Chapter Two is titled, The Rashness of the King, and in it Lewis presents a warning for those who will pay attention. This warning presents us with the first phase of our Last Battle.
The chapter begins with two friends, King Tirian and the unicorn Jewel. Unlike Shift and Puzzle in the first chapter, these are true friends whose friendship has been tested and proved through life – threatening perils, they had risked their lives for each other. Jewel and Tirian love each other, they have a true friendship – they have been willing to lay down their lives for one another.
It is some three weeks after the events of Chapter One. The scene is a woodland setting, away from Cair Paravel, the royal capital. The king likes to live simply, away from the protocols and finery of the capital. As we are drawn into the chapter, we hear the king telling his friend that he doesn’t feel like doing any work or sport because of the glorious news that Aslan is in the land. As Jewel replies that the news is indeed wonderful, he adds “if they are true.”
Tirian responds with incredulity, “How can they choose but be true?” The king goes on to list the testimony of birds and squirrels and a stag (who had seen Aslan from afar) and a Calormene, and a badger. In Tirian’s response we see the first sign of his great danger, that of anger. He will believe what he has heard, and he will countenance no suggestion that what he believes isn’t true, even from his dear friend Jewel. Jewel hasn’t said it isn’t true, but he has expressed the possibility that it might not be true. There is a sense in which Jewel is saying that the report of Aslan ought to be verified. Jewel hopes it is true, he wants it to be true, it will be glorious if it is true. The king will have none of it, it has to be true and that is that.
Why was Tirian still at his hunting lodge? Why wasn’t the king back at Cair Paravel with his people to meet Aslan? Why wasn’t the king, as the leader of his people, seeking Aslan? If the king had responded to the first reports of Aslan, our story may have unfolded in a very different manner, much heartache and tragedy may have been avoided, he may have been able to protect his people.
Dear friends, we can be comfortable, or we can be faithful, but we cannot be both. Yes, you read the words correctly, we can be faithful to Jesus Christ and others, or we can choose to live comfortably, but we cannot have both. This is not to say that we cannot enjoy good things in life when we are able, by God’s grace, to do so (Phil. 4:12), but it is to say that the race we are called to run and the battles we are called to fight require constant engagement and vigilance for the benefit of those around us. While we may have respites at Tirian’s lodge, our place of service is at Cair Paravel, it is where people are. Jesus Christ came for people, not pleasure; He has called us to serve Him and people, not pleasure.
Paul writes Timothy that he is to “endure hardship with me as a good soldier of Jesus Christ” and that he [Paul] “endures all things for the sake of those who are chosen, so that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus and with it eternal glory.” (See 2 Timothy 2:1 – 13). Jesus’ call to follow Him is a call to self-denial and a call to lay our lives down for Him and others (Mark 8:34 – 38; John 15:12–13; 1 John 3:16).
Francis Schaffer predicted that the two greatest dangers to the church, at least in the West, at the end of the 20th century would be personal peace and affluence. What Schaffer meant was that our attitude toward the world would be, “If you leave me alone to have my own space and my personal peace, and if you allow me to enjoy the things I can accumulate and experience, I will leave you alone. I will not bother you with the Gospel and we as a People will not bother you with a distinctive unified witness to Jesus Christ.”
While Tirian was enjoying his time with his friend Jewel in the woodlands, his people were being deceived by the Ape and poor Puzzle in a dead lion’s skin.
What about us? Where are we living and how are we engaged? Is our own selfish welfare at the center of our decisions? Does personal peace and affluence determine our words and actions and decisions? Is life all about us and our families and our wellbeing, and even our congregations and religious traditions? As Haggai the prophet put it, are our own houses at the center of our lives while the House of God (Eph. 2:19 – 22) lies in ruins? (Haggai Chapter One).
Oswald Chambers wrote that every morning when we wake up, that we wake up on a battlefield. While Tirian was enjoying his time in a pastoral setting and believing a lie, his people were being deceived and enslaved.
In Chapter Two we see that our Last Battle includes the battle of personal peace and affluence as opposed to a life in Christ of self-denial and sacrifice for others; it also includes whether we will live in anger or in the peace of Jesus Christ. As we will see, the battle with anger unfolds in Chapter Two and the rashness of the king leads to much harm.
We’ll consider the entrance of the majestic Roonwit in our next reflection, a centaur who has much to teach us.
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