Easter

Easter Devotional
Against All Odds
Ron Otto, Lincoln Christian Church Preaching Minister

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[March 24, 2018]  All the ‘odds makers’ agree that a man by the name of Lee Caps should be dead. Lee Caps took off riding passenger in a small plane with a friend. To be clear, Lee didn’t know how to fly. When they got up to cruising altitude, his friend, who was piloting the plane had a heart attack and died. Lee pried him off the controls, grabbed a microphone and cried out for help.

An air traffic controller in Renton, WA heard his cry and said, “This is your lucky day. I’m not only an air traffic controller; I’m also a licensed pilot and a flight instructor. Would you be interested in a flying lesson?” Lee said, “I’d love a flying lesson!”

So, the air traffic controller started to give him some basic flying maneuvers and a few instructions on how to fly the plane. Then he said, “Lee, you’re going to have to take a shot at a landing (the most difficult beginner’s task) . . . it’s your only hope. You have to give this thing a try.”

So he talked him through the descent and talked him into pointing the plane toward the runway. It was not a graceful approach. He came in like a drunken duck—all over the place and he hit the runway pretty hard. But miraculously, Lee Caps walked away with only minor injuries. Lee Caps walked away from the plane because he was wise enough to accept the offer of help from someone he couldn’t see or had really known before that day began.

Afterward, the press asked the air traffic controller, “Just between us, did you really think you could talk that guy down and that he would walk away?” The man said, “I knew all the odds were against him and that this was a long shot . . . but I like long shots.”

I don’t know if you’ve thought about it much but there are people who, by profession, are ‘odds makers;’ sometimes called statisticians. These are people who figure out life insurance tables, sporting events, casino games and stocks, and sort out the long shots from the sure things.
There are people who can mathematically assure you that your car is 30% more likely to be stolen if it’s a Corvette than if it’s a minivan. If you’re still driving a Pontiac Aztec these days, the odds say it’s impossible to be stolen!

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These odds makers can tell you that you’re 10 times more likely to get hurt riding a bicycle than riding in a car. And the odds are twice as good for you to be struck by lightning—three times in the same location—as it is for you to win the Mega Millions lottery.

These people make their living by figuring out odds like these. Usually, they’re pretty accurate. But the odds makers were wrong about Jesus. They were just wrong about whether he could stay dead.

Oh, it was a long shot. Call it a billion to one shot. Never been done like that before type of shot. But he did come back to life. There is an empty tomb in Israel that still bears witness to that historical reality. There were 500 eye witnesses that said it was a fact. It happened against all the odds.

We celebrate this odd-busting event as Easter. The resurrection of Jesus is very powerful and still has the ability to change lives in dramatic ways. To this day, millions of people, from all over the world, experience an awakening and a transformation when they decide to believe and trust the biblical story. And this just baffles the skeptics who think this thing should have gone away centuries ago. But it’s not going away. In fact, it’s gaining strength all over the world.
If I’m going to impersonate that brave air traffic controller then I have to tell you what was said to Lee Caps, ‘You’re going to have to give this landing a try.’ This Easter could be the “wow” you’ve been needing in your life. But you’re going to have to give this Jesus thing a try. Even good Christian people need to be reminded that Easter still has power and we can be wowed by the experience of Jesus.

 

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