Our Last Battle (15)

 Fifteen – Accepting the Treasure

In Chapter Nine of The Last Battle, as Tirian and his cohort process Farsight’s news that Cair Paravel has been seized by the Calormenes and its inhabitants slaughtered, and that the noble Roonwit has been killed, their hope for reinforcements is shattered. They also realize that the Calormene army is on the march from Cair Paravel to Stable Hill, and that the longer they wait to return to Stable Hill and tell the deceived Narnians the truth about Puzzle and the Ape, the more likely the Calormene army will be there to overwhelm them. If they can arrive before the army, and display poor Puzzle for all to see, surely the Narnians will rally to their King and to the true Aslan. 

Jewel the Unicorn is the first to speak amid their anguish, “There is no need of counsel,” they must return to Stable Hill and “proclaim the truth, and take the adventure that Aslan sends us.”

As Tirian contemplates the likely battle ahead of them, he commands Jill and Eustace to return to their own country. Jill, even though she is afraid, refuses to do so. She will remain on her mission, she will be faithful to the end, she will not abandon her friends. Eustace, true to his character, points out that they can’t go even if they want to, they didn’t choose to come and they can’t choose to return – Aslan is the One who transports them from England to Narnia, and from Narnia back to England.  

As Tirian realizes that Jewel is right, that they must yield themselves to the adventure that Aslan gives them, another realization descends upon the faithful few, they will likely be killed in the coming hours, they will purchase that treasure which no one is too poor to buy, an honorable death. 

Eustace asks Jill, “What’ll happen if we get killed?’

She replies, “Well, we’ll be dead I suppose.” 

Upon further reflection she adds, “Even if we are killed. I’d rather be killed fighting for Narnia than grow old and stupid at home…and then die in the end just the same.” 

Later, after the cohort make their way back to the Stable and await evening, when the Narnians will be assembled and they can reveal the truth, Tirian says to Jewel, “Kiss me, Jewel, for certainly this is our last night on earth. And if ever I offended against you in any matter great or small, forgive me now.”

“Dear King,” said the Unicorn, “I could almost wish you had, so that I might forgive it…I would choose no other life than the life I have had and no other death than the one we go to.” 

I wonder, if when Jill and Eustace considered their situation, they might have been looking back into the adventure that Aslan gave them in The Silver Chair, for a certain adventure it was, an adventure in which death seemed more certain than life at times. And I wonder, if when reflecting back on their confrontation with the Queen of the Underland, that they recalled what is perhaps the finest testimony given in the entire Narniad, given by their friend Puddleglum, that included:

“I’m on Aslan’s side even if there isn’t any Aslan to lead it. I’m going to live as like a Narnian as I can even if there isn’t any Narnia…Not that our lives will be very long, I should think; that’s a small loss if the world’s as dull a place as you say.”

As Roonwit might say, “Even a Marsh-wiggle can purchase an honorable death.”

The lives of Jill and Eustace, their friendship, had been forged through trials and victories in following Aslan and serving others. They had both made serious mistakes in The Silver Chair, they had been disobedient to Aslan, they had struggled with each other; out of those fires had come a friendship reflecting the glory of Aslan, a friendship unbreakable, a friendship that also bonded them to the others who had served Aslan in Narnia. 

Eustace and Jill, in looking at each other, would not have seen fault, but rather Aslan’s glorious redemption and faithfulness to them and to those around them. This is what friends do, they see Jesus Christ in one another, and together they learn to look to Jesus and take the adventure that Jesus gives them. Where will their friendship take them? 

Jill and Eustace have shared their young lives together in Aslan, and they will die together in Aslan. 

But consider Jill’s thinking, beyond her years, or maybe because of her years. She would rather be killed fighting for Narnia rather than grow old and stupid at home, dying in the end just the same. 

Let me share a little secret with you, most of us are growing old and stupid. Most of us have spent all our lives preserving our lives and we are too stupid to know that we are going to die anyway. 

The essence of Christian ministry is, “Death works in us, but life in you” (2 Corinthians 4:12).

The essence of Christian love and calling is, “This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:12 – 13). 

The essence of Jesus’s call to us is, “If anyone will follow Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever will save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the Gospel’s will save it” (Mark 8:34 – 35). 

The essence of our overcoming is, “The blood of the Lamb, the word of our testimony, and not loving our lives, even unto death” (Revelation 12:11). 

Falling into the ground and dying produces fruit, this is what Jesus says (John 12:24), and yet we are focused on self-preservation. 

There is a sense in which the essence of our life in Jesus Christ is our death in Jesus Christ. We cannot receive His love, we cannot share His love with others, unless we live lives of dying to ourselves and to the world around us, a world that would seduce us and kill us in so many ways, a world that would deaden us to the suffering of those around us. To the shame of the professing church in the United States, we do not teach this, we do not live this…and yet we call ourselves Christians. 

O dear friends, if we are not living for Jesus Christ, if we are not sharing Him with others, if we are not loving the unlovable and touching the untouchable, if we are embracing other gods than Jesus, including political, economic, and national agendas, including so-called Christian worldviews, if we are not embracing the disenfranchised, including the stranger in our midst, if we are not insisting on Jesus being the sole object of our love and devotion within our churches and seminaries and “Christian” colleges and other ministries…then we are growing old and stupid. Then we are worshipping Tashlan, soon to be revealed as Tash.   

Do not speak to me of self-preservation, speak to me of the Christ of the Cross and the Cross of Christ. 

Is it not better to die with a friend or two, than to be swept up in the delusion of the masses, including the Christian masses? 

This question is at the heart of Our Last Battle. 

“But if not…” (Daniel 3:18).