The Price of a Soul
07-17-2006
by Johann Snyder

So matey, what is the price of your soul? Aye, that's what I said, how much is your soul worth? For you see, that is the question that Jack Sparrow (excuse me, Captain Jack Sparrow) must answer in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest; and it's a question that we all are faced with sooner or later. Like it or not, we all owe a debt; it may not be to Davy Jones, but it's debt that must be paid one way or another. If you want freedom, however, there is only one option.

If you haven't seen the Pirates movie, I won't ruin anything for you, but I do have to explain one important plot point. In the film, Davy Jones is mystical creature who sails the seven seas with a crew that owes him their souls. These poor saps where near death, and they choose to serve Jones rather than face death, although their fate aboard Jones' ship The Flying Dutchman seems to me to be much worse than death. Our intrepid hero Jack Sparrow (excuse me again, Captain Jack) also made a deal with Davy Jones, and in Dead Man's Chest, the time has come to pay his debt. Naturally, Sparrow would much rather find a way out of this particular arrangement, and would we all, because the fact is, we all owe a debt; a debt that must be paid, and like the crew of The Flying Dutchman, until we can find a way to pay that debt, we will be slaves to evil - slaves to our own sin.

I found this parallelism between serving on Davy Jones' ship our own slavery to sin to be quite striking. It's an amazing parable that many people will miss, probably because most don't realize that they are a slave to sin. Unlike Jones's crew, we aren't mutated creatures because of our sin, we all look pretty normal. It would be easier to see our need if sin showed physical effects (which sometimes it does, but not always). I also found the attempts of Jack Sparrow (Captain) to try and swindle, con or otherwise maneuver out of his debt on his own terms to be very much like our own. We like to be in control of our soul, but such control is an illusion. We never have that control because of the sin debt we owe. A rather dark and foreboding thought, I know, but then so is the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie.

There is good news, however. The good news is that even though we may not be able to pay the debt we owe, or find a way out of it on our own terms, there is one who is willing to help us, one who is willing to set us free, and I'm not talking about the son of Bootstrap Bill (see them movie to find out what I'm referring to). I'm talking about the Son of God. Jesus Christ came to Earth to pay the debt we owe. He paid the price for our soul, which by the way is the most valuable item in the universe. Not only that, but He loves us so much that He paid double what we owed just to make sure our debt was completely covered. It's an amazing thought to think that the creator of the universe could love us that much, but He does. He died and rose again just to set us free so we would no longer have to serve on the ship of Davy Jones (figuratively speaking). We don't have to be a servant of evil, a slave to sin. Jesus bought our souls, but we have to be willing to make the transfer and let Him have our souls, and sadly, many aren't even aware that they have that choice. The story of redemption is an amazing, epic story - more so than any pirates adventure - and yet more people will probably hear about pirates in the next few weeks than they will about their own chance for freedom.

Well, that doesn't have to be the case. Thanks to the adventures of Jack Sparrow (Captain Jack Sparrow! There, I got it, now put that musket down, Jack), we have yet another springboard to help us engage this world in conversations of a spiritual nature. We have another parable that we can use to illustrate the condition of the human race and their need for savior. Pirates 2 has already set new records at the box office, so millions of people are now primed with a story that can help them relate to the gospel. Now it's up to us to swing into action and help them interpret this latest parable of the big screen.

Johann "Yo" Snyder is the host of the Mid-day show at M88 radio, 88.3FM in Albuquerque, NM. He writes a monthly blog that takes some elements of current events and pop culture to illustrate spiritual points. The archives for these articles can be found at: http://www.m88.org/yo-duh.asp