Narnia Sermon Series #4

02/26/06

THE PRICE THAT MUST BE PAID FOR SIN

 This is the fourth in my sermon series on the Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. My first sermon was entitled “Repent while there is still time,” and two weeks ago my sermon was entitled “Your lusts will do you in.” Last week I spoke about the value of a good name. All of these sermons can be found on our website saint-annes.org.

      The danger of doing a sermon series like this is two-fold. First, if a visitor comes to church during the series he or she might be a bit lost and confused not hearing the other parts of the series. The other danger is that both visitors and regular attenders might just think of these sermons as a nice little series of stories that don’t have much to do with my life. It can become just a religious exercise.

      A man who attended a country church found himself in New York City on Sunday. Right across the street from his hotel was the Episcopal St. John the Divine church. It is a huge gothic structure with the tallest steeple he had ever seen. He decided to attend service there. Entering the Nave and the Santuary he found an atmosphere far different from his country church back home. The pipe organ and formally dressed ushers seemed strange, the clergy wearing their robes was certainly different from what he was used to. None of that, however, deterred him from shouting “Amen” when the priest made a particularly good point. Everyone in the church turned around and stared, and an usher came running down the aisle.

      “You must not talk out loud,” warned the usher.

      “But,” protested the rustic visitor, “I’ve got religion!”

      “Well,” said the usher, “You didn’t get it here.”

      Today I want you to get religion! Not religion in the sense of a denominational sort of experience, but rather religion in the sense of an experience with God.

 Today I want to talk to you about “The Price that must be paid for sin.” When I am finished I believe you will see the difference between a sterile religious exercise and a dynamic encounter with the One who has gone to such great lengths to bring you here today and to show you how much He loves you.

      For those who don’t know the story of the Chronicles of Narnia: the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Four young children have been sent to live in the house OF A kindly professor during the war. During their stay in the house they begin to play a game of hide and seek. One of the children, the youngest, Lucy, hides in an upstairs spare room Wardrobe. As she goes to the back of the wardrobe she enters into a magical land called Narnia. After she returns she tries to tell her siblings about it, but they don’t believe. Edmund, the youngest boy, also goes into the Wardrobe and he enters this enchanted land. He however is taken in by the evil White Witch who represents herself as the queen of Narnia. Edmund is soon under her influence and he betrays the other children in order to gain power and a candy Turkish Delight for himself. The other children soon enter into Narnia and begin to search for Edmund, but they hear the report that he has turned traitor. 
 Edmund is held captive by the forces of the White Witch, but after a daring raid by the Lion Aslan's forces frees Edmund, he discovers the freedom of the Great Lion's camp may be short-lived.

 The White Witch approaches Aslan's camp amid the fanfare of her lackeys. She alights from her litter and Aslan emerges from his tent. She looks up at the Great Lion and says, "You have a traitor in your midst, Aslan." Aslan tells her that Edmund's "offense was not against you." The Witch tries to remind him of the law of Narnia that says that all traitors belong to her and that they are to be killed, "His blood is my property." 
 Edmund’s older brother, Peter, unsheathes his sword and defiantly dares her to take Edmund. The White Witch coolly looks at him and says that force cannot deny her right. She tells everyone assembled that "if I do not have blood, as the law demands," Narnia will be destroyed. "That boy will die on the Stone Table, as is tradition." 
 Aslan invites the Witch into his tent so that they can speak together. When they emerge, Aslan announces that the Witch has "renounced her claim" on Edmund's blood. Everyone in Aslan's camp cheers, but the Witch wants to know if Aslan will keep his word. The only answer she gets is a roar. She runs off, and Aslan's camp believes a great victory has been won, but Aslan's head hangs low. 
 That night, Lucy cannot sleep and hears the sound of Aslan moving through the camp. She wakes Susan and together they follow Aslan. He stops and invites them to walk with him for awhile, but finally tells them he must now go on alone. The girls hide to see what he will do next. He approaches the White Witch's camp, filled with every imaginable evil creature. The Witch says, "Behold, the Great Lion!" As Aslan advances the creatures make way -- frightened and unsure of what the Lion will do. 
 At a signal from the Witch, a minotaur clubs Aslan in the face, and the Lion drops to the ground. The Witch commands Aslan be bound. Once he is tied tight, the assembly of creatures taunts and beats him. The Witch commands that Aslan be shaved of his mane and then dragged to the Stone Table.  
 The Witch leans down to mock Aslan, telling him that after she kills Aslan she will go after the children. She tells him that he has sacrificed his life, "and saved no one. So much for love." She tells her hosts that the Deep Magic will be appeased by this sacrifice, but that tomorrow she will lead her armies to take Narnia back, "forever." She looks down at Aslan and tells him, "In that knowledge, despair and die."  
 She brings a cruel-looking black knife in a swift motion downward, and sinks it into Aslan's side. His eyes grow wide for a moment, and then the light goes out of them. The Great Lion is dead.

 
 It is impossible NOT to see the parallels between the sacrifice of Aslan on behalf of Edmund and the sacrifice of Jesus on behalf of all humankind. There was a debt to be paid as a result of sin. The debt could not be paid by Edmund, so Aslan suffered in his place. 
 The Lenten Season that is about to come upon us, is a season which moves inexorably toward the penitential conclusion of Holy Week when we recall and relive Jesus’ crucifixion on the cross. Sometimes we have heard the story of the crucifixion so many times that it, unfortunately, loses its punch. One of the key events in God's redemptive history has become dull to some of our ears. By recasting the Savior as a Great Lion and by varying the means of his death - though not the reason for it -- C.S. Lewis was hoping to help children come to grips with the full force of Christ's loving sacrifice. We were bought with a great price -- Jesus was mocked, beaten, and nailed to a cross on our behalf. And it is not just children that need to be reminded by seeing it though fresh eyes.

      Just as Aslan suffered and died on the stone table altar, so, too, did Christ suffer and die on the altar of the cross. He did so for us not because we deserved it, but rather because he loved us so much. Listen to how St. Paul puts it in the 5^th chapter of Romans- “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.  Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! For if, when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled shall we be saved through his life!” St. Paul reminds us that everyone is ungodly, sinful because we were all born with a sinful human nature inherited from Adam and Eve. Because of that sinful nature we are separated from God and cannot have a relationship with him on our own. We must have our sins paid for in order for us to be able to have a relationship with God. This is called the justice of God. If the justice of God is not paid for then we are all subject to the terrible wrath of God.

      Thankfully, God loved the world (and all the people who have and will live on it) so much that he decided to pay the penalty for our sins. He did so in the only way that could pay our sins, by the shedding of blood. God established the rules which are recorded in Scripture. One rule says that “without the shedding of blood, there can be no forgiveness of sins.” Because God established that rule he must, in order to be truthful, honest, and fair, stick with that rule. But God does not desire anyone to perish, to come under his wrath, but He desires all to be saved. He showed that desire by being willing to sacrifice his own Son for the benefit of so many who do not realize the lengths that God has gone to save them.

      There once was a man who worked in a small town as the operator of a drawbridge on a river. A train track ran across the bridge and the operator’s job was to keep the bridge up when no train was coming so that the ships could pass underneath. When a train approached, he was to blow the whistle and let down the bridge.

      One sunny Saturday morning, the man brought his seven-year-old son along to work with him. The boy could frolic along the river, skip rocks on the water, chase butterflies, or even try to catch a fish.

      Shortly before noon, a passenger train was due to come through the area. The man began to make preparations to let the bridge down so the train could pass safely across the river. As he examined the bridge, he noticed that someone – a small child – had somehow climbed over the guardrail next to the bridge, and was playing at the very spot where the bridge would come down. As he looked closer, he realized with horror that the child was his son. In desperation, he yelled out his son’s name, but the sound of the approaching train drowned out his screams. He knew he had to make a quick decision. If he lowered the bridge his son would die. But if he didn’t, all the people on the train would die as the train plunged into the river. He barely had time to think.

      As he screamed in agony, the man thrust forward the lever to lower the bridge just as the train arrived. His son died instantly. And as the train passed by, people just smiled and waved as they passed by the man in the control booth, with his head bowed low, oblivious to what had just taken place.

      Tragically today so many are just traveling down the tracks of life oblivious to what God has done for them by sending his innocent Son Jesus to die for them. I would urge anyone here today who has not yet accepted what God has done for you to save you from His wrath, to realize the lengths God has gone to save you. He asks that you turn away from your sin and invite Jesus Christ into your life so that you can be cleansed of your sins, have a glorious eternal life with God, and so that you will be saved from the awful wrath of God to come.

      For those who have already invited Jesus into your life would you ask God to lead you to at least one person this week, who is traveling on that train of life oblivious of the condition they are in, so that you might share with them how much God loves them and how He has demonstrated that love for them?