When the Costa Concordia hit the rocks on the Isola del Giglio last weekend it drew a few parallels with the sinking of the Titanic.
Pride drove the Titanic to travel at full speed through the iceberg danger area as a record fast crossing was attempted.
Pride brought the Costa Concordia to within 200m of the shore to celebrate their famous “sail-bys” giving the passengers a thrill to remember.
Both cruise liners were symbolic of their countries attitudes.
The Titanic was thought to be unsinkable so half the lifeboats were discarded.
The Costa Concordia reflected present Italian difficulties. Her Captain’s behaviour resembling the former Prime Minister Berlusconi who’s carousing contributed to the delay in Italy adopting corrective financial measures. In the same way Captain Schettino was distracted from his task and delayed giving the order to abandon ship causing loss of life.
The ship was designed to maximise revenue at the expense of safety. Limited to a 30m width (in order to navigate places like the Panama Canal) the only way the cruise ship design could go was up so more and more decks were constructed. This made her top heavy resulting in graphic pictures of her plight being published in the media all week.

The honourable sea-faring tradition of the Captain being last to leave the sinking ship didn’t appeal much to Schettino who cleared off a couple of hours before the last survivor! His recorded dialogue with the local coastguard, who ordered him back on board, will go down in the annals of maritime history as a prime example of dereliction of duty.

What has the Bible to do with any of this?

Pride, greed and the desire to save ones own skin at the expense of others are fairly common human trends and are certainly easily identified in Scripture.
Take those who surrounded Jesus for example. The Religious of the day, the Pharisees, who were proud of their tradition and greedy for the rewards it brought them.
At the same time they needed to be converted – changed on the inside.
Jesus hadn’t much time for such frauds, “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.” St Matthew Chapter 23 verse 25.

But it was when under the threat of immanent death that we read of the dying thief on the cross wanting to save his skin. “Save yourself and us” he shouted at Jesus – St Luke chapter 23 verse 39. But that would have been a dereliction of Jesus duty. He was there to atone for our sins so that by faith in His sacrifice we can be forgiven and accepted into God’s household. He is our substitute as John called him, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” St John chapter 1 verse 29.
Thank God that Jesus did not desert his calling and has become the only hope for drowning sailors or those of us on shore as well. Trust Him.