Narnia Revealed

Narnia Revealed

Gregg Barbour. the Point. 4/24/06

I. Purpose of the Story (perspective from C.S. Lewis)

As Lewis wrote about the land of Narnia, an imaginary world visited by children of this world, he had two obvious purposes: to entertain the readers and to suggest analogies of the Christian faith. Many people would describe the Chronicles of Narnia as allegory, meaning a story that represents an abstract idea, but Lewis said, “…I’m not exactly ‘representing’ the real (Christian) story in symbols. I’m more saying ‘suppose there were a world like Narnia and it needed rescuing and the Son of God (or the ‘Great Emperor oversea’) went to redeem it, as He came to redeem ours. What might it, in that world, all have been like?’” It all started when Lewis took in four children during WWII who were sent out of London for their safety during German bomb raids—sound familiar? As he spent time with the children, he learned and was surprised that they knew very few mythic stories and fairy tales, and so he was inspired to pen the Chronicles. I think his desire was that children would fall in love with Aslan in the world of Narnia, and then come to know the “Aslan” of this world. Though the story isn’t meant to be allegorical per say, there are several things that we can assume for our lives.

II. The Edmund in Each of Us (Romans 3:21-26) (clip of Edmund as a traitor)

C.S. Lewis wrote “Edmund is like Judas, a sneak and a traitor. But unlike Judas he repents and is forgiven (as Judas no doubt would have been if he’d repented).” You see, there’s a bit of Edmund in all of us. Romans 3:21-26 says, “21But now God has shown us a different way of being right in his sight--not by obeying the law but by the way promised in the Scriptures long ago. 22We are made right in God’s sight when we trust in Jesus Christ to take away our sins. And we all can be saved in this same way, no matter who we are or what we have done.23For all have sinned; all fall short of God’s glorious standard. 24Yet now God in his gracious kindness declares us not guilty. He has done this through Christ Jesus, who has freed us by taking away our sins. 25For God sent Jesus to take the punishment for our sins and to satisfy God’s anger against us. We are made right with God when we believe that Jesus shed his blood, sacrificing his life for us. God was being entirely fair and just when he did not punish those who sinned in former times. 26And he is entirely fair and just in this present time when he declares sinners to be right in his sight because they believe in Jesus.”

You see, if we just stop and take a look inside ourselves, we’ll realize that we all have a problem, a problem called sin. A problem that keeps us longing for the Turkish Delight, that the White Witch will tempt us with so much that we’ll become sick from gorging ourselves on it. It’s the same way in this world. Satan will tempt us to do the wrong thing convincing us that it’s good for us, but after a while we realize that it only hurts us worse to continue doing it. James 1:14-15 says, “but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire he is dragged away and enticed, then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is full grown, gives birth to death.”

It seems hopeless to think that because of temptation which is deception, leads to desire-when Satan throws the bait out there, leads to disobedience, and then to death. But that leads us to the next truth we can assume from the land of Narnia.

III. The Passion of Aslan: The Penalty Paid (Romans 5:1-10) (clip of Aslan’s suffering for Edmund)

Because Edmund was captured by the White Witch’s deception, as a traitor, he was doomed to death. But Aslan, the mighty king, stepped in and paid for the penalty through his own death. Romans 5:1-10 says, “ 1By entering through faith into what God has always wanted to do for us--set us right with him, make us fit for him--we have it all together with God because of our Master Jesus. 2And that’s not all: We throw open our doors to God and discover at the same moment that he has already thrown open his door to us. We find ourselves standing where we always hoped we might stand--out in the wide open spaces of God’s grace and glory, standing tall and shouting our praise.3There’s more to come: We continue to shout our praise even when we’re hemmed in with troubles, because we know how troubles can develop passionate patience in us, 4and how that patience in turn forges the tempered steel of virtue, keeping us alert for whatever God will do next. 5In alert expectancy such as this, we’re never left feeling shortchanged. Quite the contrary--we can’t round up enough containers to hold everything God generously pours into our lives through the Holy Spirit! 6Christ arrives right on time to make this happen. He didn’t, and doesn’t, wait for us to get ready. He presented himself for this sacrificial death when we were far too weak and rebellious to do anything to get ourselves ready. And even if we hadn’t been so weak, we wouldn’t have known what to do anyway. 7We can understand someone dying for a person worth dying for, and we can understand how someone good and noble could inspire us to selfless sacrifice. 8But God put his love on the line for us by offering his Son in sacrificial death while we were of no use whatever to him. 9Now that we are set right with God by means of this sacrificial death, the consummate blood sacrifice, there is no longer a question of being at odds with God in any way. 10If, when we were at our worst, we were put on friendly terms with God by the sacrificial death of his Son, now that we’re at our best, just think of how our lives will expand and deepen by means of his resurrection life! Just as Aslan did in the world of Narnia, we have a king who paid the price for all our sins. And what was once hopeless, has now become hopeful, because of the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross!