2 Lessons the Church Can Learn from the Missing Titanic Sub
Some thoughts from current events.
I’m sure you’ve heard plenty about the missing submarine that went to explore the wreck of the Titanic.
As of Thursday morning, officials were concerned that the emergency oxygen supply in the missing sub may have run out early Thursday morning. However, the most recent report was that there was a debris field from a “catastrophic loss of the pressure chamber.” Certainly, it’s a tragic situation.
As I read the headlines about the missing sub and understand the urgency of the situation, I can help but think about what the Lord’s church can learn from this situation.
Urgency is Required When Searching for the Lost.
The search-and-rescue teams know the urgency of the situation - it’s only a matter of time until the oxygen in the missing sub is depleted, and the people inside it die. Sadly, they were unable to find the people from the missing sub before they died.
Jesus taught how urgent the situation was if a shepherd lost one of his sheep (Luke 15:4). A sheep separated from the flock, lost on its own, was helpless. It would only be a matter of time before that sheep died. And so, any good shepherd would go out after the sheep and look for it until he found it (Luke 15:5). When he found it, he would bring it home and rejoice that he had found that which was lost.
Like millions of people would rejoice if the people in the missing sub were found alive, heaven rejoices over just one sinner who repents - because it is truly a “life or death” situation.
Do we have this kind of urgency in searching for lost souls who have wandered away from the flock of God?
Sometimes we take an approach of, “Well, they left. We’ll just wait on them to come back. After all, they know where to find us.”
Perhaps we fail to understand the situation's urgency - souls hang in the balance.
No one sits around and “waits” on a missing sub to come back from the depths - they go searching for it. No shepherd would sit around and “wait” on one of his lost sheep to return - he goes after it to find it.
There should be urgency in these situations. There is no room for complacency from God’s people when souls wander away from God.
Use Your Resources to Find the Lost.
There’s no telling how much has been spent to try and recover the missing sub. I read that deep-sea robots have been deployed to the ocean floor to search for the missing sub. Think of all the airplanes, naval vessels, and manpower required for a search like this.
No expense is being spared to try to find the five missing people on board that sub.
What kind of resources and manpower should the church use in their attempts to find the lost?
In the Parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32), one noticeably absent thing is that the older brother failed to go looking for his younger brother - even though he had plenty of resources at his disposal (Luke 15:11, 31). While the shepherd searched for the missing sheep (Luke 15:4-7), and the woman carefully searched his house for the missing coin (Luke 15:8-10) - there was apparently no effort made on the older brother’s part to find his lost brother.
Even when the younger brother made his way home - a rare case - the older brother refused to rejoice that his brother had been “found” (Luke 15:28-30). Perhaps he thought, “My younger brother has already wasted his share of our father’s livelihood (Luke 15:30). I’m not going to waste any more of what our Father has given us by looking for him.”
Seeking the lost - whether they have never obeyed the gospel or are Christians who have strayed from God - is admittedly time-consuming and can be an expensive endeavor.
But Jesus taught us that using our resources to find the lost is worth it - because, after all, one soul is worth more than all this world's goods (Matthew 16:26).
Jesus once looked around at a crowd of people who were “weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd” (Matthew 9:36). He was moved with compassion for these people.
He looked to His disciples and said, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest” (Matthew 9:37-38).
The next chapter begins with the Lord sending His twelve apostles out among the people.
Will we have a sense of urgency in reaching the lost with the gospel of Jesus Christ? Will we be willing to use our time and resources to reach them - is it that important to us?
May it never be said of us that people went missing and we never went looking for them.
Excellent!