Four planes took off that morning. One was different than the others… Flight 93 sat on the tarmac for 45 minutes placing that at half hour behind the other three aircraft. It carried less than its normal load. It flew with only 20% of its normal number of passengers. This may well have come to play a role, as the tendency of crowds not to act may have factored into the eventual outcome. And finally, it was one hijacker short — the missing “muscle” hijacker having been turned away at the border as the customs agent, looking at the small amount of cash and the one-way ticket, decided that the individual was likely to become an illegal immigrant. So on September 11, 2001, when three aircraft were used as weapons of mass destruction, the fourth aircraft failed to reach its target.
Some things we know about that flight. Others we can only guess. The pilots were certainly incapacitated though it is not clear whether they had been killed. At least one of the flight attendants had been murdered. The passengers used Airphone’s and in a couple of cases cell phones to reach out to family members and the authorities. This calls informed them of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and made it clear to them that they are playing to would be used as a weapon of mass destruction.
A number of passengers decided to fight back. Here, fact gives way to conjecture, and the reality of people responding to crisis turns into the creation of legends and Saints… In fact, there is a word for telling the story of a saint — hagiography — and the news reports that followed come strikingly close to that ancient practice. What can be heard on the cockpit recording is unclear though the word roll is certainly used. Some have suggested that is a cry of “let’s roll!” while others suggest that it is a reference to rolling the flight attendants cart which may have been used as a battering ram. In any case, it seems clear that the passengers forced the hijackers to abandon their plan — to fly the airplane into the US capital or possibly the White House… Instead, the pilot is heard repeating the traditional call of the Muslim murder suicide before crashing the plane into a field at high speed killing everyone on board and leaving little physical evidence.
You may wonder what the story of flight 93 has to do with the story of Lazarus. After all, the Lazarus story is used to show Jesus compassion… It is sometimes used to challenge notions of high Christology — that is the idea that Jesus shared in the omniscience of the divine. From this perspective, Jesus gets it wrong when he delays before traveling to Bethany, with those who authored the text inserting an implausible explanation for the delay. And it is used to argue exactly the opposite… With a traditional reading that Jesus intentionally delays allowing Lazarus to die so that his resurrection can be a sign of Christ’s power. Sometimes it is connected to earlier and later resurrections, for it is one of our great mistakes to reduce the Judeo-Christian trajectory to a single resurrection. Elijah resurrects the dead as does Paul… The notion of the dead coming back to life through divine action is not at all alien and strange in the context. The story of Lazarus is used to emphasize the very humanness of Jesus… His weeping, his complex relationships and conflicting priorities…
But I’d like to focus on a little passage that is often overlooked. The disciples warn Jesus against traveling to Judea. They remind him that the Jewish opposition — that is those parties that are in power and that have the most to lose from the growing popularity of Jesus message — the parties we label as Pharisees and Sadducees, that these men are planning to stone Jesus. We know it won’t eventually play out that way, for rather than the stoning prescribed by Torah, Jesus is instead executed by the Roman authorities in a manner which is the very definition of unclean. But it is clearly religious opponents who are driving this threat, a threat the disciples take seriously.
Does Jesus take it seriously? Do we have to believe the traditional interpretation, the high Christology, that insist that Jesus went to Jerusalem intending to the executed? I’m not sure we do. But Jesus response is much like the response of the passengers of flight 93… “Let’s roll!”…
And Thomas, much-maligned Thomas, is right there with them. Thomas is the one who most truly believes, for surely you must believe if you are willing to say let’s go with him and die with him.
Let’s roll.
What were those passengers thinking? Does it matter? Are they patriots who thought only of national security and the importance of saving the national symbols like the capital? I actually suspect not. I suspect that they were people swept up and rapid dramatic and dangerous events… And that they made the decision that made the most sense in that context… A decision that would certainly have implications for the nation as a whole but that first and foremost were personal decisions. They were going to die if they did nothing. It’s that simple. They knew it. So they took action… And whether they took action out of some deep spiritual/religious/nationalistic/patriotic motivation is irrelevant. We cannot look into their minds and hearts and no and we don’t need to. We don’t need to know whether Jesus planned every event of holy week were whether he simply courageously moved in a way that he thought was right in that context…
Let’s roll.
We don’t need to know what exactly Thomas believed would happen if they all went to Jerusalem and died together. What we know is that Jesus, Thomas and the other group of Galileans and countryfolk who surrounded Jesus were aware of the danger… And yet they went.
Let’s roll.
You may never be on a hijacked plane, God willing. You may never need to travel to a town where people are trying to kill you. But that does not mean you will never need the courage of Jesus and the faith of Thomas. For we face challenges every day. Courage to just go on when there is no shelter for the homeless… Courage to start the car back up and keep driving, seeing through blurry eyes as you feel grief and loss… Courage to reach out to a friend when you think you just can’t do it anymore… When you are Mary and Martha, caretakers to the terminally ill. When you are Lazarus. When you are called to go…
Of course this applies to systems as well… Two nations and to churches, and the very same courage and faith… The very same love that drives you forward… The very same mixture of self-interest, fear, compassion, who knows what motivations… These drive us as individuals and as groups to move toward the danger…
Let’s roll.
No greater love than to lay down your life for another…
What motivates us in tough times? What reserve of faith do you have in your bag? Of courage? Of love?
Let’s roll.