The descent button

I’m on a flight to Barcelona. I wake up just as the credits of “Interstellar” are rolling and head to the back of the plane to get a drink of water. From this new privileged position I can see everyone sleeping.

An elderly man comes out of the washroom and with difficulty makes his way down the aisle, leaning on the headrests of each row until he finds his seat. Almost everyone is asleep.

Meanwhile, I’m stood on this 200 tonne beast, flying at 30,000 feet above the Atlantic Ocean. I imagine myself, with great respect, in the shoes of the passengers on the flight that crashed in the Alps a while back. It is terrifying to think that all the passengers on that Germanwings plane were just as calm as we all are now.

According to the official report by the Marseille’s district attorney, the copilot locked himself in the cockpit when the pilot left for a moment and finding himself alone he voluntarily and consciously pressed the decent button until the plane made its fatal impact. Nobody in that plane imagined the catastrophe that was about to happen.

I remember the re-enactment of what happened that was broadcast around the media. One of the scenes that I can’t get out of my mind is where the pilot is desperately banging on the cockpit door trying to get in.

The bewildered rest of the crew tried to help him, but the passengers didn’t realise how serious the situation was until they were only a few metres from the collision. And so, in the midst of this uncontrollable situation, every one of those people lost their lives and left behind an immeasurable number of inconsolable relatives and a world in shock mourning what had happened.

But isn’t this similar to the situation that the whole of humanity finds itself in? This fatal event should make us reflect deeply on what is happening to this world in which we are passengers.

If we stop for a moment and think about it we will realise that there are many elements of this terrible occurrence that show us a reality that we are living every day… and that maybe the majority of us are just dozing in our ignorance or on the inertia of our daily routine.

It seems to me that the copilot in this story is a perfect example of mankind; of each human individual, closed in on themselves, consciously and voluntarily pressing the descent button. The name of that young 27 year old man was Andreas Lubitz.

It is interesting that his name actually means “man”. What was it that drove Andreas to isolate himself in the cockpit? And with the same poignancy I ask myself, what has driven mankind to live isolated and separated from fellowship with God, from showing compassion towards others and from respect of his very own life?

The truth is, I’m not sure if this story will end up being completely accurate, but for the moment, it really concerns me. Mankind has shut the pilot out of our story. The pilot represents God. In light of our suicidal isolation, God is knocking on the door in order to save a sleeping humanity.

If anyone hears his voice, please open the door. He wants to come in and fly the aircraft to a safe destination! We have kicked God out of our homes, our priorities, our conversations and our hearts.

Humanity is comfortable; we suffer the odd war here and there, but we change the channel to dull the pain with more shows and competitions. The world is still calmly heading for disaster, but God keeps knocking at the door, “Open up! Open up! I am here. I want to save you! I love you!”

Mankind doesn’t open the door, he doesn’t want to. He will destroy the whole of humanity along with his own wretched self. Meanwhile, the members of the crew should raise their voices, so that God can make his urgent message heard through them, “Reconcile yourselves to me!”

May we release the decent button and open the door. May we allow God to come in and take the controls of our lives and become his coworkers, agents of reconciliation, in a world that is on the brink of disaster.

Edmundo Hernández serves in counselling and leaders training in Barcelona. Pastor, missionary, counsellor, singer, songwriter, conference speaker and director of the IDEAS platform.

This is an article of the Jesus on the Web 2016 series. You can learn more about the project visiting its website, Facebook and Twitter.