Our Last Battle will always be about Jesus Christ; indeed, it is our ongoing battle. Will Jesus be our all in all? Will He be everything to us? For if Jesus isn’t everything then He isn’t anything.
How long will we be deceived by dead lion skins? Will we have the courage to look inside ourselves and look for these skins?
In The Last Battle, those worshipping a donkey in a lion’s skin soon found themselves sucked into worshipping Tashlan, and then Tash. Following caricatures of Aslan leads us into deeper and deeper darkness. When we accept caricatures of Jesus, portrayals of Him that look good, that are religious, that are “Christian” but not Biblical or in character with Him, then we move deeper and deeper into the opium den of murky half-consciousness until finally falling asleep in a stupor – a “Christian” stupor.
Tirian fought a last battle with his anger, until he came to the end of himself and gave himself to Aslan and his people. Tirian paid a price, as did his people, when he failed to heed the counsel of Roonwit about the evil occurring on Stable Hill. It was only when Tirian offered himself as a sacrifice for others that he was delivered from his anger and found freedom in Aslan.
The self-centered American church with its emphasis on pleasure and pragmatism, with its political and economic alliances, with its teaching centered on preserving our lives rather than laying them down for Jesus and others, this is a battle that we must fight – for if we surrender then we lose and those around us lose – only in the Christ of the Cross and the Cross of Christ will we find enduring freedom, only as the Cross becomes our Way of Life can we possibly share the Life of Jesus with others.
It frightens and sickens me to see professing Christians consumed by anger, endorsing anger, and justifying anger and lawlessness. Are we not called to be peacemakers as the children of God? Is not the wisdom of Christ gentle? (James 3:13 – 18).
As I’ve pointed out, Aslan does not appear in Narnia during the Last Battle, yet there are Narnians who are faithful to Him, and those Narnians will indeed behold His Face. If Jesus never appeared to us in this life, if this world were dissolved, as Narnia was, would Jesus still be enough for us? Do we love Jesus enough to be faithful to Him, and to Him alone, even though no one stands with us? Are we willing to be alone with Jesus?
O dear friends, there are more dead lion skins in American Christianity than I can count, but there is only one Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, and we are to follow Him wherever He goes (Mark 8:34 – 38; Revelation 14:1 – 5).
I’ll close with words from Jim Elliot, let us remember them as we fight Our Last Battle, “He is no fool, who gives what he cannot keep, to gain what he cannot lose.”
Much, much, eternal love in our Lord Jesus Christ.
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