Sunday School at 9 am | worship at 10 am

Hijacked

The incident began mid-afternoon on Thanksgiving eve, November 24, 1971, at Portland International Airport in Portland, Oregon. A man carrying a black attaché case approached the flight counter of Northwest Orient Airlines. He purchased a one-way ticket on Flight 305,a 30-minute trip to Seattle, Washington. Once the plane was airborne, the man called to the flight attendant, and gave her a note. Then he opened his “carry-on” bag to show her a bomb. Flight 462 was now officially hijacked by a man known in popular lore as D.B. Cooper.

The plane landed in Seattle and everyone got off except Cooper and the flight crew. Cooper
demanded $200,000 and 4 parachutes, all of which were delivered. The plane took off again, and somewhere over the Washington State wilderness, Cooper took one of the parachutes, opened the rear door of the plane, and jumped with his money. D.B. Cooper has never been found. The case remains the only unsolved air piracy in American aviation history.

How was D.B. Cooper able to carry a bomb aboard an American airliner? Things were different in 1971. The security procedures that are now routine in airports were not in place in those days. As a result, Cooper was able to completely take control of a Boeing 727 along with its passengers and crew. They met Cooper’s every demand and obeyed his every command. The passengers and crew of Flight 462 lost all control over their lives. They had been hijacked!

This is Paul’s concern for the believers in Colossae. He doesn’t want to see them get hijacked by false teachers and vain philosophy. Lots of things were being advocated as the way to fullness in the Christian life: Do this. Follow this. This is what we need to get to a higher level. This is the way to an authentic, real, dynamic spiritual experience. Some of these practices seemed very biblical. They were things Jewish believers had done for centuries; they had weight of tradition. Even Jesus did these things. Other things were the latest spiritual fad. They were so goofy and obviously pagan that the Colossians shouldn’t have looked twice at them. But they were popular ideas in the culture of that time, so they seemed reasonable.

Paul says: Listen to me. Don’t be hijacked by these things. Don’t be taken in. Don’t let the people who advocate them browbeat you, or guilt-trip you, or make you feel like inferior Christians. You already have all you need. You have fullness in Christ. You have all the amazing benefits of his life, death, and resurrection.

Fads come and go. Ritualism has always been with us. But these things won’t move to a higher level of the Christian life. There’s no secret knowledge that will get you to a higher level of spirituality. You have everything you need in Christ.