Through the Wardrobe into Winter
Isaiah 9.1-3
I. Introduction
I would like for everyone to place there imagination hats on with me this morning as we journey into an enchanted land known as Narnia. We need to recapture a sense of wonder and each of us needs to find our inner child. I need everyone to close their eyes as we begin on this amazing adventure.
You are a child or at least you are a child at heart. We have all begun to play a game of Hide and Go seek, and we are playing inside because it is raining in sheets outside. You quickly enter into a room and at first glance it appears that the room is empty, but then you notice a rather unremarkable wardrobe sitting in the corner of the room. You quickly move over to the wardrobe and you pull the doors open. What you find inside is fur coats, and your first thought is that you can hide behind the furs.
You slip in among the furs, and you feel them brushing against your cheeks. As you push to the back of the wardrobe you notice there is a second row of furs, and then when you expect to reach the back of the wardrobe, you find that it keeps going. It is getting darker and darker the deeper that you move into the wardrobe. You hear something cracking under your feet, maybe it is mothballs, so you bend over to find out what it is, and you are amazed, the floor of the wardrobe is not a smooth wood, but what you find is something very powdery and cold—it is snow.
You immediately return to your feet, and find that you are no longer running into fur coats, but that you are brushing against trees. You are just about to turn around when you notice a light up in the distance. You are intrigued by what you have seen so far and you continue on the path. You are cold and your feet are a little bit wet, you wish you had put on one of the fur coats that you had just been brushing through. After about 10 minutes, you arrive at the light source—a lamp post in the middle of a snow covered forest. It cast its light around in a circle and dispels all the darkness that surrounds it. What a strange place for there to be a lamp post you think in your mind.
You are just traced the steps of Lucy, the first child to enter the land of Narnia.*
My hope and prayer for us over the next few weeks, is that we like so many readers over the last 55 years, will be able to find God in the pages of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, for the sole reason of experiencing him here in our lives. This morning I want us to pause and focus upon the first scene in the land of Narnia, that of winter and the lamp post.
This morning as we journey into the land of Narnia, we are also beginning the journey through the season known as Advent, a walk towards Christmas. With these two things in mind, I want us to look at a passage of scripture that is found in the book of Isaiah.
Isaiah 9.1-3
II. The Darkness of Winter
The world of Narnia was a world that was dominated by darkness and evil. The entire country was under the spell of the white witch, and her spell was quite simple—it would always be winter, but never Christmas. Now for us in West Texas we just don’t understand what that means. We hope so often that we would have just a little bit of winter. If we get one good snow we think that we have had a hard winter, but there are people around the world that long for winter to end. They long to see the sun, to experience spring, to feel refreshment, renewal, rebirth, new beginnings. And that was the desire of the creatures of Narnia.
Now the people of Judah that Isaiah was writing to also very much lived in a long winter. When he writes to the people they are walking in gloom, they are walking in darkness, they are a people that have seen the destruction of the Northern Kingdom, Israel, they have inept leadership and they see the looming destruction of their own kingdom. The desire of the heart of the people according to Isaiah is that a King in the mold of David, the shepherd King would arise to save them. These people were looking for hope, they were looking for a future, they were looking for a Messiah.
We may not understand winter like some people do, but there is not doubt that we can understand darkness. We live in a world that is many times characterized by darkness. This world is not held captive by the spell of a witch, but is held captive by our own sin. Sin entered the world, and it stopped all hopes of renewal and rebirth. That is the darkness of the world that we live inside.
I would also imagine that there are people here today that feel like they have no hope. People who are struggling to make it from day to day. If that is not you, then I would imagine that you have someone in your family, or a close friend that understands exactly how the people of Judah and the people of NARNIA felt.
Christmas is just another day to add stress to your life. Gifts, parties, cards, eating, time, time, time, that you don’t have. The commercialism of Christmas has in a very real way robbed Christmas and has left our world in a state of winter, but never Christmas.
Under those conditions is where Isaiah writes and he brings us a great hope. He shows us a light in the middle of winter.
III. A Light in the Middle of Winter
He says the people who were in darkness have seen a great light; they have experienced the dawning of a new light. The chapter goes on to talk about the coming of a new King, a Messiah, and Jesus himself takes this passage and applies it to himself in Matthew 4. The Light that dawned was not truly experienced until the coming of Christ, but the hope was found.
As the lamp post is approached in Narnia, hope can be found and experienced. The darkness of the woods and the winter was expelled because of the light of the lamp post. In my understanding, the lamp post becomes very significant; it becomes a beacon of hope, a picture of Christ himself. Jesus tells us in the book of John that he is the light of the world.
The world that Jesus entered into on that first Christmas night was one that was characterized by darkness. A world that was lost and their only hope would be found in him. The lamp post shows us that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. The lamp post is a reminder to us that only a miracle could bring light into a world of winter. The lamp post lets us know that the dark moments will pass that there is hope. Hebrews 11.1 says, “Now faith is the conviction of things hoped for, the assurance of things not seen.” Our faith and our hope are found in the lamp post, in the person of Jesus Christ.
At the lamp post we are called to embrace the God of new possibilities, the God who can bring light into our darkness. In advent we wait expectantly for the hope, the joy, and the promise of Christmas, and we also wait for the glorious return of Jesus Christ in his second coming. As the people of Isaiah’s time we long for the long awaited Messiah. We know the rest of the story however, we know that he will be a baby that is born in a manger, and that he will leave that manger, to walk the path to the cross, that he will be resurrected on the third day, and then he will return again in glory to take his church to be with him, and he will forever destroy winter and darkness.
IV. Conclusion
We understand that he is the God of new possibilities. In the land of Narnia, Lucy finds all sorts of new possibilities. "The wardrobe [and the lamp post are] such fitting symbols for entering an adventure, a new life. Lucy stumbled in perhaps accidentally, but so do some people, who find that they discover Christ in places they would not expect. They, like Lucy, may be searching for an escape from boredom or other problems, but they are at least searching for a change of some kind.”**
I encourage you this Advent season to look for the God that brings light into the darkness, to come and see how God wants to use you. The apostle Paul tells us in Ephesians 5.8, “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light.” In the light of the lamp post we can see all the great possibilities that God has for us.
*C.S. Lewis. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. HarperCollins: New York, 1950, 1978 reprint. I have modeled this opening illustration off of the entry of Lucy into the wardrobe for her first visit to Narnia.
**McLaughlin, Sara. Meeting God in the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe: Christian Themes in C.S. Lewis’s Book. Pleasant Word: A Division of Winepress Publishing: Enumclaw, WA. 2005, 21. I have added the remarks about the lamp post to the writing of McLaughlin.
