The Cost of Witness (7)

 

As we ponder John 15:18–16:4 and the Cost of Witness, let’s recall that Jesus says, “A slave is not greater than his master. If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you.” (See also John 13:16). When we follow Jesus, we are identified with Jesus, in rejection, in suffering, in death, in resurrection, and in ascension. If we realize that this is a “given,” then we will not be surprised when we face hatred, rejection, and persecution. While we do not seek these things, we do seek to be faithful witnesses and we learn not to be surprised when we encounter opposition, in fact we learn to rejoice in being identified with our Lord Jesus Christ. 

We remind ourselves that Jesus says, “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you” (John 15:18). 

“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” (John 15:19). 

When I think about the course on witnessing that I referred to when this series began, one of its dangers, that I did not see at the time, was not only its failure to explore what Jesus is saying in John 15:18 – 16:4, but also its foundational premise that we can make friends of the world, get the world to like us, blend in, and have a group hug. To do this, we must abdicate our identity in Jesus Christ, we must cross back over from the Kingdom to the world. 

However we cannot use the ways of the world to reach the people of the world, and I think a fair reading of 1 Corinthians 1:17–2:16 supports this statement. As Michael Green points out in his book, Evangelism in the Early Church, it is when the Church has been the most unlike the world, that it has reached the people of the world. And please, let us not be deceived when we see large numbers in churches, nor small numbers in churches; we are called to make disciples, not to gather crowds. Are people devoted to Jesus? Are they living out Mark 8:34–38? Are they making disciples? Are they obeying all that Jesus has commanded us? 

When our gatherings resemble nightclubs and entertainment venues shrouded in darkness…what have we done? Are we not to be people of the Light?

Are we living as a distinct community in Jesus Christ? 

Furthermore, as we read John 15:18–16:4 and the Cost of Witness, are we facing rejection and persecution for Jesus? Let’s be clear about this, and let’s be honest, if we are not experiencing rejection and persecution, then something is wrong…or Jesus and Paul are mistaken. Let’s not forget 2 Timothy 3:12, “All who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.” 

The Cross is an offense, and if we remove the Cross from our message, we have removed our witness and we have rejected our identity and our dear Lord Jesus. 

Is our identity in Jesus Christ or is it in the world? It cannot be both. We cannot serve two masters (Matthew 6:19–24). It seems to me that we need to settle this question, to affirm one another in our identity in Christ, and to be unambiguous in our witness to the world. 

The politicization  and nationalization of professing Christians and churches is a denial of our identity as God’s distinct People in Christ (from Russia to the United States and everywhere in-between.) Yes, this can be a hard thing. It was a hard thing when Jesus said it, when Paul and the other Apostles taught it. It has always been a hard thing, this Cross that Christ calls us to carry and live by for His glory and the salvation of others. But Jesus does not want us to be surprised by it, and so He says, “But these things I have spoken to you, so that when their hour comes, you may remember that I told you of them” (John 16:4a). 

I suppose there is an element here of Jesus saying, “To be forewarned is to be forearmed.” 

“You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God” (James 4:4). 

“Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. The world is passing away, and also its lusts, but the one who does the will of God lives forever” (1 John 2:15- 16). 

I don’t think we teach this very well, if at all. We don’t want to offend people; I’m talking about church people. I think there may be folks who don’t know Jesus who may be relieved to hear this, relieved to hear that all the marketing and advertising they are bombarded with is a lie. I think there are laboring men and women who are just trying to put food on the table and house their families and keep them safe who may be comforted by the fact that the Great American Dream is a mirage and that it has nothing to do with desiring the Kingdom of God. 

I think people may be set free to learn that it isn’t what is in our wallets that matters, but rather what is in our hearts. Others may be glad to learn that the cruise line that really matters is the Ark of Jesus Christ. 

I live in a community of mostly retired folks. We are from all over the East coast and the Midwest. Many of us have one sad thing in common, we are still impressed by money and possessions. Isn’t this foolish? We are all close to death and we haven’t learned about the lies we’ve believed, and in which so many of us have invested ourselves. What is maybe worse, we have passed this stupidity on to our children and grandchildren. We talk about how much money our grandkids make and their possessions, rather than about their character. And what about Jesus? 

Of course church folks generally do not want to hear about their relationship with the world because if you offend us we’ll either just go to another church or we will stay home. We want a Christianity without the Christ of the Cross and the Cross of Christ, and this includes Evangelicals and Pentecostals. Leave us alone to pursue our own agendas and affirm us in our materialism and alliances with the world, and for goodness sake have the good sense not to call us adulterers and adulteresses! 

Do we love the people of the world enough, the people held captive by the world system, to share Jesus with them? To maintain our identity in Christ and His Cross and to love them and serve them and speak to them as citizens of heaven? Do we love our fellow professing Christians enough to do the same? 

I have a friend who was responsible for hundreds of millions of dollars in assets over his career. He worked with clients who were exceptionally wealthy. One of the keys to his success, he thinks, is that one hundred million dollars made no more impression on him than one dollar. He was no more impressed by a client who had millions of dollars than a client of more modest means, or by a man or woman working as a groundskeeper in his firm. In fact, he could often be more impressed by the integrity and earnestness and compassion of the groundskeeper than by clients of substantial means. 

Why was this?

Because my friend learned in Christ that he is in the world but not of the world. He learned in Christ that the world in passing away. So as Joseph could speak to Pharoah, and as Daniel could speak to Nebuchadnezzar and Darius, my friend could speak truth to his clients without being intimidated by power, position, or wealth. His clients had nothing that he wanted, in fact, he wanted something for his clients…for them to know Jesus. 

Who can we share Jesus with today? 

Our Last Battle (10)

 Ten – Children?

In Chapter Five of The Last Battle, Jill and Eustace appear in Narnia to help the King. They arrive as Aslan’s response to Tirian’s cry, “Let me be killed. I ask nothing for myself. But come and save all Narnia.” 

God moves when we place others before ourselves. He moves when we take the place of others, when we enter into intercessory prayer and when we live intercessory lives. This is the Way of Jesus, and there is no other Way to live than by Him and His Cross.

Our prayers are often answered through others. When Daniel prayed God sent messengers in response to his prayers. When Paul and Silas struggled over what direction to take in their mission, God gave Paul a vision of a man saying, "Come over to Macedonia and help us." When the Ethiopian wrestled with reading the Prophet Isaiah, God sent Philip to him. God answered Cornelius’s prayerful alms by sending Peter. Jesus sent Ananias to heal Paul’s blindness, confirm Paul’s commission, and baptize him. 

Jesus seemed to always be directing Paul to new friends and new friends to Paul, his letters are full of reference, praise, thanksgiving, and prayers for coworkers – men and women. Doesn’t this make sense? For didn’t’ Jesus surround Himself with followers who became disciples, with disciples who became apostles, and with apostles who became friends?  

The very nature of life in Christ is the nature of Divine relationship in the Body of Christ, the Bride, the Church, the Temple, the Family of God. We want others to have koinonia with us so that they may have koinonia with the Trinity (1 John 1:3). Are we living in the reality of Hebrews 12:22 – 24? Is the “communion of saints” the fabric of our lives, or is it only a phrase of the Creed that we hopefully recite? 

One challenge of praying is receiving, and I don’t think we do this very well, at least I know that I don’t. We want to define and shape and qualify the answers, and if we don’t see what we want then we think God has not answered us. (I have explored this more fully in our Upper Room series). 

Aslan sent two children in answer to Tirian’s intercessory prayer for Narnia. Were it not for the fact that Tirian had heard stories of children coming from another world, time and again, to save Narnia, would he have immediately accepted Jill and Eustace? 

Are there times we reject God’s provision and His answer because we don’t like the form they take? When Jesus says that we ought not to reject children, for of such is the Kingdom of God, maybe, embedded within His words, is the instruction that we can learn from children and from things that seem “below” us. 

As I think about my formal theological education, I naturally see areas of deficiency, areas in which there maybe should have been fewer electives and more requirements. However, I realize that one can only accomplish so much in 96 credit hours and so I think, by and large, my seminary did the best it could in most respects. 

However, I do think a 19th hole should have been added to the golf course. We should not have been given diplomas until we had served at least six months cleaning toilets as a living. Pride and reliance on methodology and humanistic epistemology and hermeneutics are dangerous things, and a reminder that we aren’t as smart as we think we are would be good for most of us, and I think quite beneficial for the people we serve. (Maybe refresher courses in toilet cleaning should also be required.)

In Narnia, children from earth grow quickly, it’s one of those strange Narnian dynamics, much like the difference between the way time is experienced in Narnia and on earth. Sometimes, if we can see God coming to us in simple things, in basic things, and if we will accept those things and seek to learn from them, those things will grow quickly from children to adolescents to adults and we will see value in them that we never considered. 

On the other hand, if we dismiss out of hand what God sends to us as being beneath us, then we will miss treasures of Christ. This is especially true of people, often the people we can learn the most from are those who are the most different from us. One of the tragedies of the American church is that we are segregated racially, economically, educationally, politically (shame on us, shame!), to name but a few barriers. We build and maintain our own prisons…and proud we are of it.

When we see anyone as beneath us, then we have risen too high. 

I once worked with a wealthy man (we’ll call him Sam) who was an executive in an international firm. He was chairman of the board of directors of a ministry I was serving. He was kind, tenderhearted, loved Jesus, and was a true friend to others. He cared about people. He was also an elder in his church. I used to meet with Sam once a week to review ministry operations and enjoy fellowship in Christ.

One week he excitedly told me about a family that had been visiting their church. After the Sunday evening service, he asked the family if he could take them to get something to eat, and they suggested McDonald’s. My goodness, what a great time my friend had, enjoying being with this family at McDonald’s, getting to know them, listening to them, sharing a Big Mac or Quarter Pounder with them. It was truly a Happy Meal (sorry, couldn’t resist). 

Most of us reading this are probably thinking, “That’s nice, but why am I reading this?” After all, most of us have been to McDonald’s more than once. 

Sam lived in a very expensive metropolitan area, and his church was in a suburb without much economic diversity. This family was of modest economic means and educational background. Yet, they had not only been welcomed by Sam’s church, Sam asked them  to dinner. When they suggested McDonald’s, Sam went right along with the idea, even though he had never been to a McDonald’s. 

Sam loved being with the family, and he was fascinated with McDonald’s. (I worked with another executive who had never been to McDonald’s.)

Let’s be honest about this, as James tells us (James Chapter 2), we do have a tendency to dismiss people who are not like us, people we think are beneath us. This is ugly but it is true. (I should note that I have seen the reverse of this, I’ve seen folks on the lower end of the spectrum dismiss folks who have more material things or education than they do, often attributing attitudes to them that are not true.)

Aslan answered Tirian’s prayer by sending children to him. 

Are we above the people that Jesus chooses to answer our prayers? 

Are we missing out on the treasures of Christ in others? 

The Cost of Witness (6)

 

Jesus says to us that we are the salt of the earth and the light of the world (Matthew 5:13–16). The song, “This Little Light of Mine,” may be well intentioned, but it misses the point, we are not little lights, the very Light of Jesus Christ shines through us, the preservative and gracious salt of Jesus Christ resides within us and is to be shaken out of us. 

It is incumbent on you and me to be the Presence of Christ in the world, the workplace, family, and community – in Word and deed. 

I love the image that Oswald Chambers uses of us being broken bread and poured out wine, for after all, we are the Body of Christ. As we partake of Christ we are to offer ourselves to others so that they may also partake of Christ. Sometimes they may know it, most times they won’t.  Jesus says that we are to be like our Father, who causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good and sends His rain on the righteous and unrighteous (Matthew 5:45). 

Every day ought to be a day of mission for us.

I think there are some basic principles that are critical to our witness, perhaps the most basic being, “Not I but Christ” (Galatians 2:20). Wherever we are, we are there not for ourselves but for Christ and others. No matter the pressures in front of us during the day, no matter the unknown, we are on mission, and we can trust our dear Lord Jesus to be with us throughout the day. Let’s remember that His strength is made perfect in our weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9), His grace is sufficient for us. 

Pay attention to others, listen to them, listen to their hearts and not so much to their words, though their words do matter. Let there be no invisible people in your life. 

Learn to speak to Jesus as others are speaking to you, and learn to listen along with Jesus as others are speaking with you. When we do speak, it is the quality, love, and concern in our words that matter, not their quantity. Most people have no one to really listen to them, just as they have no one to pray for them. 

Pray with others. I have prayed many prayers of 30 seconds with folks I meet during the day – conversation with our Father really ought to be like breathing, and including others in our ongoing conversation is a joy and privilege. Suppose I was talking to someone in Walmart and my phone rang, and while I don’t look at my phone when I am with someone, let’s say that this time I did. This time I saw that it was Queen Elizabeth (yes, I know she is dead now, but I can’t think of anyone else to use as an illustration!) 

Let’s also say that the Queen and I are old friends. So, I tell the other person that it’s the Queen and I answer the phone, and then I say to the Queen, “Ma’am, I’m actually talking with Frank in Walmart right now, can I put the phone on speaker for just a moment so you and Frank can say, Hi?

Of course she says, “Yes,” and the Queen and Frank and I have a quick conversation before she asks me to call her back when I can so we can discuss marmalade sandwiches and Earl Grey tea. 

Now of the three of us, who has the most joy in this conversation? As far as I am concerned, I have the most joy because I have connected an old friend with a new friend. That is the way I feel when I can help someone connect with our Lord Jesus and our Heavenly Father, when I can model relationship with God for others, when I can help others see that our Father is here for them. 

A year or two after I retired from business, Vickie and I were invited to a company function. While there, Al, a former employee came up to me and said, “Bob, you know I lost my mother a few months ago, I’m sure someone must have told you. It was a tough time for me. But I knew you were praying for me.” I was able to say, “Yes, I did know and I was praying.”

Al was confident that I was praying because during the time he worked within my group he saw that praying for others was embedded in my life. It was really very simple. Don’t you think so?

Tell the truth, don’t lie, don’t slander, and please don’t gossip. O yes, and please take responsibility. Lying and slander are from Satan, gossip is Satanic. I don’t care if the entire workplace is caught up in this poison, don’t do it – don’t be a fool, don’t be a tool of the enemy, don’t shame Jesus. 

I recall author and speaker Gary Thomas sharing about a workplace experience in which everyone was backbiting one another. As Thomas prayed about the situation, he decided to say good things about people, to point out positive aspects of his coworkers. Before long, the atmosphere changed from slanderous poison and gossip to one of encouragement and appreciation. Since we are to be salt and light, isn’t this what we should expect? 

I have often spoken and written about Psalm 15:4c, “He swears to his own hurt and does not change.” The man or woman who desires to live in fellowship with God is one who will tell the truth even when it is to his or her immediate detriment. I write “immediate” because it is never to our eternal detriment to tell the truth and take responsibility. When we take responsibility, we ought to be straightforward about it, not trying to justify ourselves, or excuse ourselves, or attribute some of the blame to others.

When we accept responsibility, when we tell the truth, when we do not slander or gossip, when we seek to serve others, then people will know they can trust us. Even if they do not like us, even if they are hostile or puzzled by our faith in Jesus, they will know that they can trust us. 

There will always be people opposed to the Gospel, there will always be self-seeking and plain nasty folks, but we are called to share God’s mercy and grace with everyone, to be faithful to Jesus Christ wherever we find ourselves. We can trust Jesus through all of life, after all, He is the Good Shepherd who gives His life for His sheep. 

The Cost of Witness (5)

 As we prepare to move more deeply and directly into John 15:18–16:4, I want to unpack something I wrote in the previous reflection and then make a few other Biblical notes. I previously wrote:

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. 

Our relationship with the world is simple, yet complicated. It is simple in that those who follow Jesus belong to Him and not to the world, we are servants of Christ and citizens of heaven, there are fundamental and constitutional differences between us and the world, irreconcilable differences for the world is in rebellion against God. Our hope is to rescue the people still in the world so that they may know the love and grace and life of Jesus Christ. At one time, we were all in the slave galley of the world, shackled to its oars, toiling.

It is complicated in that the people of the world respond to us in different ways, and individuals can respond to us differently than groups. Systems generally do not respond well to us, because systems strive for dominance and self-aggrandizement, and Christ is our Lord, not anything within the world-system. (See Psalm 2, Daniel 2). We can work within ungodly systems and be blessings to others while maintaining clear testimonies to Jesus Christ, two Biblical examples of this are Joseph and Daniel. 

In Joseph’s case, Potiphar’s wife sought to corrupt his faithfulness to the True and Living God and his fidelity to his earthly master, Potipher. The world and its prince of darkness will never give ground willingly and without a struggle. When we are in the world we are always working from a beachhead, we are always in enemy territory…in one sense. In one sense it is enemy territory, but in another sense, we are taking back that which belongs our Father and Lord Jesus Christ, for the glory of the Lord will fill the earth as the waters cover the sea. We are not here to escape or retreat, we are here to overcome so that we might set others free. 

Joesph’s faithfulness resulted in prison, but prison resulted in exaltation, and exaltation resulted in deliverance for his family and countless others. All of God’s sons and daughters are promised exaltation in Jesus Christ, as Paul writes, “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 8:18). 

Within the ungodly culture of Egypt, God used Jospeh as a clear testimony to Himself and to be a blessing to others. 

Daniel served within two ungodly systems, that of Babylon (the instrument God used to judge Judah and Jerusalem and the Temple), and of Persia. He had good relationships with Nebuchadnezzar the Babylonian, and with Darius the Persian. Yet, he and his friends also faced danger from jealous peers within both systems; his friends faced the fiery furnace, and Daniel paid a visit to the lions’ den. (Imagine the atmosphere prevalent in both contexts, leading to these dramatic events. While Daniel and his friends may have had the favor of Nebuchadnezzar and Darius, much of the atmosphere around them was bent on their destruction.)

When the Babylonian system fell in judgment, God preserved Daniel and he served God and Darius within the Persian system (and keep in mind that both systems were under God’s ultimate judgement, as we see in Daniel 2).

In order for us to be faithful witnesses in the world, we must live knowing that we are not of the world. If the world captures our hearts, it destroys our witness. As Jesus says, we are in the world but not of the world. 

I have a friend who was once on the board of directors of a state association of businesses. As with many trade associations, members of the board worked through various “chairs” and committees from year-to-year. Eventually, if a man or woman was selected as vice-president, it was assumed that she or he would be the following year’s president of this state-wide association. 

My friend worked hard, volunteering much time and creative energy within the association and was eventually selected as vice-president by his industry peers. He assumed, without a second thought, that he would be entrusted with the duties of president the following year. This is what happened, and he had a wonderful year serving the people of his industry. 

After he had served his term, he found out that there had been opposition to him becoming president, opposition of which he was not aware. The opposition came from the executive director of the trade group, this person, who worked for the association and reported directly to the president, did not want my friend to become president. Why?

My friend was (and let us hope still is!) a disciple of Jesus Christ. This meant that in meetings he was not simply interested in what was best for the businesses in his industry, but that he also wanted to know what was best for the customers of the industry, and what was the right thing to do. When he dealt with public policy and state and Federal laws, he wanted to know the truth and apply it to the common good. Equity and truth were important to him because he was a servant of Jesus Christ. In other words, he would not sacrifice people for profit. 

There was also the issue of general deportment, and this is a sensitive topic to write about. Let us say that when some people attend conventions and business gatherings that they like to “party,” and that others are mindful of morality, ethics, and common sense. To the disciple of Jesus Christ, the notion that “what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas” is a lie from the pit of hell. Some executive directors like to party hardy, and to have a president like my friend could put a damper on such behavior at industry gatherings. (He wasn’t opposed to good meals and good wine, so don’t get me wrong. He was opposed to excess stupidity.)

When the executive director approached current and former board members, and past presidents, about selecting someone else for president, the person was told absolutely not, that my friend deserved the position and that it was in the best interests of the industry for him to have it. My friend did not learn this until well after his term as president. 

An irony of the story is that during the year my friend was president, the trade association quadrupled its membership, thereby giving the executive director more exposure and a higher profile than before. From all appearances, the two worked quite well together. 

At the end of the last board of directors meeting that my friend chaired as president, he took the time to thank people individually for their contributions, for it had been a spectacular year for the trade group. Then he thanked Jesus for helping him through the year and for the blessing that Jesus gave him in working with each person in the room. 

I am sharing this to illustrate the complexities of a life of witness. Sometimes resistance to our words and deeds in Christ is overt, sometimes it is covert, it is behind the scenes.  Over the course of my friend’s career, I know of many times he has been able to counsel and pray with business associates and employees, to share the love and grace of Jesus with them. But let us note, that our words must match our deeds, and our deeds must align with our words. The quality and integrity of our work, no matter our vocations, ought to be offered to God (Colossians 3:22–24). Shoddy work and ethics do not deserve an audience, it gives the lie to our testimony for Christ, it is shameful. 

Wherever our Father places us, we are there to be His witnesses to Jesus Christ; sources of Light and Life to others. 

The Lord willing, we’ll touch on this a bit more in our next reflection. 

Our Last Battle (9)

 Nine – The Turn

Alone, abandoned, tied to a tree, struggling with doubts and fears, reflecting back on all he had ever heard about Aslan and the history of Narnia, pondering the tales of children from another world, Tirian arrives at a forlorn hope. Even hopes that are forlorn are nevertheless hopes. 

The King cries, “Aslan! Aslan! Aslan! Come and help us now!”

The narrator tells us that, “The darkness and the cold and the quietness went on just the same.”

Tirian continues, “Let me be killed. I ask nothing for myself. But come and save all Narnia.” 

We are told that things on the outside stayed the same, but that inside the King a kind of change began to occur, and that a flicker of hope moved within Tirian. 

“O Aslan, Aslan. If you will not come yourself, at least send me the helpers from beyond the world. Or let me call them. Let my voice carry beyond the world.”

Here, my friends, we have the crux of Our Last Battle. This is the nexus of the book, The Last Battle, and it is the nexus of Our Last Battle. All of life either flows to this point, or from this point. This is our life in Christ. Without coming to this point, and without continuing from this point, our lives have no point. 

Tirian not only had to come to the end of his anger, he had to come to the end of himself. He not only had to come to the end of himself, he had to offer himself on behalf of others. 

This, my dear, dear friends, is the Christian Life, and there is no other. 

This is what it means to follow Jesus. It is to belong to Another and to live for others through Him. It is to leave our agendas and anger behind, surrendering ourselves to Jesus, laying down our lives for others as He laid down His life for us (John 15:12–13; 1 John 3:16). 

Had the Narnians known the character and Nature of Aslan they would not have been deceived by the Ape, by dead lion skins, and by the blasphemous notion that Aslan and Tash are the same. Had Tirian not been disoriented by his anger, he may have recalled the true Nature of Aslan and realized that, as Roonwitt said, the reports of Aslan appearing were lies. 

Tirian’s selfish anger blinded him to the True Aslan and to his call to serve others. 

In order to find freedom, Tirian needed to be beaten and tied to a tree. Then his heart could grow tender as he considered the welfare of the Mice, the Rabbit, and the Moles. Then his pride could be humbled as he put others before himself, and he remembered his People. Then, and only then, the King could cry, “Let me be killed…but come and save all Narnia.” 

Does this not take us back to the Stone Table of the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe? Aslan gave His life for Edmund and Narnia, and now Tirian learns to give his life for his People.

And so Paul writes, “Death works in us, but life in you” (2 Corinthians 4:12). 

Do we know what it is to experience Galatians 2:20?

“I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” 

Our lives are to be living sacrifices, and once placed on the altar they are to remain there, every moment of every day, into eternity (Romans 12:1–2). 

Our Last Battle is about the Cross of Christ and the Christ of the Cross. Will our lives be irrevocably cruciform? Will they be in the image of Jesus Christ, and Him crucified (1 Cor. 2:2)? Will our congregations be collectively crucified with Christ? Will our arms be outstretched to suffer with Christ, to suffer for others, and to embrace the suffering of others? Will we bear the burdens and sorrow and heartache and sin of others, that they may know Jesus Christ and His healing and wholeness and Life and Love? 

Will we cry out to our Father, “Take me, not them!”? Will our churches cry out, “Take us, not them!”? 

O friends, can we see the dead lion skins that entice us with promises of our best life now, with promises of safe religious lives that require nothing of us, that allow us to continue in our self-centered pursuits, that make Jesus a concierge rather than acknowledging Him as our Lord and our God, that would make Jesus a show horse rather than the Lamb of God slain for our sins and raised from the dead, the Victor over sin and death? 

Can we not see that just as the Ape made the Narnians slaves to his agenda, that just as Shift propagated the lie of Tashlan, that we are being enticed to serve the agendas of this world, a world opposed to our Lord Jesus Christ? How is it that we have been made captives of Tashlan? 

Our Last Battle is whether we will say, “O Jesus. Bring me to the Cross, bind me to the Cross, let the Cross be embedded in my soul, and let Your Cross radiate from my life.”

Our Last Battle is whether we will daily cry, “Take me. Save others!”

“That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the koinonia of His sufferings, being conformed to his death” (Philippians 3:10). 

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).