The Great Eastern.

The Great Eastern was the most famous boat since Noah’s ark. It was launched in 1850 on the river Thames. Like the Titanic it was a double hulled vessel that made it unsinkable. It was twice the size of the Queen Mary which was built 77yrs later. It could carry 4,000 people. (The Titanic went down with 2,200 on its maiden voyage). Today the biggest cruise ship is the “Symphony of the Seas” and it can carry over 5,000 passengers. But until recently The Great Eastern was the biggest ship ever built!

However, it was plagued by tragedies and accidents all of its days. Right from its birth, when trying to haul the boat from the dock to the Thames, a steel cable snapped killing a worker. On its maiden voyage it hit a dock and there was an explosion on board. It was plagued with troubles until finally the interior was stripped in 1866 and it was used to lay transatlantic cable from the USA to Europe, for the first trans-Atlantic communication network. Even that almost ended in disaster when the cable, at one stage broke, and the whole operation was in jeopardy. The Captain managed to turn the ship around and using the anchor was able to capture the sinking cable. The Great Eastern never did what was hoped for it. The ship was sold again and again, and every new owner went broke. The boat ended her days as a dance hall.

There was a superstition surrounding the ship that sought to explain its woes. Some men who had been builders of the boat said, “We know why The Great Eastern has been so full of trouble, because while it was being built, a riveter went missing and we think he was incarcerated in the hull. He was riveted in and his shrieks were never heard. (A riveter are those men who joined the sheets of metal together that made up the hull.)

People laughed at this superstition and yet wondered about the missing riveter. Finally, The Great Eastern was sold one last time and broken down for scrap metal (Literally with big iron balls). It was then that they found, in the uttermost hull, the carcass of the missing riveter, and his son.

This world is a great hull and we have been riveted in. It is one great tomb, because the moment we are born we are on a conveyor belt to death and judgment and there is no getting off. This world is a devil’s island suspended in space. It is an orbiting cemetery. Every time I perform or attend a funeral I am reminded of that fact.

Unless that is, we are joined to Him, who is above the world. If we are joined to Him who is above the world, we will be part of the new world when this old hull is broken down.

Because of the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus, the outcome of your life can be entirely different to the missing riveter and his son. We have a way of escape from this orbiting cemetery, we have the hope of Eternal life, and it is not a vain hope but a sure hope.  The evidence is insurmountable. We can have absolute confidence that what He promised, He is able to deliver for those who accept Jesus as the only way of escape.

Jesus demonstrated his power over death. In the book of Revelation, it says He has the “Keys to death”. In the last two chapters of the Bible, He creates a new heaven and a new earth where there is no death, tears, sickness, or suffering, because the old order is gone. I love the words in the last chapter that declares there will be “no more curse.” (22:3) Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:26 declares that the “Last enemy to be destroyed is death”.