Resources > Devotions Black Pearl Blogs : Jack is Back (vol.2) Posted by Rev. Jeff Dixon, Senior Equipping Minister, CCC Ministries on May 31, 2007, 09:36

Jack is Back!

In Dead Man’s Chest, Jack Sparrow quips, "Funny what a man will do to forestall final judgment." The reason Jack is interested in putting off his day of reckoning is because he reckons that his moral balance sheet is out of whack. In the newest film, At World’s End, Jack has found out the answer.

Spoiler alert: The film begins, we remember that Jack is no longer swaggering on the high seas, the Kraken (that huge sea beast) and Elizabeth Swann (whom Jack called, “pirate!”) have taken care of that. Tia Dalma (the voodoo woman that you can barely understand without subtitles) explains to Pintel and Ragetti – two of the reanimated pirates from the first film (the funny guys)– that “Jack Sparrow is taken body and soul to a place not of death, but punishment. The worst fate a person can bring upon himself. Stretching out forever. That’s what awaits at Davy Jones’ Locker.”

Read that again…. Jack Sparrow is in a place of perpetual and eternal punishment.

Sounds an awful lot like hell.

Part of the story revolves around on how to get Jack out of there and his journey to make it out. But being in hell does have a way of impacting a person. Once you’ve had a glimpse, you don’t want to go back. So if Jack was interested in putting off his death in the second film, he is positively compulsive about it in the third. When Jack Sparrow gets compulsive, well, a manic series of events is the result.

On a beach, when Davy Jones finally gets to ask Jack, “Do you fear death?”

Jack, with a hint of terror in his eyes, a slight shift of the head, and a soft voice responds. “You have no idea.”

There is an interesting story in Scripture that gives a glimpse similar to what Jack Sparrow faces in the film

Luke 16:20-31, take a second and read the story….

The Rich Man and Lazarus

 "There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores and longing to eat what fell from the rich man's table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores.

 "The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham's side. The rich man also died and was buried. In hell, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. So he called to him, 'Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.'

 "But Abraham replied, 'Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.'

 "He answered, 'Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my father's house, for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.'

 "Abraham replied, 'They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.'

 " 'No, father Abraham,' he said, 'but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.'

 "He said to him, 'If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.' "

There is much to learn from that story, but here is some of what we know from what we read:  Lazarus was destitute and afflicted with sores. He used to lie at the gates of the rich man’s property, but the rich man would do nothing for him.

After death, the rich man goes to a place of perpetual eternal torment, while Lazarus is carried by angels to a pre-heavenly paradise, where he is comforted by Abraham. The rich man pleads for relief, but he cannot have it.

So the rich man begs for Abraham to send Lazarus back to the land of the living to tell his brothers about the terrible truth of hell “so they will not have to come to this place of torment.”

But Abraham replies that his brothers have the warnings of the prophets, and that even if someone rose from the dead, they would not be persuaded.

So you get the idea here…it is important and essential for each person to pay attention to the warnings and don’t go to hell.

At this point it is time to remind you of what we teach at CCC over and over again. God does not send anyone to hell. Each and every person who goes CHOOSES to go there!

Jack Sparrow’s character in At World’s End reminds me of the passage we just looked at.  The idea of judgment and hell scared him in Dead Man’s Chest, but now he has been there. He has seen it, he has lived it, and he has escaped. His perspective has changed a bit. Hell is now a reality. The film reminds us over and over again: Jack doesn’t want to go back. Yet, despite his preview, he just might.

“Passing on – that’s dead certain”

Sadly, Jack’s method and attempts for avoiding the return trip to hell demonstrates a lack of understanding about how to successfully remedy the reason he was there. Jack is in hell because he has done many – very many – bad things. In short, Jack is a sinner. He knows that death brings judgment, and that the punishment for sin is eternity in hell. Again, we mentioned there sure are some easy to see spiritual themes in the three films. Jack has it figured out. He does not want to got to hell, he has figured out it is not a good place, and after what he has seen…it is real…and someplace to avoid. He is afraid, scared of hell…and realizes how vital it is NOT to be there. But remember, he is Jack Sparrow the pirate…Jack’s approach to solving the problem can be summed up as: “to avoid judgment, don’t die.”

After all, it’s worked for him before.

When he shares his risky strategy with Captain Barbossa, the scurvy villain from the first film, now Jack’s shipmate has to admit: “Aye, but that’s a gamble of long odds, ain’t it? There’s never a guarantee of comin’ back. Passin’ on – that’s dead certain.”

It is a fact that one out of one of us will die!

Despite the fact that death is a statistical certainty confirmed by virtually every human being that has ever come before us (Enoch and Elijah were the rare exceptions – nobody is banking on similar treatment) many people seem to act as if they will live forever, and that final judgment is optional.

Jesus offers us a way out. He tells His disciples, “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Matthew 16:25-26). (You might want to find the Compass Chronicles series on this website and listen in on Learning to Read the Compass.)

I thought it was interesting in the second film, Dead Man’s Chest as it showed the one sailor on a sinking ship who implicitly chose to put his trust in the saving mercy of Jesus Christ instead of putting his soul in the hands of Davy Jones. It was there, easy to miss in the action, but really there. Even Ragetti recognized the need to take care of his “immortal soul” and knew that the Bible contained the information he needed.

But what we see emerge on the screen in At World’s End, is that everyone wants to live forever, they only want to do so on their own terms.

Sounds a lot like the people we meet each day, doesn’t it???

We will examine this more in the next Black Pearl Blog.