Our Last Battle - (5)

 FIVE – THE KING’S ANGER GROWS

As Tirian and Jewel contend with Roonwit over the centaur’s warning of not to believe the lie that Aslan has returned, their ears are arrested by a Dryad’s wailing, crying for justice from the King. Her brothers and sisters, Narnian trees in Lantern Waste, are being cut down, murdered. Tirian’s reaction is to draw his sword. 

Note that the King has gone from putting his hand on his sword in anger toward Roonwit, to now drawing his sword in response to the Dryad’s news.

When the Dyad falls dead in great pain, indicating that her tree in Lantern Waste has also been cut down, Tirian’s grief and anger are so great that he can’t speak. Then, when the King calls on Roonwit and Jewel to come with him to Lantern Waste and confront the enemy perpetuating the murders, Roonwit counsels, “Sir, be wary even in your just wrath.”

Roonwit further counsels Tirian to wait until they gather reinforcements, for after all, there are only three of them and there are likely many villains to confront. Tirian, however, will not wait, but as he and Jewel make their way to Lantern Waste, he sends Roonwit to Cair Paravel for help. 

Lewis tells us that as the King hurries to help the Narnian trees that he is muttering to himself and clenching his fists, his anger is burning, he is driven by anger. When they ford the cold waters of a river Tirian is so angry that he hardly notices how cold the water is. Again, he is propelled by anger, fueled by anger. 

After an encounter with a Water Rat who tells them that their arch enemies, the Calormenes, are the ones felling the trees, Jewel and the King both become so angry that they can’t think clearly, which leads us to a key statement by Lewis in this chapter, and indeed in the entire book: “But much evil came of their rashness in the end.” 

The chapter concludes with Jewel and Tirian killing two Calormenes who have enslaved a Narnian horse. “The King’s sword went up, the Unicorn’s horn went down.” Jewel gored his opponent and Tirian beheaded his enemy. 

Note the progression of Tirian’s anger with his sword; first he lays his hand on the sword in his anger toward Roonwit, then he draws his sword in his anger at the news Dryads are being murdered, then he beheads an enemy with the sword to conclude the chapter. As noted previously, Tirian’s anger is mentioned at least ten times in this chapter, which is titled The Rashness of the King. 

Tirian rejected Roonwit’s counsel not to believe the lie about Aslan. Then the King rejected Roonwit’s counsel to be wary of his anger. Much evil would come of Tirian’s rashness, much sorrow, and much harm to his people. 

O dear friends, can we learn from Lewis’s warning about anger? Anger propels us on a trajectory of sorrow and hurt. When we become people of anger we hurt others in our self-righteousness, we ingest poison into our souls, we spread toxicity to those around us, we communicate spiritual and moral disease and death. 

The People of Christ are to be those who belong to the sacrificial Lamb, the Prince of Peace. We are called to be peacemakers. Our gentleness is to be known to all people. We are to "follow the Lamb wherever He goes” rather than take the lead in anger. We are not to call down fire on others, but we are to remember whose Spirit lives within us. 

The Scriptures teach us that Christ has made us a royal priesthood, we are kings and priests in Christ. If this is so, then we ought to be aware that godly kings do not rule and operate out of anger, but in peace and equity and wisdom. 

When we find ourselves drunk with anger we need to check ourselves into a detox center, and the detox center focuses on Christ Jesus the Lamb and our submission to His Word. The detox center reminds us of the character of our Father and Lord Jesus and the Holy Spirit, it reminds us that we are not of this world. 

The cup of anger is the cup of Satan, the cup of deceit. The alcohol may be mixed in sweet fruit punch so that we won’t taste it, it may be easy for us to drink, we may justify a drink here and a drink there, but before we know it we have turned the jug upside down and we no longer control the drink, the drink controls us – we are fools. 

Our Last Battle includes our battle with anger. If anger wins, then we lose. If we learn to submit to the peace of Christ, allowing His peace to rule in our hearts (Colossians 3:15), then we have hope and the possibility that we can help others, that in Christ we can save others from the chaotic hell around us. 

Tirian’s anger blinded him to the character of Aslan, it blinded him to the wise counsel of Roonwit, it blinded him to the Word of Aslan as portrayed in the heavens, it blinded him to good judgment, it impeded his ability to save his people. We cannot see clearly when we are angry; we hurt ourselves and others and bring shame to Jesus Christ when we act like fools.

The people around us need the peace of Jesus Christ, they do not need our self-righteous anger, be it religious or political. 

Many of us are fond of quoting Isaiah in saying that a time will come when people will call good evil and evil good. Yet, we do the very same thing when we call anger good and peace evil. Why don’t we see this? It is because we are losing our Last Battle, it is because we are drinking the cup of the enemy and we are too drunk to know it. Isn’t it about time we sobered up and began living for Jesus and others? 

Godly courage is exemplified by the Cross, not by the sword. 

“And they overcame him [Satan] because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony [of the Lamb], and they did not love their life even to death [just as the Lamb]” (Rev. 12:11). 

“The Lord’s bond-servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged, with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth” (2 Timothy 2:24 – 25). 

How are we doing with our Last Battle with anger? 

Do we really want to live and die as an angry people?