The Cost of My Life

"Either as elder brothers or as younger brothers we have rebelled against the father. We deserve alienation, isolation, and rejection. The point of the parable is that forgiveness always involves a price - someone has to pay... Our true elder brother paid our debt, on the cross, in our place. There Jesus was stripped naked of his robe and dignity so that we could be clothed with a dignity and standing we don't deserve. On the cross Jesus was treated as an outcast so that we could be brought into God's family freely by grace. There Jesus drank the cup of eternal justice so that we might have the cup of the Father's joy." - Tim Keller, The Prodigal God

I watched The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (LW&W) on Saturday morning before I started the rainy weekend. Besides the typical inaccuracies that are a given when watching movies that are based off books, The Chronicles of Narnia movies do a sufficient job of keeping to the story and theme of the novels. Even though they may add complete new scenes or take away others, whenever Aslan is present in the film it is identical to what happens in the book. This is awesome to me, because almost anything Aslan says or does can be backed up with scripture.

So Edmund, the younger brother who is considered a traitor because he helped the white witch, has been rescued by Aslan's troops and brought to be reunited with his brother and sisters. Shortly thereafter the White Witch comes to claim the traitor. She says, "You know that every traitor belongs to me as my lawful prey and that for every treachery I have a right to a kill." This is the law of the Deep Magic created at the beginning of everything that Alsan himself was a part of. She continues to say, "He (Aslan) knows that unless I have blood as the Law says all Narnia will be overturned and perish in fire and water."

My favorite part of the dialogue is when Susan (the older sister) asks, "Can't we do something about the Deep Magic? Isn't there something you can work against it?" The response in the book is this:

"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.

What an incredible set of events C.S. Lewis has provided for us in his book. First is the demand that the Law or Deep Magic must be kept and fulfilled. You mean to tell me that the most powerful perfect being ever known cannot change the law or "work against it?" If He created it why can't He amend it? What I love is that, Susan along with the rest of the human race wants to perform works to appease the law. This is not how God made it. John 1 says, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." God doesn't change Himself. He is perfect. The Law that is found in the Word is perfect, because it is God's will.

This debate in LW&W demonstrates the fact that we have sinned and rebelled against the Law and God, and someone HAS to pay. You might say well it wasn't us that sinned against God and therefore we weren't the cause of His wrath. We may think because we weren't present before the crucifixion it doesn't apply to us. This is completely wrong. Not only are we sons and daughters of Adam and Eve, but He knew us before we were formed in our mother's womb. He knows the sins we are going to commit against Him today and what we are going to do against Him tomorrow.

The next events I noticed in the movie cemented just how costly our lives really are. Aslan speaks with the witch alone, and all of us familiar with the story know what he did. He agreed to take Edmund's place on the Stone Table, where he would be killed to fulfill the laws of the Deep Magic. This, however, is not yet revealed to us in the movie. What is revealed to the audience is the shear sadness and depression painted all over the lion's face. I don't know how they made a computer-generated lion look so completely miserable and hopeless, but they did.

This is the picture I missed for so long. I'll tell you where I went wrong. My thinking, which I describe as unconsciously lazy and unwilling, basically used to say, "Jesus is God, so He already knew what was going to happen, and therefore it was easier for Him to die for us." I don't think I ever used this as an excuse or even knew I thought it, but it was definitely an underlining tone of my theology.

This is not the case in any sense. There was NOTHING easy about the cross. Jesus was God, but He was made man. He had all the same emotions I have. He is completely man and completely God. This is impossible sounding, but that's who Christ is. Even though He had the knowledge of God and had the big picture, He still didn't want to be physically whipped and tortured. He didn't want to be nailed to a cross, where His shear body weight would nearly suffocate Him from hanging for so long. But the physical torture is not even close to what He was dreading the most.

Not only did God as a man have to face the torture and suffering of this world, but He had to face the wrath of God. If the answer to those who God punishes is Hell, and Hell is a state or place without the love and communion of God, and Christ screams, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken me?" then Jesus, the only perfect man who never sinned against His God, was taken into a state of Hell and died like that.

Imagine that you did nothing wrong your whole life, and you had this wonderful family who loved you so much, and you loved them so much. You spent all your time together and knew each other so well you were almost one person. Now imagine that you become sick, but you don't feel sick at all. You are totally fine, but yet you are still dying and you know your time is ending. However, the family you were so close to is nowhere to be found. Not only are they nowhere to be found, but you know that they are ashamed of your sickness. They hate the sickness. They want nothing to do with you or the sickness that you don't even feel! You only feel the shame of the sickness. You long for them to tell you they love you and that they will stand by your side as you die, but they never do. You die completely and utterly alone.

When Jesus says, "My soul is deeply grieved, to the point of death (Mat 26:38)," I think I can barely understand what He is going through. He knows He is about to lose the love and communion with His Father, who He has spent His WHOLE life worshiping and adoring. Because of the sin of this world we can never understand the relationship Christ had with His Father, and not until we meet Him face to face will we even have a taste of that relationship. And this chance one day to dwell in our Father's house is what Christ accomplished for us when He chose to die and lose everything He ever knew.

If we accept that Christ completely died on our behalf and that because of Him and only Him we have a bridge to our Father, He will NEVER look at us with shame that we deserve. He will NEVER leave us to live or die alone. He will NEVER let our sickness take prisoner of our lives. He will ALWAYS call us His children. He will ALWAYS look at us in adoration. He will ALWAYS love us even though we will worship things other than Him.

I recently came upon this verse:

"I permitted Myself to be sought by those who did not ask for Me; I permitted Myself to be found by those who did not seek Me. I said, 'Here am I, here am I,' to a nation which did not call on My name. I have SPREAD out My hands all day long to a rebellious people, who walk in the way which is not good, following their own thoughts." Isaiah 65:1,2

This is what Christ did for us. He spread out His hands on the cross for a people who hated him for no reason. Someone had to pay, and Christ did it willingly and lovingly.