What's All This Jumping About?

But the centurion, wanting to save Paul, kept them from their purpose, and commanded that those who could swim should jump overboard first and get to land, and the rest, some on boards and some on parts of the ship. And so it was that they all escaped safely to land. Acts 27:43-44

Through some trial and error in this life, I have discovered that I am more of an analyzer, some would say hesitate-er, than an immediate action sort. There are certain environments, shall we say, where this sort of thing is discouraged. When the person in charge yells, "JUMP!" one is supposed to be striving for an orbital trajectory before asking such things as "How high, sir!" or "How far, ma'am!" or, heaven help us, that dreadful, "Why?" As one inclined to ask such questions as that latter one, I did find a bit of conflict on occasion in this sort of circumstance.

In Paul's story this morning, we see an allowance for analysis and reflection in the situation. The centurion needed to decide quickly but not immediately, and he wanted to spare one particular prisoner. Good show for the other prisoners, because reading earlier in the story we find the soldiers under his command ready to pass immediate death sentence on their prisoners to prevent an escape. If I had been one of those other prisoners, I should have liked to find out more about this Paul, as it is quite likely at this time that Paul did not appear particularly wealthy or impressive so as to merit the saving of one's life.

And yet, at this time these many years later, we might chuckle a bit in our knowing that Paul carried in him the very words of eternal life from the One who earned that life for us on the cross just outside of Jerusalem. The centurion's analysis saved Paul and the other prisoners from an earthly death, but Paul had much more than that in him!

Praise Jesus our Lord for eternal life!

Bucky