another brother.
In this case Franz had tremendous power, a fast Messerschmitt in his control, he had been to Africa, he had killed many pilots, this guy was bad news, an extremely efficient and fast killer, like a shark in the sky. He specialized in swooping in with tremendous and terrifying speed, shooting the enemy out of the sky then wheeling and retreating into the clouds. However on this day, with such a colossal power advantage and 3 victory points right there in front of him, like a bowl of ice cream, he couldn't and wouldn't shoot! Why not? Meekness, he controlled his power, now was not the time to kill, now was the time to leverage power to protect the week.
The Lord Jesus lived meekness, how would He come? On a shiny magic horse with 10'000 angels just because, well, He could. No! Now was not the time, this time it was time to come like any other human, but, unlike most, let's be born in a barn. To ride into Jerusalem, as the Lord God almighty with fiery chariots and angelic hosts? No....To ride as a human VIP, in a chariot with nice horses and security detail? No....The time was right to ride into Jerusalem on a little donkey. So, He did. The earth had a huge sin problem, use power to vanquish humanity and all it's sin from the earth? No! Pay the price to redeem that humanity instead. This meant not using the vast power of Heaven to protect Himself from the cross. That power stood at hand, with one signal, the entire empire, the entire world could be destroyed, and He would be out of there, but no, He decided to restrain that power and only use the power of suffering, death, and resurrection. Why? Because, Redemption, and this is why we surrender. So, the real meekness is having power and using it in a controlled, kind, and ethical way. The only way to reliably live this way is to take on the nature of Christ. In the next chapter we will discuss the surrender element of this. There is a sermon version of this subject if you care to watch it.
This has been chapter 6 of Surrender!? To Who?
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