Narnia: The Only Cure For Dragon's Skin

The Only Cure for Dragon’s Skin

Hebrews 9:14 NIV

How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!

Scientists are always looking for cures to diseases. In 1929, Alexander Fleming discovered a fungus that killed bacteria. That discovery led to the development of the antibiotic, penicillin. It was not until the 1940’s during WWII that the antibiotic was able to be produced into a commercial antibiotic. The drug became a major cure of many infectious diseases, and is still used today.

In 1954 Jonas Salk invented the vaccine for poliomyelitis. There are three strains of the polio virus. The vaccine has been very successful in helping eliminate almost all of the polio in the world. However, the vaccine is not a cure for polio. Actually there is no cure. Treatments help offset the affects of disease. The body fights off the disease like all viruses. There is a prevention, but there is no cure.

Today we still are seeking cures for diseases. HIV, cancer, pest born diseases like West Nile virus, Lou Gehrig’s disease– all are diseases we are seeking cures for. Every now and then, God gives us grace to discover a breakthrough to a disease. Other diseases seem to evade a cure.

Sin is a human disease. It is a disease of the soul. You might say it is a disease that gets under our skin. Sin is a disease which has infected all of us and for which there is no human cure. No mater how much we try to make ourselves better, no matter how many times we resolve to make changes, we find that we are powerless to change ourselves. Our story is written on the pages of human history as well as in the history of Israel in the Bible. Although we know what is right, we have become corrupted and are not able to break the habit of our sins.

C. S. Lewis wrote a children’s series called The Chronicles of Narnia. I recommend every father buy the series and read them to their children. I used to read the series at bedtime to my son. It took many months, but it was a wonderful experience for him and myself. In The Chronicles of Narnia, C. S. Lewis tells the themes of Christ, sin and redemption through the characters of children who wander through the magical world of Narnia. Through one of these stories, Lewis helps us see how powerless we are to change the nature of sin within us. I want to tell you about Eustace and the dragon’s skin.

1. We cannot remove the dragon’s skin.

There is no human cure for sin.

In The Chronicles of Narnia, several young children represent Christians in a world of dragons, elves, unicorns, and many other mythical creatures. One of the children is a young boy named Eustace. Eustace is a very selfish boy. He always tries to see life for how it best benefits him. What he often discovers is that selfishness more often fills him with more unhappiness than joy. In the book, The Voyage of the Dawntreader, Eustace and the other children travel on a ship to discover the unknown lands of Narnia.

After a long time of sailing, they come to an island to make some repairs. Instead of helping the others, Eustace leaves the others to do the work and goes out to explore the Island. After a long day of exploring, Eustace discovers a dragon’s lair filled with all kinds of treasures. Never in his life had he seen so many treasures. He was fearful of being in the dragon’s lair, lest the dragon return while he was looking at its treasures. Eustace looked all around but did not see any sign of the dragon. Then Eustace decided he would put on one of the jewel studded bracelets he found among the treasures. Because he had spent so much energy exploring, Eustace became tired. So he lay down to take a nap and fell asleep.

Sometime later, Eustace awoke. To his horror, as he opened his eyes, he noticed lying next to him was the dragon! There it was -- the huge terrible beast. The devil himself, lay next to him. He could feel the rough dragon’s skin rubbing against him. At first he thought the dragon must have come in while he was sleeping. Was the dragon waiting to kill him and eat him later? Did he not notice Eustace sleeping on his treasure?

Eustace was afraid to get up, lest he disturb the brute beast and the dragon eat him alive. So he lay there a long time, not moving at all. Yet he realized that eventually he would need to escape. So he slowly lifted his arm. Yet as soon as he moved his arm, the beast also moved his arm, mimicking his movement. Eustace moved his leg, and the dragon moved his leg as well. It took a few minutes for Eustace to realize what had happened. Eustace wasn’t lying with the dragon. Eustace had become the dragon. His greed had made him what he was, a sinful, selfish beast. He had become the dragon, the very thing he feared.