There was a Pirates of the Caribbean marathon on the SyFy channel the other day. I enjoy those movies so I sat and watched some bits here and there while I did a few chores around the house. People have their different opinions about fiction and fantasy and imaginative styles of creativity, but it always amazes me how an UNREAL scenario can burn such a REAL image in your mind. I think that too much imagination can certainly harm you, but so can too much of anything in this world. I also believe Jesus taught in fictional parables because he knew the lasting power of them.
Davy Jones is a character in the 2nd and 3rd movies of this trilogy. He’s the one with the nasty tentacles that plays the organ… captains the Flying Dutchman… talks with a funny lisp… this ringing a bell? Davy Jones’ purpose was to judge these sailors’ lives when they die and decide their fate, which would either be to “move on” to the next life, send them to “The Locker”, or to sentence them to servitude upon his ship.
Do you remember the phrase that Davy Jones would always recite as he looked down upon someone who was about to die? He would look them in the eye, say their full name, and then ask them, “Do you fear death?”
I remember one instance in the movie as Commodore James Norrington was about to die after a heroic act of sacrifice. Up until this point this character had been a little spineless and unable to choose where his loyalties had lied. But as he lay there dying and Davy Jones leaned in to ask him… “Do you fear death?”, Commodore Norrington thrusts his sword into Davy Jones and then he dies. Davy Jones stands up and pulls out the Commodore’s sword and says, “I’ll take that as a no.”
I love this scene because even though Davy Jones couldn’t die, and even though Commodore Norrington had lived a less than stellar life, his last act was quite extraordinary. A lot of us tend to add up all of the bad deeds in our lives and assume that the sum is too great to ever be forgiven. We think that our quality of life is dependent upon how well we’ve lived it. But we forget that Quality is only seen in two shades… Red in Jesus blood, or Black in unredeemed sin. What does all of this mean? IT IS NEVER TO LATE TO DEFY DEATH! God may have tugged at your heart for 60 years and you’ve ignored him, but still you can change your answer to the question… Do you fear death? If you do not follow the Lord, then Death is a tremendous thing to fear! There is nothing but literal Hell in your future. The bible says all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Rom 3:23). But the verses right before tell us that Jesus has broken the rules of every standard and logic that we could imagine and has given us a way to defy death. By calling His name and turning from sin, you look Davy Jones right in his fishy eyes and sock him one right in the tentacles! Death is no longer a thing to fear, but a thing to dance and sing and hope and yes, even live for! CHECK THIS OUT…..
21But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. 22This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, 23for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. 25God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement,[i] through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— 26he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus. 27Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. On what principle? On that of observing the law? No, but on that of faith. 28For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law. 29Is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles too? Yes, of Gentiles too
---(Romans 3: 21-29)
