C.S. Lewis paints the most beautiful picture of the redeeming grace of Christ in his fifth installment of the
Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, when the pessimistic and sometimes downright mean boy, Eustace, is led by Aslan, the Great Lion and Son of the Emperor Beyond the Sea, cleansed of his wickedness, and transformed into a new boy with a completely different outlook on life.
In the story, Eustace has been transformed into a dragon, which coincidentally reflects his greedy and ugly-like behavior and attitude. After being a dragon for a few days, he is absolutely miserable and lonely as a result of it. One night, as he is away from the camp, he suddenly sees a lion coming toward him. He describes the even
t to his cousin, Edmund, as such:
"Well, anyway, I looked up and saw the very last thing I expected: a huge lion coming slowly toward me. And one queer thing was that there was no moon last night, but there was moonlight where the lion was. So it came nearer and nearer. I was terribly afraid of it. You may think that, being a dragon, I could have knocked any lion out easily enough. But it wasn't that kind of fear. I wasn't afraid of it eating me, I was just afraid of it - if you can understand. Well, it came close up to me and looked straight into my eyes. And I shut my eyes tight. But that wasn't any good because it told me to follow it.”
There is just so much goodness in this one small quote! Aslan is producing light; He
is light to the dark and lonely Eustace. Also, Eustace recognizes the power of this lion, and even though he closes his eyes to try to ignore His presence, the voice of Aslan prevails. Edmund and Eustace's conversation continues:
“You mean it spoke?"
“I don't know. Now that you mention it, I don't think it did. But it told me all the same. And I knew I'd have to do what it told me, so I got up and followed it. And it led me a long way into the mountains. And there was always this moonlight over and round the lion wherever we went. So at last we came to the top of a mountain I'd never seen before and on the top of this mountain there was a garden - trees and fruit and everything. In the middle of it there was a well.
“I knew it was a well because you could see the water bubbling up from the bottom of it: but it was a lot bigger than most wells - like a very big, round bath with marble steps going down into it. The water was as clear as anything and I thought if I could get in there and bathe it would ease the pain in my leg. But the lion told me I must undress first. Mind you, I don't know if he said any words out loud or not.
“I was just going to say that I couldn't undress because I hadn't any clothes on when I suddenly thought that dragons are snaky sort of things and snakes can cast their skins. Oh, of course, thought I, that's what the lion means. So I started scratching myself and my scales began coming off all over the place. And then I scratched a little deeper and, instead of just scales coming off here and there, my whole skin started peeling off beautifully, like it does after an illness, or as if I was a banana. In a minute or two I just stepped out of it. I could see it lying there beside me, looking rather nasty. It was a most lovely feeling. So I started to go down into the well for my bathe."
Eustace tries his darnedest to rid himself of his yucky outer layer; that which causes his dragon-ness. What I interpret C.S. Lewis to be portraying here is man's attempt to make himself presentable before going to God; man trying to make himself good enough. What man (and Eustace) find out, though, is that it is impossible on his own. Eustace continues:
“But just as I was going to put my feet into the water I looked down and saw that they were all hard and rough and wrinkled and scaly just as they had been before. Oh, that's all right, said I, it only means I had another smaller suit on underneath the first one, and I'll have to get out of it too. So I scratched and tore again and this underskin peeled off beautifully and out I stepped and left it lying beside the other one and went down to the well for my bathe.
“Well, exactly the same thing happened again. And I thought to myself, oh dear, how ever many skins have I got to take off? For I was longing to bathe my leg. So I scratched away for the third time and got off a third skin, just like the two others, and stepped out of it. But as soon as I looked at myself in the water I knew it had been no good."
Hopelessness. This is what I imagine Eustace to be feeling right about now. He has taken off three layers of dead skin, and is still not clean enough for a bath. He's tired. He's lonely. He's trying with all of his might, but it's still not enough. This is what life must be like for those who don't know the grace of Jesus Christ. For those who work so hard each and every day to be 'good people', and constantly fall short. For those who want to believe in God, but can't bring themselves to do it because they can't bear to look at the sin in their life, let alone show it all to God. Amazingly enough, it isn't up to us, just like it wasn't up to Eustace, for he continues his story saying:
“Then the lion said - but I don't know if it spoke – ‘You will have to let me undress you.’ I was afraid of his claws, I can tell you, but I was pretty nearly desperate now. So I just lay flat down on my back to let him do it.
“The very 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. The only thing that made me able to bear it was just the pleasure of feeling the stuff peel off. You know - if you've ever picked the scab off a sore place. It hurts like billy-oh but it is such fun to see it coming away.”
“I know exactly what you mean,” said Edmund.
I find this part to be absolutely and astonishingly beautiful. Here, Eustace makes himself completely vulnerable to the un-tame but good, Aslan, by laying down on his back and letting him peel off his filthy dragon skin. That is what we need to do with Jesus. We need to be vulnerable with Him and ourselves. We need to lay back and let Christ go down deep into our hearts and cleanse us, no matter how much it may hurt us. Like Eustace said, it's a good kind of pain. Eustace finishes up his story by saying:
“Well, he peeled the beastly stuff right off - just as I thought I'd done it myself the other three times, only they hadn't hurt - and there it was lying on the grass: only ever so much thicker, and darker, and more knobbly-looking than the others had been. And there was I as smooth and soft as a peeled switch and smaller than I had been. Then he caught hold of me - I didn't like that much for I was very tender underneath now that I'd no skin on - and threw me into the water. It smarted like anything but only for a moment. After that it became perfectly delicious and as soon as I started swimming and splashing I found that all the pain had gone from my arm. And then I saw why. I'd turned into a boy again. You'd think me simply phoney if I told you how I felt about my own arms. I know they've no muscle and are pretty mouldy compared with Caspian's, but I was so glad to see them.
“After a bit the lion took me out and dressed me –“
“Dressed you. With his paws?”
“Well, I don't exactly remember that bit. But he did somehow or other: in new clothes - the same I've got on now, as a matter of fact. And then suddenly I was back here. Which is what makes me think it must have been a dream.”
“No. It wasn't a dream,” said Edmund.
“Why not?”
“Well, there are the clothes, for one thing. And you have been - well, un-dragoned, for another.”
“What do you think it was, then?” asked Eustace.
“I think you've seen Aslan,” said Edmund.
Eustace is a boy again. But notice how he is not the same pessimistic and hate filled boy he was before. He has seen Aslan, and his whole life is changed. He is dressed in new clothes, and I like to think this represents our being covered with Christ's righteousness when we give our lives to Him and accept His free gift of salvation and redemption. Even Edmund notices the change Aslan has brought to Eustace.
There's just so much about this story that amazes and inspires me.
Aslan is Jesus.
Aslan redeemed Eustace.
Jesus redeemed me.
Both Eustace and I are new creations.
And you can be a new creation, too. You just need to be 'un-dragoned'.
