“The Voyage”
Narnia: Lessons from the Dawn Treader
FCC – November 28, 2010
Introduction: C. S. Lewis’ masterpiece, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader comes to the big screen the weekend of December 10. C. S. Lewis is considered one of the greatest Christian thinkers of our century and wrote the Narnia fantasy series that has sold more than 100 million books in 29 different languages. The Chronicles of Narnia is a 7 book series that follows the adventure of some English children who discover another world—the magical land of Narnia. I’m asking you to indulge me for the next two weeks, as we will be sharing some lessons from this classic allegory by Lewis. On December 12, we will start a long series on Matthew.
The Dawn Treader is the third book from “The Chronicles of Narnia” to be made into a movie. Lord willing we are renting a theater on December 11 to watch the movie as a church. In 2005, “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” came out and I preached three sermons based on that book and FCC went to the movie! In this book we are introduced to Aslan the great Lion who represents Jesus. The children Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy discover Narnia through a wardrobe. They discover a land filled with talking animals that is under the White Witch’s spell where it is always winter and never Christmas. The redemption of Narnia comes through the death of Aslan, and victory through His resurrection.
In 2008, Prince Caspian came to the big screen. Prince Caspian takes us back to Narnia...the same four children return. It’s a year later for them…but its 1300 hundred years later for Narnia. They find the ruins of their castle, Cair Paravel, and a world that shuns the “old stories” of Aslan. It’s up to Caspian and the children to fight to restore the Kingdom of Aslan to its previous glory.
Why did Lewis write the Narnia series? He tells us on the last page of the Dawn Treader as the great lion Aslan dialogues with the children as they are preparing to leave Narnia back to our world. Lucy is sad and begins by saying,
“’It isn’t Narnia, you know,’ sobbed Lucy, ‘It’s you. We shan’t meet you there. And how can we live, never meeting you?’
‘But you shall meet me, dear one,’ said Aslan.
‘Are—are you there too, Sir?’ said Edmund.
‘I am,’ said Aslan, ‘But there I have another name. You must learn to know me by that name. This was the very reason why you were brought to Narnia, that by knowing me here for a little, you may know me better there.’”
Lewis wrote the Narnia series to stretch our imagination and that we might know Jesus better. It is for this reason that I get excited about a movie…and will take a couple of weeks to interpret this classic allegory that is coming to the big screen. This morning’s message is simply entitled, “The Voyage.” In the voyage of the Christian life we find at least three things…first we find…
1. Adventure. Devin Brown wrote a book entitled, Inside the Voyage of the Dawn Treader. In his introduction he wrote this, “Sometime around November 1949…completed a remarkable story about the crew of a small sailing ship and their two-part adventure: to find seven exiled lords and then to sail to the end of the world.” C. S. Lewis would write (Collected Letters, Vol. 3, 1245) that his main focus in writing the Dawn Treader was “the spiritual life”… as experienced by the crew. Our main characters are Aslan--the lion and Christ figure, King Edmund and Queen Lucy returning from the first two stories; Eustace, a new tag-along from our world, Prince Caspian, and Reepicheep, the noble mouse.
Devin Brown writes that there seems to be a pattern of adventure where first, ‘adventures can and typically begin in unlikely places.’ In The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, the children entered Narnia from our world by a wardrobe. In Prince Caspian, they enter Narnia by a train station. In The Dawn Treader, they enter through a picture on Lucy’s wall. The adventure seems to begin in unlikely places with a providential call from Aslan.
Secondly, ‘negative circumstances—big and small—may be more likely to lead to great adventures and personal growth than positive ones.’ In the first movie, the backdrop was World War II when the children are transported to Narnia. In The Dawn Treader, Edmund and Lucy have to stay with their dreadful cousin Eustace. It seems Lewis’ wants us to understand that we were made for more than a drab, negative existence, but that we were born for adventure.
Lastly, adventures involved leaving the known for the unknown. We are told in the Dawn Treader that ‘the fullest preparations’ for the crew to ‘leave all known lands and seas behind them’ were being made. Reepicheep declares that this is when their ‘real adventures’ begin. Adventure begins when we leave behind the known and set sail for the unknown.
I couldn’t help think of Jesus’ first disciples as he called them into a life of adventure. Let’s turn to Matthew 4: 18-20 As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. 19 “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” 20 At once they left their nets and followed him.
Who would have known that Peter and Andrew, just simple fishermen, would have found adventure as they were going about their daily routine? Never were they surer of where they lived, and what they were to do each and every day. Their daily life was known. It was predictable. They would in a fishing boat each day, but lacked direction and purpose. Jesus said ‘follow me’ and ‘I will make you fishers of men.’ They had direction: Jesus. They had purpose, fishing for people. The adventure had just begun. They didn’t know where they were going, but they were following Jesus…they didn’t know where they would lay their head…or where they were going go get money for the trip…the adventure required trust in the one who gave the invitation. I have discovered that the Christian life is the most exciting, adventurous life that there is…following the Lord takes you to places you would never dream and allows you to see Him work in the most unexpected ways.
The voyage invites us to adventure. Secondly, the voyage invites us to…
2. Transformation. The crew of the Dawn Treader are taken from island to island where their character is tested, corrected, and refined. They are tempted with greed, selfishness, and pride. Although we could talk about the transformation that happens with a couple of the characters, the most famous transformation is the one that happens with Eustace. In the opening line of the book we have this description: “There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it.” Eustace was self-centered and obnoxious. On one of the islands, he wanders away from the group and finds a dragon’s lair filled with expensive gold and silver jewelry. Because of his greed he is turned into dragon.
This kind of transformation is common in literature: a man became a beast, and then a man again in Beauty and the Beast. Pinocchio was a wooden puppet, who became a donkey, who became a boy. As a dragon, Eustace initially thinks he has it made as he has riches and then power to intimidate his friends. And then it dawns on him, as a dragon, he is terribly lonely and miserable. According to Devin Brown, “One of Lewis’ most important messages…is that the self-centered life is not fun, exciting, satisfying, or even very interesting…Lewis presents this truth about the selfish life once again in the form of the decrepit dragon, who despite having everything it wants, in the end dies along ‘an old, sad creature.’”
So Eustace decides to ‘undragon himself’ by scratching off a layer of dragon skin. He does this several times—each time a layer of dragon skin comes off only to discover a new layer. At one point he says to himself, “Oh dear, however many skins have I got to take off?” Aslan the great lion is there and says to Eustace, “You will have to let me undress you.” Eustace says, “The first tear he made was so deep that I thought it had gone right into my heart. And when he began pulling the skin off, it hurt worse than anything I’ve ever felt. They only thing that made me able to bear it was just the pleasure of feeling the stuff peel off…” When Aslan was done with him, Eustace had turned back into a boy. The narrator goes on to say, “It would be nice and fairly nearly true, to say that ‘from that time forth Eustace was a different boy.” To be strictly accurate, he began to be a different boy. He had relapses. There were still many days when he could be very tiresome. But most of those I shall not notice. The cure had begun.”
All of us were created in the image of God, yet sin put a monster inside of each of us. It is the grace of God that transforms the believer into what God intended. In contrasting righteousness of the Law with righteousness that Jesus brings, we read in 2 Corinthians 3: 7-17 Now if the ministry that brought death, which was engraved in letters on stone, came with glory, so that the Israelites could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of its glory, transitory though it was, 8 will not the ministry of the Spirit be even more glorious? 9 If the ministry that brought condemnation was glorious, how much more glorious is the ministry that brings righteousness! 10 For what was glorious has no glory now in comparison with the surpassing glory. 11 And if what was transitory came with glory, how much greater is the glory of that which lasts! 12 Therefore, since we have such a hope, we are very bold. 13 We are not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face to prevent the Israelites from seeing the end of what was passing away. 14 But their minds were made dull, for to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. It has not been removed, because only in Christ is it taken away. 15 Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts. 16 But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. 17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18 And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
It is in Christ that we find the cure for sin! We are justified as believers by the blood of Christ…and then we are daily transformed by the renewing of our mind. Lewis wrote in his essay, “Answers to Questions on Christianity,” “If you think of the world as a place intended simply for our happiness, you find it quite intolerable: think of it as a place of training and correction and it’s not so bad.” As a Christian we are called to transformation.
The voyage invites us to adventure, transformation and lastly for…
3. Rescue. The Dawn Treader’s voyage was to find out about the seven exiled lords…to find out how they died or to rescue them and bring them back to Narnia. I won’t tell you what happens to each of the lords…that would spoil some of the story for you, but just know that they left every behind for the sole purpose of rescue. Every story seems to have a damsel in distress or a prisoner who needs to be rescued. Someone has been kidnapped or a nation has been plunder. Rescue is desperately needed. The crew of the Dawn Treader had a higher purpose that caused them to make personal sacrifice to recue others. That is the difference between cruises and voyages. Cruises are for personal enjoyment and relaxation. Voyages are for a higher purpose than the crew. Rescue gives the voyage purpose and a meaning beyond themselves.
Jesus told his first disciples to leave their nets, to follow Him, and He would make them fishers of men. Their direction was following Jesus—their new assignment was to become fishers of men.
In another instance, Jesus told a parable about the importance of making sacrifices for a lost sheep. Luke 15: 3-7 Then Jesus told them this parable: 4 “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? 5 And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders 6 and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ 7 I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent. Jesus would go on to tell a story of a woman who did an all-out search for a lost coin…and then a dad who waited for his prodigal to return. When we seek that which is lost we share the heart of Jesus.
Paul would write in Galatians 1: 3-5, Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, 4 who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, 5 to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.
Those of us who have been accepted the invitation to adventure in Jesus and are being transformed into His likeness are invited to a higher purpose than self-discovery and self-indulgence: rescue. To those who work in Celebrate Recovery, AWANA, or Sunday School…let’s work to rescue one more. To those who have lost family or friends…let’s pray and share the love of Christ, that we might rescue one more.
As you watch the movie, “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader” I want you to remember that the voyage invites you to adventure, transformation, and rescue. Are you ready to sign-up?
Conclusion: Lewis would write in his sermon, “The Weight of Glory,” “Do you think I am trying to weave a spell? Perhaps I am; but remember your fairy tales. Spells are used for breaking enchantment as well as for inducing them. And you and I have need of the strongest spell that can be found to wake us from the evil enchantment of worldliness which has been laid upon us for nearly a hundred years.”
I wonder how many of us have been put under the evil enchantment of worldliness?
Asleep in the Light by Keith Green
Do you see, do you see All the people sinking down
Don
