(Listen to this homily here).
One of my all time favorite books is The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, part of C.S. Lewis’
Chronicles of Narnia series. I
highly recommend this book and series to everyone.
If
you haven’t had a chance to read this book or see the movie, it tells the tale
of four children who step through a wardrobe into a different
world—Narnia. This is a place
where fantasy comes to life with dwarves, centaurs, talking animals and
mysterious powers. The children
walk into a battle between good and evil.
The wicked White Witch has grasped control, leaving Narnia in a time
where it is always winter, but never Christmas—similar to International
Falls! My favorite character—and
the main character at that—is Aslan, a talking lion. He is the son of the Emperor-Over-the-Sea who actually
created Narnia at the beginning of time.
One
of the children does a punk move—he betrays his siblings and all of Narnia to
the White Witch. The price for
such a betrayal—death. Aslan takes
the boys’ place, and the most powerful scene depicts this majestic animal being
shaved and slain on a large rock.
Much to the readers’ delight—and to all the characters in Narnia—Aslan
rises again, conquers the White Witch and her minion and brings peace back to
the land.
When
the last pages of this book and series were over, I was bummed. That’s the mark of great writing—being
disappointed when it is over. C.S.
Lewis captured my imagination.
While he was writing fantasy, C.S. Lewis made it clear that Aslan, the
king of Narnia, was a deliberate depiction of Christ. Lewis once stated that he wrote how he thought Jesus would
appear in a different world.
The
Chronicles of Narnia was fiction.
What we are about here—this is fact. Jesus’ resurrection was not fantasy. It was not a story. It was and is true.
I
have been preaching the past couple of weeks on the realness of the
resurrection. Today I would like
to point out that this resurrection was indeed a bodily resurrection.
Our
current society is pretty arrogant.
Without even knowing it, we often walk around as if we are the smartest generation
in the history of the world.
Perhaps this is true in some areas—medicine, science, technology, space
travel and the like. But what
about common sense, faith or understanding the human person?
Such
biases have slipped into biblical studies and even faith communities. Scholars point to a spiritual
resurrection, or a shared dream, or an apparition or anything but the
scientifically-impossible claim of a bodily resurrection. Many 21st century readers of
the Bible treat the disciples like primitive cave people who would believe any
myth, story or tall tale that claimed a dead man rose.
The
disciples weren’t idiots! Listen
again to how the disciples reacted to seeing Jesus: “…they were startled and terrified and thought that they were seeing a
ghost.” Would
you react any differently if you saw your dead friend walking around?
Jesus made it abundantly clear that they were seeing a
body: “And why do questions arise in your
hearts? Look at my hands and my feet, that
it is I myself. Touch
me and see, because a ghost does not have flesh and bones as
you can see I have.” To drive
home the point, he asks for something to eat and, “They gave him a piece of baked fish; he took it and ate it in front of
them.” Ghosts do not eat. Apparitions don’t eat. Only a living body can eat.
The bodily resurrection is true.
I’d like to close with a great quote from C.S. Lewis’
book. While it is written in the
genre of fantasy, it is true about the reality of Jesus: “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…” Jesus, the willing victim, took our
place and was killed in our stead.
He rose from the dead—bodily—and now death itself works backwards.
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