Germanwings - an issue of trust

We’ve all been shocked by the recent tragedy of GermanWings flight 9525. And perhaps what has made it worse is that the reason for the disaster is not what we expected. Mechanical failure or a terrorist attack are (unfortunately) almost expected these days. But in this case, the terrible scenario seems to be that the co-pilot, suffering from depression, intentionally caused the crash. The world now suddenly seems much darker and more dangerous.

Pilots are people we trust with our lives, quite literally. And in this case the trust of the passengers and crew was misplaced.

The world now feels more unstable. We used to trust doctors and surgeons, but too many mistakes have robbed us of this trust. Those of us in Queensland know this too well. Now we trust in the threat of lawsuits to guide the surgeon’s hands. We used to trust in ministers, priests and what not, but too many of them have failed our trust with children. We used to trust.... but now we trust almost no one.

What can we do? You can’t live in society without trust. Just think about it, every time you get on a bus you have to trust the bus driver, that she will drive you safely to your destination. You have to trust that the passenger sitting next to you is safe. And yet, you may have no evidence for this trust when you step on and then take your seat. But catch the bus you must. Sure, you could always drive but how about the person driving behind you in the large SUV, can you trust them to stop in time? And when you go shopping in a megastore, the security guard has a weapon. Will he use it to protect you or against you? Even to shop we have to trust other people.

Our lives exist in a fabric of trusting other people and being trusted. And yet, we keep discovering that people - even those closest to us - may not be worthy of the trust that we placed in them. I have more than one friend who has come home to see betrayal in their very own bedroom with a person they trusted the most in the world. Betrayal robs us of trust, but we can’t live without trust.

What will enable us to live without paranoia, fear of betrayal or a niggling perpetual concern in a world of failed trust?

Perhaps the answer comes when we start to consider Jesus. For he is both a person worthy of our trust and the one who can protect us from all other failures in trust.

Jesus has shown he is worthy of our trust for on the first Easter, April AD 33 he died for us. This death and judgement he faced was to pay for our personal betrayal of trust with our Creator. For every time we fail other people, we also break trust with our Creator. Jesus’ death was to renew our standing before God. For those that trust Jesus, we stand before our Creator trusted.

Not only this, but if Jesus is this faithful to us, he is worthy of our trust. He will never harm us or hurt us. He treats us as those of infinite value.

When we turn to the second part of Easter, Jesus’ resurrection, we discover that Jesus is the one who protect us from all other people’s failures in trust. For Jesus’ resurrection shows that he has conquered death. And he promises that all those that trust him will also conquer death. They will have eternal life; they will not die, but be raised from the dead. His resurrection is the evidence that he has the power for this and his death is the evidence of his love to carry this promise through.

The implications for this are huge for those that trust Jesus. Here are three to start:

1. We are free to trust others again – safe in the knowledge that if others fail us, Jesus never will.

2. We can live without anxiety - for Jesus can protect us from any failure in trust, even in the most ultimate way. Even if our trust is betrayed to death, we can act in the knowledge that death is not the end but a step to eternal life.

3. Our trust has been re established with our Creator. And he promises to give his people strength to endure when others fail them. This strength is the same kind of strength he wielded to raise his Son from the dead.

We can’t live without trusting other people. When we’ve trusted Jesus we can truly live and start to trust again.