The Key Bridge

 

The Key Bridge

 

I’ve been pondering the tragedy of the Key Bridge, praying for the families who lost loved ones. I often pray for those involved in tragedy, and I pray on an ongoing basis for regions engulfed in war and famine and disease, and I pray for our Lord Jesus to return in His glory and establish righteousness and justice. We have plenty to pray for, plenty to intercede for, more than enough to keep us away from the vitriol of the world and its politics and lust after money and pleasure and power. If we stay on our knees, we won’t be able to run after the world, the flesh, and the devil.

 

The thing about the Key Bridge for me is that many years ago I used it during my morning and evening commute to and from work. I used it many other times as well, for I lived in eastern Baltimore County and the Key Bridge was often the best way to travel. I have been on the Key Bridge hundreds, if not thousands, of times and I don’t recall ever once wondering if the bridge would collapse while I was on it.

 

In May 1980 a freighter hit the Sunshine Skyway Bridge in Tampa, killing 35 people when a section of that bridge collapsed. I suppose some of those folks had driven the bridge many times, for others it may have been their first and last time. I doubt that any of them wondered whether they would make it from one end to the other, they assumed the bridge was safe, they assumed their passage would be safe. There were people waiting for them at the other end of the bridge that they would never see.

 

In 2018 a bridge in Genoa, Italy collapsed, killing 43 people. Did these people know that there was a design flaw in the bridge that experts knew about? Did they know that 8 years before the tragedy the risk of the design flaw had been raised? Gianni Mion, who was in charge of the bridge’s maintenance, asked in 2010 if someone could certify the bridge’s safety. He was told, “There’s the self-certification.”

 

After the disaster Mion said, “I didn’t understand the meaning of that answer; I thought it was nonsense. I should have done something about it, but I didn’t.”

 

When Mion was asked why he had remained silent, he said according to a BBC report, “that he was afraid he could lose his job and his position of power and prestige at the helm of one of Italy’s major industrial companies.”

 

What can we learn from all of this?

 

How many of us remain silent concerning Jesus Christ because we don’t want to lose earthly things? Like the Pharisees, how many of us do not witness to others of Jesus Christ because we “love the praise of men more than the praise of God”? (John 5:44; 12:42 – 43; Gal. 1:10). Just as Mion and others faced an Italian court as a result of their gross negligence that resulted in the deaths of 43 people, we will stand before the judgment seat of Christ and give an account of our lives, including our witness of Christ to others (2 Cor. 5:9 – 11; Mk. 8:38; Ez. 33:1 – 9).  

 

There is only one True Bridge for us to take in this life, a Bridge that will withstand all that can be thrown against it, a Bridge that will always stand – even when it appears to have been destroyed on the Cross – that Bridge is Jesus Christ. This Bridge takes us from being sinners to being saints, it takes us from spiritual death to spiritual life (Eph. 2:1 – 10; 2 Cor. 5:11 – 21). This Bridge most surely spans our passage from life through death to life forever.

 

But, of course, we must take the Bridge, we must travel on it. Jesus says, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me” (John 14:6). Knowing about the Bridge is not enough, seeing pictures of the Bridge is not sufficient; driving to the Bridge to look at it, to see other people traveling on the Bridge, without traveling on the Bridge ourselves leaves us on the wrong side of the shore.

 

The Bridge of Jesus is a one-way bridge, there is no two-way traffic – for Jesus is our Author and Finisher, in fact, once we are on the Bridge, once we are in Him and He is in us…He takes control, we are no longer in the driver’s seat and we can trust Him for the journey – no matter how perilous things may appear. (Phil. 1:6; 2:12 – 12; Heb. 12:1 – 2).

 

What bridge are we traveling on today? What is our destination?

 

Perhaps we could ask others, “What bridge are you traveling on? What is on the other side of your bridge?”

 

Let us make no mistake, only One Bridge will stand, and His Name is Jesus. (Acts 4:12; Heb. 12:25 – 29).