Defying Gravity

David preached on Jesus’s declaration in Matthew 9, “I have come to save sinners.” He described sin as a law like gravity, and then contrasted the way people try to defy this law by their own power and those who look to Christ for transformation. To do that, he drew an illustration from the profound children’s novel Hope For the Flowers by Trina Paulus":

In the book, Hope for the Flowers, caterpillars climb up a high column, which is actually a pile of squirming, pushing caterpillars. They do in order to find a more meaningful life. They believe that if they reach the top of the pillar, which is hidden in the cloud, they will see something awfully good. So, they climb up and up without knowing what they will have up there. And they are all under the law of gravity. They try to get higher, pushing, kicking, and stepping on others. But even if they get higher through all these efforts, they are still under the law of gravity, and they cannot defy the force. In fact, if they get higher, they are in higher risk of falling. A caterpillar cannot escape from the law of gravity even when it reaches the top of the pillar. And there is nothing awfully good there. So, even the best caterpillar is in its worst. But when a caterpillar becomes a cocoon and then a butterfly, its life is changed dramatically. It comes to have two wings, with which it can fly, defying the law of gravity. For the butterfly, being high or low doesn’t mean much. Its life itself is already beautiful and glorious. It doesn’t have to push and kick others in order to get higher. It has its own wings that bring its body up high. Although it is still under the influence of gravity, it can defy the force and fly with its wings.