During the morning of September 11, 2001, as the world watched in horror, hijacked passenger planes were flown into the twin towers in Manhattan. United Airlines Flight 93 had also been hijacked and was speeding toward the Pentagon in Washington DC.
Pilots of the 121st Fighter Squadron of the D.C. Air National Guard were given the order to scramble jets and intercept the hijacked aircraft. Cmdr. Mark Sasseville and Lieut. Heather Penney were the first to scramble their jets. Knowing that there was not enough time to have their fighter jets armed with weapons to shoot down the remaining hijacked plane, Cmdr. Sasseville looked at Lieut. Penney and said, “I’ll take the cockpit … you take the tail!”
It was virtually a suicide mission, but a mission with the hope that they could successfully ram Flight 93. They knew this would result in the death of the passengers along with themselves but would possibly save hundreds more. To make matters worse, Lieut. Penney’s father was an United Airlines pilot and she had no idea if she would be ramming her own father’s plane.
They chose those impact spots hoping that it would minimize the debris field. A plane with no nose or tail would lose its forward momentum and likely fall straight out of the sky. Lieut. Penney later recalled: “My concern was how do we minimize collateral damage on the ground.”
As it turned out, they never intercepted Flight 93 because the heroes on that doomed plane made sure they didn’t have to … and the rest is history.
When we hear of heroic stories like that, we marvel at the willingness to make such a sacrifice for the benefit of others.
However, the sobering truth is, even if the passengers had been successful in gaining control from the terrorists and landing safely at a nearby airfield, still … they all would’ve died eventually, as all must do.
Sadly, death strikes all people, of all ages, of every nationality, because that’s what sin brings into our world. Paul made this abundantly clear as he wrote that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” and “the wages of sin is death.” (Rom. 3:23, 6:23) – And no amount of good deeds, good intentions, or even a fleet of heavily armed fighter jets can save us from our doomed situation.
But seeing that we had no hope of ever saving ourselves, our gracious God scrambled His only Son into action in a plan that would bring salvation to mankind. 
The plan included Jesus willingly taking His sinless life to the Cross, to shed His blood, in order to cover all our sins. He became sin for us and sacrificed Himself so that He could pay the price that our sins demanded, and gift to us His life-saving forgiveness!
With Christ’s resurrection victory comes the promise: All who call upon His Name, in faith, receive the full forgiveness of all their sins, a new life now and a heavenly life that lasts forever!
Repent of your sins, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and receive all the life He has to give!