The Cost of Witness (4)

“If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you.

“Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also” (John 15:18–20). 

In the heart of the Upper Room, in the midst of Jesus’ assurance of His love for us, in the trajectory of the call to live in deep fellowship with the Trinity, we have John 15:18–16:4, with its promise (if we may call it that) of persecution, rejection, and possibility of death for the sake of Jesus. 

This passage immediately follows Jesus speaking of His joy being made full in us and us loving one another as He loves us, a love manifested in our laying down our lives for one another.

When Jesus says, “Remember the word that I said to you,” He takes us back to the beginning of the Upper Room (13:16), “Truly, truly, I say to you, a slave is not greater than his master, nor is one who is sent greater than the one who sent him.”

Also note Matthew 10:24-25. “A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a slave above his master. It is enough for the disciple that he become like his teacher, and the slave like his master. If they have called the head of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign the members of his household!” 

Here is a sequence found throughout Scripture, suffering precedes glory, death is a portal to resurrection. “…if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed in us” (Romans 8:17b–18).

At the heart of this is Jesus. Will we be identified with Jesus? With the Jesus Christ of the Cross and with the Cross of Jesus Christ? If our answer is “Yes,” then we must anticipate suffering for Him and others, it is a given; it is not an “if,” it is a “when.” It is just as much a fact of life as getting hit when playing American football or playing rugby. 

“If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rest on you…if anyone suffers as a Christian, he is not to be ashamed, but is to glorify God in this name” (1 Peter 4:14, 16). We are not to be ashamed of Jesus and His words (Mark 8:38). 

Is our identify in Jesus Christ? Is He the core of who we are? 

“They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world” (John 17:16). Do we believe this? Do I believe this about me? Do you believe this about you? Do you believe this about your congregation? 

You can live as a member of a Christian tradition and not face resistance and persecution as a way of life, but you cannot live as a disciple of Jesus Christ and avoid difficulty, rejection, and persecution to one degree or another…whether from the world or from professing Christians. The Christ of the Cross and the Cross of Christ is an offense.

We forget that Jesus said, “Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for their fathers used to treat the false prophets in the same way” (Luke 6:26). Our goal must not be to go along to get along. We must not be engaged in some type of painless marketing campaign that avoids the Cross in our own lives, in our message, and in the lives of others.

To be sure, our lives as well as our words are to be a witness to the world.

“Keep your behavior excellent among the peoples, so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may because of your good deeds, as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation” (1 Peter 2:12). 

“Let your light shine before men in such as way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 5:16). 

“Prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life…” (Philippians 2:15–16a).

O dear friends, we live in a world of gossip and slander, will we refuse to partake of it and live in Christ?

We live in a world of spin and lies and deceit (in the political world, the business world, in the world at large, and in professing Christianity), will we refuse to participate in evil and instead speak the truth in Christ? I am going to talk about this below. 

We live in a world where anger animates our words, emotions, entertainment, sports, politics, relations with others, will we live as the sons and daughters of the Prince of Peace, will we live as peacemakers?

The world says, “To play with us you must pay the price of being with us and you must be like us, you must go along to get along and you must leave your Jesus outside.” This may not always be the case in certain seasons of life, it can be, but it might not be. Yes, it is always the bottom line with the world, but we can still make a difference, I’ll try to explain this below or in the next reflection. 

If we say, “Yes,” to the world, then we have accepted the mark of Revelation Chapter 13 in our souls. Do we really want to do this? 

If our churches and movements say “Yes” to the world then we have aligned ourselves with the Whore who rides the Beast of Revelation 17. Can we really be so stupid, those of us who seek alliance with the political and philosophic (worldview) and economic and nationalist movements of this world?

Well, I see that this piece had gotten long enough, so I am going to drop back in the next one (the Lord willing) and try to explain and illustrate some of things I’ve written above. Sharing Jesus with others in the workplace and in our communities is one of the joys of living in Him, and while life is a contact sport for sure, we can have wonderful joy when giving to others, in serving them in Christ. 

Sure there is a cost to witness, to share love and grace and mercy, but it is a price we ought to gladly pay…again, and again, and again. 

Our Last Battle (8)

 Caricatures Continue

Chapter Four opens with the King tied to a tree, away from the Shift the Ape and the stable and the gathering of Narnians. He has been beaten, he is hungry and thirsty. 

As night descends, Mice, a Rabbit, and Moles quietly come to the King with food, wine, water, and with care and concern. However, they cannot untie Tirian lest Aslan be angry with them, just as when Tirian was attacked by the Calormenes they dared not fight for their King, lest they go against Aslan. 

When Tirian asks them if they really think Aslan would command the killing and enslavement of Narnians, the Mice acknowledge the contradiction between Aslan’s actions and what they’d always heard about Him, but then remind Tirian that they’ve seen Aslan (Puzzle the donkey dressed in a dead lion’s skin). Their conclusion is that they must have done something really bad to deserve such punishment from Aslan.

There is a brief moment when Tirian has his own doubts about what is real and what isn’t concerning Aslan, but then he recalls the rubbish about Tash and Aslan being one and the same and that brings him back to his senses. 

The theme of caricature continues in this chapter, and with the Mice and Rabbit and Moles we see good – hearted Narnians torn between compassion for Tirian and fear of Aslan. They know something isn’t right, but they don’t know what to do because they are afraid. Yet, they have overcome their fear in some measure, if only for a moment, to give comfort to Tirian. 

As Tirian considers the danger these little ones have placed themselves in to bring him comfort, he bids them to leave him, for he would not for all of Narnia see them harmed. Here we see Tirian’s anger, a prominent feature in the story to this point, being displaced by love for others. 

Left to himself, the King begins to ponder the history of Narnia, the appearances of Aslan, and the accounts of mysterious children from another world who have appeared from time to time to save Narnia. He thinks, “It’s not like that with me…But it was all long ago…That sort of thing doesn’t happen now.” 

Here is another caricature in Our Last Battle, the caricature of the Bible, God’s Word. Has God’s Word changed? Does it no longer mean what it says? Can we trust the stories and commands and teachings of Scripture? Does Jesus still appear to His People? Does He still live with us? (This is a prominent theme in Prince Caspian and in The Silver Chair.)

Are we explaining away the Bible? Are we making excuses for not seeing and knowing Jesus as a Living Person? Are we teaching that the Holy Spirit is less than He is represented in Scripture? Are we sewing dead lions’ skins on donkeys to represent the Bible, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit? Have we exalted our rationalizations, our sociology, our humanistic hermeneutics and epistemology, above the Word of God and the Person of Jesus Christ? Just how many stables are we constructing? 

If we aren’t asking these questions, we won’t know. If we aren’t asking these questions as part of the fabric of life, we will not know. However, there is risk in asking these questions, for we may end up like Tirian, beaten and tied to a tree, abandoned. 

How often are we told, “That was then, in Bible times, this is now in our times. God has changed, the Bible does not mean today what it meant when it was written. We have progressed."

An element of Our Last Battle is whether we accept the Bible as God gave it to us, and whether we are living under its authority, or whether we are re-forming the Bible into our image. Do we have the courage to think about these things? 

Since the Bible testifies to Jesus Christ, since Jesus Christ is seen holistically throughout Scripture (a reality that we have been blinded to), these questions are critical. This is all about Jesus Christ. Our Last Battle is about Jesus, just as The Last Battle is all about Aslan. 

And this suggests another danger in asking these questions, and that danger is that even in asking such questions, we may miss Jesus. Simply to identify caricatures or chasms between what we think and practice and believe today and the Jesus Christ of holistic Scripture is not enough. Our attention must not be directed to the chasm, it is to be always directed to Jesus. As important as it may be to realize there are chasms, what is of vital importance is to see Jesus and be drawn to Him, to know Him as we’ve never known Him before.

As we draw nearer and nearer to Jesus, as our friendship with Him becomes ever more intimate and vibrant, we forget about the chasms and caricatures in the light of His glory and grace and sweet friendship. In one sense it doesn’t matter so much where we have been, but rather where we are going, “Looking unto Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith” (Hebrews 12:2). 

In 1 Corinthians Chapter One, Paul in essence says, “We have a Message that doesn’t cater to Jews or Greeks, a Message that doesn’t conform to the expectations and paradigms of human culture. We have a Message that is a stumbling block to some and sheer foolishness to others.

Then in 2:2 he writes, “For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.” 

It seems to me that much of our thinking today, including in Evangelical circles, seeks to remove the stumbling blocks and foolishness of the Gospel, of the Christ of the Cross and the Cross of Christ. In doing so, perhaps we are making Aslan into Tash, and Tash into Aslan, perhaps we are creating our own Tashlan.

Well, we’ll return to Tirian tied to a tree and seemingly abandoned in our next reflection (the Lord willing), for the story is about to take a wonderful turn.

The Cost of Witness (3)

 

When I look back over my time as a pastor, there are words that I would speak differently, actions I would change, decisions that would not be the same. Of course, this is also true of my time in business, as in all of life. There are things I am thankful for and things of which I am ashamed. Then there are things that I just didn’t know or realize, times I thought I was doing the right thing, the best thing, and I wasn’t. 

Many times our thinking is so embedded in our particular culture, including religious and church culture and (for pastors) vocational culture, that we just don’t realize the effect of what we’re thinking and doing. 

About twenty-five years ago I attended a daylong workshop with some of my key congregational leaders on witnessing. There were around two hundred attendees (as I recall) and it was a wonderful atmosphere. The presenters were upbeat, the material was positive, the lunch was good, and the attendees were excited about the material. To be among two hundred people who want to share Jesus is exciting and energizing. 

The workshop consisted of an overview of a course on witnessing produced by a well-known pastor and his church. The curriculum was in the form of a book and series of short videos. The production quality of the video was high, the book was well-written, there was plenty of “how to” material, and it all seemed like a good idea at the time. The videos consisted of vignettes in which actors illustrated ways to share Jesus with others, each vignette tied to a chapter in the book. It was all so very smooth. 

I didn’t realize it at the time, but there was no discussion about the Cross being an offence, about rejection, about if the world hated Jesus that it will hate His followers. There was nothing about John 15:18 – 16:4, nothing about Mark 8:34 – 38, nothing about 1 Corinthians 1:17 – 2:2, and nothing about Galatians 5:11, 12–15.

I introduced this course to our church, and later to another church. In both instances the participation was good and the folks who attended were enthusiastic. Of course, in retrospect, most people who attend such courses with a desire to share Jesus are likely to be enthusiastic, they want to learn and grow and make a difference in the lives of others. 

I thought I was doing a good thing, I thought I was being a good pastor, but now I’m not so sure. 

For one thing, I was unwittingly having my folks avoid the Cross and identification with Jesus Christ. As we see in John 15:18 – 16:4, Jesus is clear that we will experience rejection and persecution if we are faithful to Him. The Cross is to be our Way of Life in Jesus Christ. 

In conjunction with this avoidance, I was unknowingly buying into the popular Evangelical ethos that our goal is to be “winsome” and inoffensive in sharing Jesus. We have embraced a therapeutic and sociological ethos of church and mission that requires little of us, we are more about popularity and gaining acceptance than about the Cross and living cruciform lives in Jesus. 

Now please don’t misunderstand me, I absolutely subscribe to Paul’s admonition in Colossians 4:6, “Let your speech always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to every person.” 

I often use storytelling and humor when sharing Jesus with others. I believe in building bridges of communication and relationships. I am passionate about investing in people, in listening to them, in understanding them, and in serving them. I practice being all things to all people in order that someway, somehow, by Christ’s grace I may win some. I use different vocabularies and patterns of speech depending on who I am speaking with – this is natural to me since I have had a diverse life experience. I usually enjoy being with people and learning about them. 

But I also realize that there will be rejection. I also realize that the Cross is an offense, it is not a candy vending machine. The Cross brings us to the end of ourselves and to the crucified Lamb of God. My goal with people is to share Jesus with them, to touch them with God’s love and grace and mercy, it is not to go along to get along. To witness to others I must always be willing to sacrifice myself – my wants, my desires, my needs, my social acceptance, my ego. 

Do I want to be liked and appreciated and accepted? Of course I do. Do I realize that this will not always be the case? Yes I do. This will indeed be the case if I follow Jesus and faithfully share Him with others. In my business career I often went against the popular cultural grain in my obedience to Jesus, it is a given that this will happen if we follow Christ, we cannot help but witness to Jesus by our actions and words – if we are obedient to Him. 

So as I look back on my excitement and endorsement of the course on witnessing that I introduced to my churches, I realize I could have done much better. 

Paul writes that all who live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution (2 Timothy 3:12). Jesus says that if the world hated Him that it will hate us, that the servant is not above his or her master, that if the world persecuted Him that it will persecute us (John 15:18 – 16:4). 

Do we believe this? If so, then how can we expect to witness without experiencing rejection and persecution? To construct an ethos of winsomeness and social acceptance, what amounts to a sociological, marketing, and therapeutic framework, for sharing the Gospel amounts to an avoidance with identification with Jesus Christ and the Cross, it amounts to playing the role of Peter when he attempted to shield Jesus from the Cross. Jesus says to us, “Get behind Me Satan, you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but man’s” (Matthew 16:21–23).

I recently read On the Incarnation by Athanasius and was struck by his description of men, women, boys, and girls gladly suffering persecution and death for Jesus Christ – gladly and with joy. Athanasius was saying, “What we have in Jesus Christ and in our testimony, our witness of Him, is not of this world.”

I am afraid that the course on witnessing that I was so excited about and which I introduced to my people, people whom I loved, was very much of this world, for it avoided the Christ of the Cross and the Cross of Christ. 

If I could do it over again, I would help my folks explore what the Bible teaches about witnessing to others in word and deed, and we would spend time in John 15:18 – 16:4, 2 Timothy 3:12, Colossians 4:6, as well as in many other passages. We would consider who we are in Christ and that we are called to be the Presence and Word of Christ to those around us; at home, at work, in school, in our neighborhoods, in civic life. We would hopefully come to see that witnessing for Jesus is our Way of Life, and that as in all of life, we will have sweet times and bitter, joyful times and times of sorrow, times when we understand what is happening and times when we just don’t understand events around us – but in which we know we can always trust Jesus.

Witnessing is not so much something we do, it is who we are in Jesus Christ, we are His witnesses. 

The Cost of Witness (2)

I have titled our reflections on John 15:18 – 16:4, the Cost of Witness, for it seems to me that Jesus is saying to us that to love Him and love others, which must result in witness, will cost us dearly. This passage flows from what precedes it and into what naturally follows it, it does not stand alone. No passage in the Upper Room stands alone anymore than any passage in Scripture stands alone. Let us ponder this passage in the knowledge that to love others entails losing our lives for them (15:13); just as the Father gave His only begotten Son, He continues to give all of His sons and daughters, let us be mindful of our calling in Christ. 

When I was a lad in Christ (I met Jesus when I was 15 years old), I was well aware of John 16:2, “They will make you outcasts from the synagogue, but an hour is coming for everyone who kills you to think that he is offering service to God.” This was one of the earliest passages embedded in my soul, along with the Call to Discipleship of Mark 8:34 – 38. I believed what Jesus said and it never occurred to me to doubt Him. One result of this is that when I shared Jesus with others, and was rebuffed, that it didn’t surprise me. Some folks accepted the Good News and others didn’t, this did not surprise me. 

No one had to tell me to share Jesus with others, I shared Jesus because He was changing my life and it was evident in the Bible that we are commanded to share the Gospel. I shared Jesus with friends, with classmates, with adults I met; after all, a coworker at my after-school job had shared Jesus with me, ought I not share Him with others? I never thought about whether I should tell others about Jesus any more than I ever thought about growing an ear or a nose – it was natural. 

It never occurred to me not to read the Bible and it never occurred to me not to witness. I devoured the Bible, I found life and purpose and love in the Scriptures. Why don’t we expect young people to read the Bible? Why don’t we expect adults to read the Bible? What have we done to ourselves? Why don’t we share Jesus Christ with others? 

Rather than make excuses we ought to return to our first love, or for many of us, find the love we have never known (Revelation 2:1–7).

And let me be clear about something that I’ve been pondering for a few years, our mission is not to propagate a worldview, it is to preach and teach Jesus Christ, it is to bring Jesus to others and to bring others to Jesus. A “Christian” worldview is not a substitute for Jesus and the Gospel, a Christian worldview is not the Gospel. People can have a Christian worldview (whatever that may be) and not know Jesus Christ. 

It seems to me that our churches are playing T-Ball when we should be playing baseball. We are like little ones playing organized soccer for the first time in a recreational league, there is nothing organized about it, we are running all over the pitch in utter chaos, making “own goals” along the way. This is what happens when we are not formed by the Word of Christ, we are without form and void – we may say we are rich, but that is an illusion (Rev. 3:1–6, 14–22).

As I said, as I was coming to know Jesus I shared Him with classmates and friends. Some were noncommittal but encouraging, for they could see the change in me. Some came to know Jesus. Others rejected Him…at least in that season of life, hopefully they have come to know Him since then. I can still see myself sitting on the platform at the base of our high school flagpole, it was a raised concrete square. I was reading my pocket New Testament and Psalms when one of my best friends, Frank, came up and knocked it out of my hand with a few choice words. I never understood why, but he was infuriated that I had come to know Jesus. 

While I was living and going to school in D.C. when I met Jesus, I had friends back in Rockville, MD who had been part of my life. I recall gathering a small group of them one evening in the room of a church in the area in order to share Jesus with them. By this time my best friend had also come to know Jesus and also shared Him that evening. I still recall one of our friends with us in that room, he had attended church all his life and couldn’t understand the idea that Jesus wants a personal relationship with us. Well, I could understand his confusion because I also had attended church at one time and had never heard anything about a relationship with Jesus. 

It never occurred to me not to share Jesus because I might be rejected, Jesus said I’d be rejected.

One of the things that did surprise me as a teenager was that adults who I assumed knew Jesus, or who I thought would be glad that I had met Jesus, were not that keen on what I had to say. I still recall one family member who dearly loved me, and who would always love me and give me mercy and grace, saying to me, “You’ll get over this.” This was one of the few times this dear woman was wrong. 

I also remember a meeting I had with the associate pastor of a church in Georgetown (D.C.), it was of the denomination in which I had been nominally raised. I wanted to meet with him because I wanted to find a church to attend. However, early into the meeting I realized that we had a disconnect. He wanted to talk about liturgy and the church year and vestments (and gave me a booklet about those things), and I wanted to talk about Jesus and the Bible. I never went back to that church. 

When I was in the Army, in Basic Training, in Infantry Training, and at my permanent duty stations, it never occurred to me not to share Jesus. I still recall my first night in Basic Training at Fort Bragg, NC. I had a decision to make when it was time to hit the bunks for sleep, and I knew I needed to make it right then. I knelt at my bunk for prayer. I wanted my first day in the Army to include my testimony for Jesus. 

Now let me be clear about something, and I’ll use Basic Training as an example. My life was far from perfect. I didn’t always get things right and I didn’t even always try to get things right. But sharing Jesus with others was important for them whether the vessel sharing Him was getting it right or not. Yes, for sure our actions matter, we want to bear good fruit, but when we mess up, in Christ we have forgiveness and reconciliation and we can model redemption to others even in our weaknesses, stupidity, and outright disobedience. We can show the world what reconciliation looks like in Jesus Christ. 

Like a fool, one night I went to the enlisted men’s club and had a few beers. The thing was that I wasn’t used to beer. I don’t know that I had had more than one beer my entire life up until that time, if that. That night I had beer with dinner and boy did I get good and drunk; drunk as in sick. I’ll spare you the details, but the next morning I was dealing with guilt and shame and a mess to clean up. 

Thankfully there was another man in the platoon who knew the love of God in a way that I hadn’t yet realized, and in the midst of my terrible theology that my salvation was in question, he came alongside me and spoke to me of God’s love in Christ and that I was secure in Christ, that what Christ had begun in me that He would complete. 

As I reflect back, it strikes me that not one of the men in my platoon made fun of my stupidity (I was likely the youngest man in the unit by far, having enlisted a few weeks after turning 17). Nor did my Drill Sargent make fun of me – I’m sure I wasn’t the first one to make a fool of himself. 

My fellow soldiers knew I felt bad about what I had done, and we went on with life, meaning that I went on sharing Jesus with them. Even in our stupidity, we can show others the Way of Jesus. 

This reminds me of a time when I was CFO of a firm in Richmond, VA. I was on the phone with one of our commercial tenants (we were a property developer and management company) and the conversation escalated into a shouting match. We hung up on each other with a “BANG!”

As soon as I slammed the phone down, I thought, “What have I done?”

Knowing that my staff had just heard what occurred, I immediately went out of my office and walked down the hall, going into every office and apologizing for what I had just done. Then I called the tenant back and apologized, asked his forgiveness, and we had a remarkably good conversation in which I offered to help him out of a tough financial situation. 

My point is that when we get it wrong, we have an opportunity to witness by showing others how Christ redeems and forgives us, and how we can reconcile with others. Saying “I am sorry,” and “Please forgive me,” and “I was wrong,” can be a powerful testimony in a world gone crazy with hate and anger and a refusal to accept responsibility. When saying these things, it is critical not to make excuses, not to justify ourselves, not to seek the easy way out.

Friends, the point is that we are called to put Jesus and others before ourselves, and if we mess up we need to get over it and move along because life isn’t about us it is about Jesus Christ and others coming to know Him. We need to get over ourselves and get on with Jesus and loving others enough to share Jesus with them, and loving Jesus enough to share Him with others. 

I have never shared with a group, whether in person or in writing, about my experience with beer in Basic Training. I share it now in the hope that it may help someone. Of course I realize that I am likely the only person to ever have such an experience. I have shared it a few times with individuals in order to help them through something they’re dealing with, but never with a group. I will never forget the other solider who came alongside of me to share the love of Jesus and His forgiveness with me, I was so insecure in Jesus, I had no idea how much He loved me. I forgot the soldier’s name, but I can still see his face. 

I am sharing these things for a few reasons, perhaps for more reasons than I realize. One is that I want you to know this is not some theological game with me, it is the essence of life in Christ. The other is that I haven’t been, nor am I now, perfect. This is about Jesus and His grace and not about how well we do things, not about techniques, not about selling something to someone. We have the Water of Life and shame on us if we are not offering it to folks dying of thirst (whether they realize it or not). 

Another reason is that in a forthcoming reflection I want to share about a mistake I made as a pastor when it comes to encouraging folks to share Jesus.

I hope something here has helped someone.

Much love,

Bob

Our Last Battle (7)

 Seven – He Will Eat You

We have seen how the idea that Aslan is not a Tame Lion was used to deceive and manipulate people, and how it was misunderstood by those who did not understand Aslan’s immutable character and Word (the stars). Now let’s consider what the idea might actually mean, what it is intended to convey to us.

One of the richest scenes in the Narniad is Jill’s encounter with Aslan in Chapter Two of The Silver Chair. I consider this scene and Chapter Twelve of The Silver Chair not only two of the most glorious scenes in the Narniad, but two of the greatest pieces of writing from the pen of C. S. Lewis. Chapter Twelve of The Silver Chair stands alongside the crescendo of The Last Battle and its glorious concluding chapters as having a texture beyond the earthly, reaching back to the Stone Table and the Deeper Magic from Before the Dawn of Time in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. 

In Chapter Two of The Silver Chair, Jill has just been the reason Eustace has fallen over the cliff into who knows where. While Eustace is falling, a lion appears next to Jill, but rather than roaring it is blowing over and beyond the cliff. After its final blow, the lion walks back into the forest. 

Soon Jill realizes that she is terribly thirsty, and upon hearing running water she decides to find it, moving carefully, mindful of the lion. When she locates the stream, she also finds a problem, the lion is lying between her and the stream. What to do? She reasons that if she runs the lion will catch her, and if she goes forward, she’ll be in the lion’s mouth. 

The lion speaks and says, “If you’re thirsty you may drink.” After the lion repeats this statement, it then asks, “Are you not thirsty?”

Jill then asks the lion if it would mind leaving while she drinks. The lion makes no reply. Jill’s thirst is driving her crazy, so she asks, “Will you promise not to – do anything to me, if I do come?”

Here we come to the heart of Jill’s encounter with Aslan, and I suppose of our encounter with Jesus Christ. Here we come to the realization that Aslan is not a Tame Lion, and that Jesus is more than an image on a wall, a picture in a book, or a purveyor of cotton candy. For Aslan replies, “I make no promise.”

While in her thirst Jill unwittingly takes a step nearer to the lion, she asks another question, “Do you eat girls?”

“I have swallowed up girls and boys, women and men, kings and emperors, cities and realms.” The narrator observes, “It didn’t say this as if it were boasting, nor as if it were sorry, nor as if it were angry. It just said it.” 

When Jill says that she dares not come and drink, the lion says, “Then you will die of thirst.”

When Jill then says that she’ll have to find another stream, the lion informs her that there is no other stream. 

I hope you will read this entire section in The Silver Chair to witness this remarkable scene in its fulness for there is no substitute to actually being there. 

As we ponder Jill’s encounter with Aslan (and there is much more to it in the chapter), what do we see in Aslan? Is He a Tame Lion? 

Would not a tame lion have honored Jill’s request to go away while she drank? 

Would not a tame lion have assured Jill that he would not eat her? 

And what of the lion’s declaration that it has eaten girls and boys and women and men and kings and emperors and cities and realms? 

What do we make of the lion’s matter-of-fact statement that Jill will die of thirst? 

An element of Our Last Battle is whether we know the real Aslan (Jesus) or whether we have bought into a caricature of Him. A caricature can have many forms. One form is what we’ve seen in The Last Battle, it is a depiction of Aslan as a self-serving, harsh, enslaving tyrant. 

We see this in the scribes and Pharisees and Sadducees of Jesus’ time. A severe merciless legalism in which the people serve the religious system, in which God demands sacrifice above healing on the Sabbath, and which compromises with Caesar in the interest of self-preservation. This is a system and a leadership that will murder Jesus Christ and persecute His disciples. 

We see this same caricature in that flavor of Christianity today that perpetuates guilt and shame and sin – consciousness in the Church. We see it in those leaders who amass wealth and fame and position and influence, manipulating others to give, give, give to them in the name of Christ Jesus. We see it in those who may have a form of godliness but deny its true source – the Vine Jesus Christ. We see it in those who teach and employ a syncretism with political and economic and cultural powers.

But we also see caricatures of Jesus in those systems that teach that we need no longer conform to His Word, nor expect Him to be consistent with His Word. Here we are taught that the image of God portrayed in the Bible and affirmed by Jesus has been superseded by our greater learning and understanding. Here we are also taught that Jesus is the Walt Disney of life, that Christianity is a Disney Land, that Sunday morning church is an entertainment venue, that Jesus is the way to prosper materially and grow rich and eat cotton candy. Christianity is a place to have fun and pastors are playground monitors, and if the playground monitors don’t cooperate we will ignore them, fire them, and find monitors to cater to our whims and fancies. And make no mistake, we expect our offerings to be used to purchase new playground equipment, we want the latest and greatest. 

The Jesus of the Bible, the Jesus that walks and talks among us today, within His Body today, is the Jesus who will not agree to our request not to do anything to us, He will not make us such a promise. Jesus will make no promise to not swallow us up. 

In fact, Jesus makes it clear that if we desire to follow Him that we must take up our cross, lose our lives rather than seek to save them, deny ourselves, and witness to others of Him (Mark 8:34–38). Jesus teaches us that since the world hates Him, the world will hate us (John 15:18–16:4). Jesus commands us to love as He loves, and He is clear that this love means laying down our lives for Him and for one another (John 15:12–13; 1 John 3:16). 

Jesus does not beg us to remain so that He may have crowds around Him (see John Chapter 6 and John 8:30–59), nor is He concerned that offerings diminish and that bloated budgets and campuses cannot be maintained. Jesus is not concerned whether we have to invade our endowments to fund operating deficits (why do we hoard money and yet keep asking for more, more, more?) Jesus desires those who will say, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life” (John 6:68). 

How can I write these things? Because I know, in some modest measure, the character of the Jesus of the Bible – the Jesus who gives and gives and gives again, whose relationship with His Father, and His love for us, is everything. Can you envision this Jesus hoarding funds in His bank account while people, created in His Father’s image, are hungry, homeless, sick, and hurting? Have we not exchanged the dollar sign for the Cross in our thinking and decision making? 

Do you know any church that obeys 2 Corinthians chapters 8 and 9? (Pay particular attention to 8:12 – 15). Do you know any church that even talks about this passage? Any church that aspires to it? 

Now I don’t know how you are responding to what I’m writing, but here is the thing, if you aren’t feeling some tension in this, some tension in wanting to know the true Aslan, the true Jesus, as opposed to a caricature, then I have made my point. 

We are called to a pilgrim’s progress, to a journey of knowing Jesus as individuals, as marriages, as families, and as brothers and sisters in Him. However, if we don’t encounter Jesus as Jill encountered Aslan, if we insist that He is a Tame Lion that we can control, then we are deluding ourselves and others. 

For to be sure, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah will swallow us up and our lives will never be the same. 

Morning Dedication

 Good morning, 

I have shared this prayer before, and it seems like a good time to share it again. It is a wonderful prayer to make your own, adding your own form and thoughts to it. For example, I add the words "and the best day of my marriage” to the conclusion. It also lends itself to memorization. 

Love and blessings…Bob

Morning Dedication

Holy Father,

As I cross the threshold of this day, I commit myself, soul, body, affairs, friends to thy care; Watch over, keep, guide, direct, sanctify, bless me.

Incline my heart to thy ways; Mold me wholly into the image of Jesus, as a potter forms the clay; May my lips be a well-tuned harp to sound thy praise; Let those around see me living by thy Spirit, trampling the world underfoot, unconformed to lying vanities, transformed by a renewed mind, clad in the entire armor of God, shining as a never-dimmed light, showing holiness in all my doings.

Let no evil this day soil my thoughts, words, hands. May I travel miry paths with a life pure from spot or stain. In needful transactions let my affection be in Heaven, and my love soar upwards in flames of fire, my gaze fixed on unseen things, my eyes open to the emptiness, fragility, mockery of earth and its vanities.

May I view all things in the mirror of eternity, waiting for the coming of my Lord, listening for the last trumpet call, hastening unto the new heaven and earth.

Order this day all my communications according to thy wisdom, and to the gain of mutual good. Forbid that I should not be profited or made profitable.

May I speak each word as if my last word, and walk each step as my final one.

If my life should end today, let this be my best day.”

The Valley of Vision, pages 220 – 221, Arthur Bennett, editor, Banner of Truth Trust.

Note: The prayer in the book begins “Almighty God,” but I seldom address our Father that way, He is our Father, My Father (see John 17:11, 25; Romans 8:15; Galatians 4:6; and of course Matthew 6:9).