So far in our series we have seen two lies:
Lie #1 is false teaching itself, false ideas and doctrines
that can destroy us, or which can be destroyed by a pure
heart when God forgives sin, and clears our conscience, and helps us be
committed to a genuine faith in Jesus Christ.
Lie #2 is found in a currently popular saying: I’ve gotta love me first. Jesus says in response: listen to the commandments of God and
love Him first, others also, and don’t worry about yourself so much; God will
take care of you.
Lie #3 which we explore this morning is that the only way you
can find fulfillment in life is by breaking-away from any restraints that God (or
anyone else) tries to place on you. To
that Jesus says: Go ahead and dig
your heels in against me; what you’ll find is more emptiness than you ever
imagined.
I want to share two stories to illustrate what this lie is like, and what
it means to rebuke this lie and experience the truth of real freedom. Both stories are set in London, England; the
first is about the Queen’s husband, and is a true story. The second is fantasy about a cab
driver.
Phillip is 98 years old and married to the U.K.’s Queen
Elizabeth. My own Queen Elizabeth (no
relation) and I have been binge-watching The Crown on
Netflix; season 3 had an eye-opening look at Phillip, Duke of Edinburgh’s life.
For more than 60 years Phillip has played second
fiddle to the Crown’s wishes and instructions. His days are filled with delivering
meaningless speeches at the grand openings of restaurants, dental clinics and
coal miner’s union gatherings. Inbetween
those monumental accomplishments are polo matches, yachts, whiskey and sports
cars. As a jet-certified pilot the
Queen’s husband longed to be what Buzz Aldren, Neil Armstrong, and Michael
Collins lived…a moon-walking adventurer seeking the highest of experiences
possible to the human being. In short,
the Queen’s husband was a bored and angry man, who, after meeting the three
astronauts in 1969 following their historic first-ever footsteps on another
celestial body, added emptiness and despair to his repetoire, because he found
out they were no closer to understanding the meaning of life than he.
Ultimately it was the despair that drove Phillip to seek help
from Bishop Robin Woods, and, in time, rediscovered faith in God. This led the Duke on a lifelong journey of
soul-searching and humanitarian endeavor.
In his early arrogance Phillip felt trapped by the monarchy ordering even
the smallest step of his days; he pushed God far from his heart and mind, and longed
to break-free and really live. When
finally broken by despair and a sense of meaninglessness in life, he confessed
his need and was found by God. Life’s
meaning was not out there above some cloud; it was (in his
words) in here (head) and here (heart)!
He didn’t have to break-free; brokenness revealed the Son who could set
him free, indeed.
The Cabbie’s Trip
Our second story comes from the rich mind of C.S. Lewis,
author of The Chronicles of Narnia.
There are 7 novels in all, the first, and perhaps most widely known is The
Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.
Narnia is a mystical, magical, fictional place which most fans of Lewis
imagine represents God’s Kingdom. Lewis
wrote these stories to stir the fantasy-receptive minds of children. I love re-reading them! (Don’t tell anyone).
The final book in the series is The Magician’s Nephew,
which starts in London, but quickly moves via teleportation to Narnia.
The nephew is Diggory, and…
After the witch causes havoc in London, Polly and Diggory
manage to get her back into one of the magical worlds (Narnia) which is formed
moments after they arrive. However, whilst transporting themselves and the
witch, they also transport their uncle and a cab driver (cabby) who Aslan makes
the first ever king of Narnia.[2]
Here’s how Lewis describes Cabby’s meeting with Aslan, the
lion, who is by all accounts the undisputed representation of Jesus in the
story:
“In the darkness something was happening at last. A voice had begun to sing…Its lower notes were
deep enough to be the voice of the earth herself….It was so beautiful we could
hardly bear it…One moment there had been nothing but darkness; next moment a thousand,
thousand points of light leaped out – single stars, constellations, and
planets, brighter and bigger than any in our world…
‘Glory be!’ Said the
Cabby. ‘I’d ha’ been a better man all my
life if I’d known there were things like this’…
They made you feel excited; until you saw the singer himself,
and then you forgot everything else. It
was a Lion. Huge, shaggy, and bright, it
stood facing the risen sun. Its mouth
was wide open in song and it was about three hundred yards away…The lion was
striding to and fro about that empty land and singing his new song. It was softer and more lilting than the song
by which he had called up the stars and the sun; a gentle, rippling music. And as he walked and sang the valley grew
green with grass. It spread out for the Lion
like a pool. It ran up the sides of the
little hills like a wave. In a few
minutes it was creeping up the lower slopes of the distant mountains, making
that young world every moment softer. A
light wind could now be heard ruffling the grass. Soon there were other things
besides grass…”[3]
Conclusion
Two stories and one conclusion, which the Apostle John wrote
long before C.S. Lewis ever held a pen:
So if the Son sets you free, you are truly free. John 8:36
The Queen’s husband, Phillip had to see there was nothing
over the next cloud’s end that was worth seeing until he first opened his heart
to see what God wanted to give him. Only
then was he a fit vessel for the great humanitarian and
spiritual work God was able to do through him since that time.
Phillip got set free by the Son of God, and he was free
indeed.
While Phillip was married to a queen, and would himself never
be a king, Cabby had never even been close to a king. A nobody, just a poor cab-driver from the
inner city of London is taken by surprise to Narnia. And, staring into a thousand points of light,
hearing the song of the King of Kings, his heart is opened to the sound of
grace. And when grace lands in your
heart and soul in full force there is no stopping what it can do with the rest
of you!
Aslan made the nobody cabby the first-ever king of
Narnia. This is the upside-downness of
Jesus the Son, and the way His grace sets people free.
And this table is a place where that grace abounds for
whosoever will come.
In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit…Amen!
[3] (The Magician’s Nephew) - photo credit “sarahrichterart”
(pixabay).
