Today we exploring the connections between what has been called the greatest story ever told – the true story of Jesus Christ and His very real role in history – and one of the most enjoyable children’s stories ever written: “The Chronicles of Narnia”.
There really is a connection between these two stories – The Real Story about Jesus Christ and the fantasy story of Narnia – though it may not be obvious to everyone at first. One reason I know this to be true is because the author of the Narnia stories was a British writer named C.S. Lewis – Jack to his friends. Jack Lewis became a deeply devoted Christ-follower whose primary talent in life was his incredible gift for writing.
The fact that Jack Lewis ever became a Christian is in itself pretty amazing. At 10 year of age his mother died of cancer and in his deep grief the seeds of bitterness and doubt were sown in his heart. By age 13 Jack became pretty much a full-blown atheist and stayed that way until his early 30s when through his friendship with a group of Christian professors he experienced a deeply profound and totally surprising Christian conversion.
By the time Jack Lewis became a follower of Jesus in 1931 he was a teacher of English Literature at Oxford University where Christianity was typically mocked as being foolish and simple-minded. In response to the arrogant attitude of intellectual superiority and atheism that surrounded him Jack Lewis spent the next 30 years of his life trying to explain through his speaking and writing, that what his colleagues called “Mere – Christianity” was in fact the most profound Truth of all. He did a tremendous job of it!
C. S. Lewis’ most famous non-fiction book – Mere Christianity – not only explained the basic tenets of Christian faith to Lewis’ professor friends – but it went on to sell millions of copies becoming one of the most influential Christian books of all time. Through that one book alone, untold thousands of seekers and struggling believers have found a profound faith in God.
While on the intellectual level Jack Lewis was becoming the voice of reasoned and robust Christian faith – God was also at work in his life on an entirely different level. In the 1950s Jack Lewis followed the example of his Christian friend J. R. R. Tolkien and wrote a series of 7 timeless children’s classics titled “The Chronicles of Narnia.”
In the first story – The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe – Lewis introduces us to an amazing fantasy world beyond the doorway of a closet in the country mansion where four children have been sent to live with an eccentric professor. In this world beyond the wardrobe, called Narnia, animals talk and a wicked witch has cast an evil spell that makes it always winter but never Christmas. In Narnia the only hope for spring to come lies with a lion – not just any lion mind you – his name is Aslan. And we soon learn that Aslan is both terrifying and tender – not really safe – but always good.
Now if you stop to think about it – you soon realize that this fantasyland called Narnia is not completely different from our own. It isn’t only in Narnia that evil casts a spell on people- now is it? It’s not just in Narnia that there are unseen forces – both good and evil -- at work. And it isn’t just the residents of Narnia whose only hope lies with a fierce but loving Lion.
In fact – we all know another story – a true story -- in which the Lion bears another name and enters our world through a cattle stall in a backwater town on the other side of the world so he can break the spell of evil and bring new life. But that’s getting ahead of ourselves.
Millions of movie-goers have watched Narnia’s breath-taking scenery and mind-boggling special effects and some have missed the message. Some weren’t looking for any message and others missed the point because they came to Narnia expecting a black and white churchy morality play.
Jack Lewis deliberately didn’t use a paint-by-number – connect-the-dots approach to writing about the spiritual truths in Narnia. Instead he just wrote the very best creative and compelling children’s adventure stories he could and along the way he allowed his deepest held beliefs about God and life to bubble to the surface. It is not really a story to be studied and analyzed it’s a story to enter and be captivated by.
So here we are – right here at the doorway to another world. Beyond this doorway lies another world where a friendly faun carrying an umbrella waits for us by the lamp post and busy beavers serve tea to their honored guests telling us stories of the amazing lion Aslan who is on the move to put an end to the eternal winter.
It is through this very doorway that Lucy, the youngest girl in her family, is about to enter and begin the adventure of a lifetime with her sister Susan and brothers Peter and Edmund soon to follow. On the other side of this doorway lies a world in which a battle rages between good and evil – light and darkness – God and his enemies – a lion and a witch. It’s a world much like our own.
In this new world – which you will soon hear about in an amazing song – just on the other side of the doorway through this wardrobe lies the land of Narnia – this new world that’s like nothing we’ve seen before.
I suppose by now – if you know much about the storyline of the Chronicles of Narnia you’ve decided its all pretty silly really. I mean come on – kids who talk to fauns and beavers. In fact it is almost offensive to some that Lewis included a witch and wrote about magic especially the deep magic that eventually saves the day.
And then there is all this silliness about kids stumbling through a clothes closet and ending up in the wondrous world called Narnia.
Think with me for a minute:
Is Narnia the only world in which there are unseen forces – both good and evil – are at work?
Is Narnia the only place where an evil imposter
has taken the place of the rightful King and brought otherwise good people under a wicked spell?
And that lion Aslan – is Narnia the only world where a wild and ferocious but completely good majestic Kingly Lion is our only hope?
I submit to you that this story echoes the very dawn of creation when our creator God spoke the very universe into being and hand-crafted this planet so it could sustain human life so that he could have a relationship with his crowning creation – the human race.
From the first moments of time He has been preparing this planet for his most daring redemptive act. Ever since our first parents Adam and Eve fell under sin’s dread sway – succumbed to the grip of evil and the rest of us followed them downward some decisive action has been in the offing.
Winter settled on our souls. Something drastic has to be done.
For centuries the prophets and priests had been setting up a system of sacrifice. Something innocent and pure gave its life’s blood for someone else’s wrongs. Forgiveness always came at a price. A life for a life.
But now on this starry night on a hillside near Bethlehem we begin to grasp just how audacious and radical God’s plan really is.
No more lambs or goats or doves or cattle will intervene between a Holy God and a sinful humanity. God’s plan is much more radical than that – it boggles the imagination really.
Unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior – Christ the Lord – find the babe wrapped in strips of cloth lying in a manger.
Something incredible is beginning to take shape before our eyes.
A plan more unexpected and brilliant than any a human mind can conceive is being unleashed.
God is about to wrap himself in human flesh and step from the hallways heavens into the body of an amazing peasant girl and then out of that body into a smelly feed trough wrapped in rags.
Astonishing! Really – almost unbelievable really.
1 Real life takes place on more than one level
All these faithful ones … agreed that they were no more than foreigners and nomads here on earth. And obviously people who talk like that are looking forward to a country they can call their own. If they had meant the country they came from, they would have found a way to go back. But they were looking for a better place, a heavenly homeland. Hebrews 11:13-16 NLT
This scripture and others like it (including the entire section from Hebrews 9-11) reveal a really surprising and powerful truth. People in our day to day lives – only deal with life on one level – but all around us – certainly ‘above us’ is another world – the realm of the spirit where God is at work.
We focus most of our time and attention on the temporary – horizontal dimensions of life – eating sleeping doing our jobs.
We go through life most of the time our heads down.
Forging ahead – slugging it out. Caught up in the rat race – even if we win we’re still just a rat.
But here and there now and then something happens that gives us a moments pause – is this all there is? Food and drink and work and sex and love and hate?
In a moment that we least expect – we get a glimpse of that other world.
· Standing on tip-toe at an absolutely mind-blowing concert by your favorite artist
· Gazing in amazement as you see and experience a breath-takingly beautiful work of art
· Standing awestruck on the seashore watching huge waves breaking at your feet
· Lying spent and silent in the arms of someone you love more than life
We get glimpses of that other dimension beyond the horizontal
Maybe those glimpses of eternity come when you are flat on your back staring spellbound into the heavens so vast we cannot begin to even comprehend their size and scope and elegance.
Whenever you remind yourself that one dime held a arm’s length would block 15 million stars from view if we could see perfectly into the vastness of the universe.
Maybe when you have a momentary glimpse of eternity it is as a result of womething deeply personal.
· Holding your baby for the first time and tracing the perfect fold of her ears.
· Having your grandson run into your arms and call you Papa
Whenever and wherever – however it happens -- that you glimpse the world beyond our own you never forget it.
It feels something like hearing a melody from an old song you know you’ve heard before but can’t quite place.
Or like getting a hint of a scent that reminds of some old cologne your Dad once wore or a fragrance that graced your mother’s neck and you haven’t thought of it in who knows how long – but there it is.
In those moments wonder – majesty – mystery sneak up on you and make you – just for a moment look up!
Jack Lewis called it nostalgia for a world we know we beong to and wre made for -- but haven’t visited yet.
We have this deep down feeling that there is more going on in this world than meets the eye. Much more.
In those moments we begin to understand what the writer to the Hebrews was getting at. There are things we cannot see that are ultimately more important and valuable than the things we can.
Like C. S. Lewis most of us have felt a longing for something beyond this world!
Fact of the matter is – Christmas – this entire season is an incredible opportunity to look up and not just around.
With all the business and craziness to create a perfect holiday décor and gourmet meals and to buy those - just-so presents and throw amazing holiday parties we have made Christmas into a time when we keep our heads down. But this is a time when we ought to be looking up -- more than ever.
Remember – this world is not all there is – Christmas proves it!
2 Christmas reminds us that Jesus left heaven and invaded planet Earth
The amazing truth of Christmas is this – not only is there a vertical dimension to life – Spiritual reality – but God has made the connection between it and us.
"In the beginning the Word already existed. He was with God, and he was God. He was in the beginning with God. He created everything there is. Nothing exists that he didn’t make. Life itself was in him, and this life gives light to everyone. The light shines through the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it." John 1:1-5 NLT
"The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood. We saw the glory with our own eyes, the one-of-a-kind glory, like Father, like Son, Generous inside and out, true from start to finish." John 1:14 MSG
Fact of the matter is we are living on a ‘visited’ planet
Bethlehem was ground zero for God’s plan to invade Earth.
That God-directed invasion involved a girl and a manger who were used by God -- as it says in Galatians 4:4 – when the exact right time came. That’s when God sent his son!
At Bethlehem God unleashed the full extent of his love
When God saw our desperate need He said – I’ll go myself to rescue them from darkness. And he came all the way to Bethlehem.
LEWIS wrote in Mere Christianity:
"We live in enemy occupied territory – Christianity is the story of how the rightful King has landed you might say in disguise and invites us to become part of his campaign of sabatogue – When we go to church we are really listening to the secret radio broadcast from our dearest friend."
Finally
3 Jesus is the doorway into our real homeland
“I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.” John 10:9 NKJV
"Look! Here I stand at the door and knock. If you hear me calling and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal as friends. Revelation 3:20 NLT
Trusting in and walking with Jesus moves our lives to an entirely different level.
Here the first section of the story arrives at its completion.
1. Two different worlds exist – the temporal and the eternal – the seen and the unseen -- the here and now and the there and then. Earth and Narnia
2 God has acted to make a solid connection between the two.
In Narnia we come to see Jesus represented by the form of a lion who challenge four children – sons of Adam and Daughters of Eve -- to follow Him and in so doing put the land of Narnia back the way it should have been. Aslan is going to bring back the spring time – to let Christmas happen again.
Here on earth the story is even more amazing.
The great Lion of Judah as he is called it the Revelation becomes a baby.
This baby becomes a man who will bring the love and forgiveness of God to his lost children and put this world right again.
Really when it comes to putting the wrong things right again – God has done all the really important stuff – He took the initiative.
God has invaded this broken sin-scarred world of ours
He sent us his only son – love wrapped in skin so we could see it completely
He offered himself as the perfect sacrifice for my sins
Now He invites me back into connection with Him
Each of us must personally decide what we will do about all God has already done.
Ultimately we come to a doorway -- similar in a way to the Wardrobe that contains the entrance to Narnia.
When we get to the door you have a very important decision to make — will you walk through or not?
On the other side of that door lies an amazing new life in a whole new world.
ON the other side of this doorway is a life of service and sacrifice and even suffering at times. But on the other side of the door thre is also an entirely new level of joy and fulfillment and significance awaiting us.
LEWIS: In Christ we can one day go through the door we have known was there all along and in a way were knocking on all our lives.
Jesus is waiting just on the other side of a door we have been knocking on all our lives.
He is only one prayer away. And when we sincerely pray that prayer of faith we will meet the Lion face to face. We will feel His breath and Hear his roar in due time we will get to ride His back.
He is knocking and it is time to open up to Him.
Let’s Pray
