The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe Quotes with some discussion

The chronicles of Narnia have been mentioned several times now during our small group from church---and the last time it was brought up--I realized that I haven't actually read these books since I was in college.  I read them for the first time when I was in the fifth or sixth grade, I think---and much of the symbolism went over my head---which just goes to show you I must have been a rather dim witted adolescent since the symbolism is pretty heavy handed.  But I loved them then---and I loved them more when I read them again years later---and here I am a third time---still enjoying these books immensely.  Good old C S Lewis. You can never go wrong with him.

There's a bit of discussion throughout this "Quote" blog---but come on---you can't throw C S Lewis quotes around without a little bit of discussion.  

I was curious after I read through "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" as to whether or not Lewis actually set out to write an allegory of Christ's crucifixion and resurrection---I mean I know--obviously--that's what this story is at its heart---but still I wondered if he did this as an effort to reach out to people---because how could you not fall in love with Aslan---and in turn, fall in love with his parallel--Christ.  But from what I've read---and it's only cursory---so I could be wrong I suppose---google isn't infallible---he didn't set out to write an allegory---he saw a picture once of a faun with an umbrella---and he wanted to turn it into a story.  And this was--ultimately the result.  It was observed that Lewis was such a religious man---that of course anything he wrote would reflect that---it was inevitable.  We write what we know....  I think that in itself is a powerful statement---and one that convicts me deeply---does everything in my life--whether I intend for it to or not--reflect Christ and my relationship to Him back to others?  Is my life so intertwined with God's will and purpose that I walk within that will and purpose--at times even without making a conscious effort to do so---  Errr---probably not----food for thought.

Probably the Queen knew quite well what he was thinking; for she knew, though Edmund did not, that this was enchanted Turkish delight and that anyone who had once tasted it would want more and more of it, and would even, if they were allowed, go on eating it till they killed themselves.

I want a nice boy whom I can bring up as a Prince and who would be King of Narnia when I am gone.


I think it's worthwhile to note that the danger here for Edmund didn't present itself as a monster with sharp teeth and flashing red eyes---but rather---it appeared--first as something sweet--the Turkish Delight---that he would crave until it killed him---and then as an offer of power---the King of Narnia temptation.  I think this passage can serve as a reminder that we have to always be close in our walk with Christ---because sin isn't something that's always readily recognizable if we're not---and sin is deadly--no matter how pleasant it might appear to be on the surface.  

"Logic!" said the Professor half to himself.  "Why don't they teach logic in these schools?  There are only three possibilities.  Either your sister is telling lies, or she is mad, or she is telling the truth.  You know she doesn't tell lies and it is obvious that she is not mad.  For the moment then and unless any further evidence turns up, we must assume that she is telling the truth."


The above quote was one that was discussed in our church small group.  It should be linked to this quote from Mere Christianity--"A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher.  He would either be a lunatic---on the level with a man who says he is a poached egg---or he would be the devil of hell.  You must take your choice.  Either this was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse.  You can shut him up for a fool or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God.  But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher.  He has not left that open to us."

"Safe?" said Mr. Beaver;  "don't you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you?  Who said anything about safe?  'Course he isn't safe.  But He's good.  He's the King, I tell you."

This quote has become very dear to me.  When we first found out about the possibility of Miriam---we were both elated and terrified.  Two failed adoptions had already left our hearts somewhat frail and damaged---we were frightened of what a third failed adoption might do to us.  Yet you cannot avoid the doors God opens for you---just because you think they may not lead where you want them to.  It's best to walk through them--and then try to let God work as He needs to work---in order to do this I think it would  be best to set aside your own agenda---and set aside the need to protect yourself---and set aside everything but Him.  I have not yet managed to do this---and yet somehow--God keeps opening the doors and pulling me through them---and working for good---even through--even because of---my own weakness.  He's God--of course He isn't safe---but He's good....... This was the focal point of one of the sermons at our church during a period of vulnerability for Stuart and I---my mother and father had come with us that Sunday--and they--having suffered and cried with us---were also still healing from the failed adoptions---and this quote from the Chronicles of Narnia was mentioned in conjunction with the adoption stories of one of our pastors.  He too had experienced the loss of failed adoptions--and sadder still---the loss that death brings---when SIDS claimed the life of one of his children.   He said how he never would have chosen this path to a family---it was crazy--and heartbreaking---and yet---how could he imagine any other family than the one he had?  God will take you to some crazy places---places you wouldn't go if it were up to you----God is not safe---but He is good.  And when things don't make sense---and when we don't understand things as we think we should---that's when we must have faith----we don't have to understand everything about God---if we did--He wouldn't be God--He'd just be one of us---but He's not--He's bigger than us--He's infinitely better than us----and no--- He isn't safe---but He's good.  And isn't it strange---that this is the message we heard together, on the one Sunday my parents decided to attend church with Stu and I---when we most needed to hear it.  I would say, "What a coincidence"---but I have long given up my belief in coincidences and traded it for a belief in something that makes far more sense.

It wasn't a very good excuse, however, for deep down inside him he really knew that the White Witch was bad and cruel.

"It's all right," he was shouting.  "Come out, Mrs. Beaver.  Come out, Sons and Daughters of Adam.  It's all right!  It isn't Her!"  This was bad grammar of course, but that is how beavers talk when they are excited; I mean, in Narnia----in our world they usually don't talk at all.

But as for Aslan himself, the Beavers and the children didn't know what to do or say when they saw him.  People who have not been in Narnia sometimes think that a thing cannot be good and terrible at the same time.  If the children had ever thought so, they were cured of it now.  

"Please---- Aslan," said Lucy, "can anything be done to save Edmund?"

"All shall be done," said Aslan.  "But it may be harder than you think."
And here we hit home with the crux of what Christianity really is.  We sin---God cannot abide sin nor bear to be in its presence--and yet He made us to be His companions---and so he devises a way to rescue us---he sends his only Son to die in our place so that, as Aslan says, "All shall be done."  And he pays our debt---so that we then have the opportunity to be what were intended to be, companions of God.  I want to insert a passage from Timothy Keller here---"The Reason for God"
Why would Jesus have to die?" is a question that I have heard from people in New York far more often than "Does God exist?"  "Why couldn't God just forgive us?" they ask.  "The Christian God sounds like the vengeful gods of primitive times who needed  to be appeased by human sacrifice."  Why can't God just accept everyone or at least those who are sorry for their wrongdoings?  While the Christian doctrine of the cross confuses some people, it alarms others.  Some liberal Protestant theologians reject the doctrine of the cross altogether because it looks to them like "divine child abuse."  Why, then, don't we just leave the Cross out?  Why not focus on the life of Jesus and his teachings rather than on his death?  Why did Jesus have to die?
......
Imagine that someone borrows your car, and as he backs it out of the driveway he strikes a gate, knocking it down along with part of a wall.  Your property insurance doesn't cover the gate and garden wall.  What can you do?  There are essentially two options.  The first is to demand that he pay for the damages.  The second is to refuse to let him pay anything.  There may also be middle of the road solutions in which you both share the payment.  Notice that in every option the cost of the damage must be borne by someone.  Either you or he absorbs the cost for the deed, but the debt does not somehow vanish into thin air.  Forgiveness, in this illustration, means bearing the cost for his misdeed yourself. 
........


Should it surprise us then, that when God determined to forgive us rather than punish us for all the ways we have wronged him and one another, that he went to the Cross in the person of Jesus Christ and died there......


It is crucial at this point to remember that the Christian faith has always understood that Jesus Christ is God.  God did not, then, inflict pain on someone else, but rather on the Cross absorbed the pain, the violence, and evil of the world into himself.  Therefore the God of the Bible is not like the primitive deities who demanded our blood for their wrath to be appeased.  Rather this is a God who becomes human and offers his own lifeblood in order to honor moral justice and merciful love so that someday he can destroy all evil without destroying us.   All shall be done.....

For it was part of her magic that she could make things look like what they aren't.....
When you trace back the very roots of sin---it all began with a lie---it all began with a serpent who could make things look like what they weren't.  Sorry for all the cross quotes---but here's another--this is from "The Jesus Storybook Bible" by Sally-Lloyd Jones.
"Just trust me," the serpent whispered.  "You don't need God.  One small taste, that's all, and you'll be happier than you could ever dream..."
Eve picked the fruit and ate some.  And Adam ate some too.  And a terrible lie came into the world.  It would never leave.  It would live on in every human heart, whispering to every one of God's children:  "God doesn't love me."   ......And terrible pain came into God's heart.  His children hadn't just broken the one rule, they had broken God's heart.  They had broken his wonderful relationship with him.  And now he knew that everything else would break.  God's creation would start to unravel,  and come undone, and go wrong.  From now on, everything would die---even though it was all supposed to last forever.

"Here is your brother," he said,  "and there is no need to talk to him about what is past."  

"Work against the Emperor's Magic?" said Aslan, turning to her with something like a frown on his face.  And nobody ever made that suggestion to him again.

"It means," said Aslan, "that though the Witch knew the Deep Magic, there is a magic deeper still which she did not know.  Her knowledge goes back only to the dawn of time.  But if she could have looked a little further back, into the stillness and the darkness before Time dawned, she would have read there a different incantation.  She would have known that when a willing victim who had committed no treachery was killed in a traitor's stead, the Table would crack and Death itself would start working backward...."

and whether it was more like playing with a thunderstorm or playing with a kitten Lucy could never make up her mind.

I expect you've seen someone put a lighted match to a bit of newspaper which is propped up in a grate against an unlit fire.  And for a second nothing seems to have happened; and then you notice a tiny streak of flame creeping along the edge of the newspaper.  It was like that now.  For a second after Aslan had breathed upon him the stone lion looked just the same.  Then a tiny streak of gold began to run along his white marble  back---then it spread---then the color seemed to lick all over him as the flame licks all over a bit of paper---then, while his hindquarters were still obviously stone, the lion shook his mane and all the heavy, stone folds rippled into living hair....

I love this image---of the stone lion coming to life.  I imagine this is what we should look like when we are brought to life in Christ.  Shouldn't there be fire where there was once stone?  Shouldn't there be light where there was once only gray?  Shouldn't there be movement where there was once paralysis?  And what was dead inside of us---shouldn't that finally come to life when the love of Christ is breathed upon us?  And I like how it didn't happen all at once---the stone lion looks the same at first---and then there's just a tiny streak of gold----I think it's a beautiful picture of growth---how little by little---we are changed and transformed through our relationship with Christ.  I wish this beautiful life for all of us---no one should choose to remain as cold, hard stone---when God offers to bring us to a life of warmth and love.  It is my prayer that we all accept this gift---and that we are profoundly changed by it.