New images show Titanic crew gave their lives to save others

The Titanic struck an iceberg on this day in 1912, sinking early the next day. The tragedy never ceases to fascinate and trouble us. An “unsinkable ship” that sank on its maiden voyage; the loss of 1,500 lives, scores of them children; the deaths of some of the world’s wealthiest and most famous people.

Now we are learning that some of the unsung heroes of the tragedy are crew members who sacrificed their lives to save hundreds of others.

A full-scale digital twin of the ship has been created by stitching together 715,000 images from underwater scans. The result is a replica of the stricken vessel accurate to the last rivet. Among its revelations: A steam valve in the boiler room was open when the ship sank. This line took the remaining steam from the boiler room to the emergency dynamos, which enabled the lighting, heating, and running of pumps to continue as the ship was sinking.

According to experts, hundreds of passengers were saved as a result. The crew members who performed this heroic act did so in the knowledge that they would not escape the vessel and thus would pay for their service with their lives.

Upon reading the article, I found myself thinking about the difference their sacrifice has made in the world over the decades since. The average age of passengers aboard the Titanic was just under thirty years old. Of the 705 people who survived, the rough math could work like this:

• We’ll assume three hundred survivors below the age of thirty.
• Each marries and has two children (the average for the time), producing six hundred children in the next generation.
• Assuming twenty-five years per generation from then to today, as many as ten thousand lives might have been produced that would not have existed apart from the crew’s sacrifice.

I doubt any of them know the names of the crew to whom they owe their lives. But this makes such anonymous sacrifice no less monumental.

The Judas no one notices

I was reading Acts 9 recently and was struck by a person I’d not noticed before in the famous narrative. Luke tells us that after Saul of Tarsus met the risen Christ on the road to Damascus, he was staying at “the house of Judas” (v. 11). I checked numerous commentaries—they all discuss Saul at length along with Ananias, the courageous Christian sent to pray for him to regain his sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit (v. 17).

But none mentions Judas.

The name is most infamously associated with Judas Iscariot, of course. However, another disciple named “Judas the son of James” (also known as Thaddeus) was also among the apostles (Luke 6:16; cf. Matthew 10:3), while “Judas called Barsabbas” was chosen with Silas to deliver the letter from the Jerusalem Council to Gentile Christians (Acts 15:22–32).

Now I’ve told you all we apparently know.

We can speculate, however, in light of the fact that Saul was widely known as “the man who made havoc in Jerusalem of those who called upon [Jesus’] name” and had come to Damascus “for this purpose, to bring them bound before the chief priests” (Acts 9:21). If Judas was a Jew who supported Saul’s persecution of Christians, it is surprising that he gave him lodging upon his conversion. Perhaps Saul’s transforming experience with Christ so impressed him that he came to faith as well and then willingly sheltered and supported Saul in his new faith and work.

If, by contrast, Judas was already a Christian and thus gave Saul lodging because of the Pharisee’s conversion to Christ, we can count him as Paul’s first supporter and Christian friend. In this case, Judas was acting out of great courage, risking his life and future on the belief that Saul’s conversion was genuine and lasting.

Either way, Judas joins the annals of anonymous people across Scripture whose lives and faithfulness changed the world.

We can add the unnamed Christians who saved Paul from those seeking to kill him in Damascus (v. 23) and Jerusalem (v. 30), enabling the apostle’s four missionary journeys and nearly half of the New Testament. We can add the unnamed servants and “devout” Roman soldier who brought Peter to Cornelius, enabling Gentile conversion to Christ (Acts 10:7). We could add scores of others, from Genesis to Revelation.

How to discover if you’re a servant

I say all of that to say this: anonymity for God’s people is but a temporary condition.

Every act of faithful service rendered to Christ and his kingdom in this world is noted and rewarded for eternity. This is only logical: Our God is all-knowing, so he knows everything we think, say, and do (cf. 1 John 3:20). He is “holy, holy, holy” by nature (Isaiah 6:3; Revelation 4:8), so he must always do what is right, and rewarding faithful service is always right. He therefore promises that any work built on the foundation of faithfulness to Jesus will “receive a reward” in heaven (1 Corinthians 3:14).

Of course, there will be times when choosing such anonymous faithfulness costs us acclaim in this world. Hours spent preparing and teaching children in Sunday school classes could also be spent making money and advancing careers; time devoted to choir practice and worship leadership is seldom recognized or rewarded by secular employers; even time spent reading this article won’t likely advance your career or cultural status.

Not to mention the temporal cost of eternal obedience. Like the Titanic crew, many of those we serve will not know our names or even appreciate our sacrifice. Some in our post-Christian world will even resent our witness and ministry. And many followers of Jesus around the world will be asked to pay for their faith with their very lives.

When we must choose between reward in this world and the next, we discover the reality and depth of our faith. Do we really believe that this world is not all there is, that these days are but a preparation for eternity to come, and that faithfulness to Jesus is the path to our best in this world and the next?

If we do, our selfless sacrifice will show it. If we do not, the opposite will be true.

It’s been said: To discover if you’re a servant, see how you respond when you’re treated like one. To which we could add: To discover if you are serving Christ or yourself, see how you respond when given the choice.

Choose wisely today.