Eustace

“And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” - Acts 4:12

I have said many times during my sermons that I have a deep love for the Chronicles of Narnia. The Chronicles of Narnia are a collection of seven books written by C.S. Lewis. They tell of a fictional land called Narnia where amazing adventures take place. Lewis is able to intertwine biblical themes all throughout these books. Reading them has given me such a deeper love and understanding of God.

In the fifth book, “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader”, there is a story that has impacted me tremendously. It has encouraged and strengthened me.

The story is about Eustace. Eustace is the annoying cousin of Edward and Lucy. He is constantly complaining and nagging. One day, they come upon an island. This island is called Dragon Island (I bet you can’t guess what is on this island). While, the whole crew unloads the ship, Eustace sneaks off to explore. He wanders and finds a cave filled with all the riches one could dream of. His sinful heart begins to want these riches at all costs. He starts stuffing his pockets and devising a plan on how he is going to cash in his treasure. He puts on a magical bracelet and turns into a dragon. He spends a couple days as a dragon, when one night, he is met by Aslan the lion.

Aslan, who represents Jesus, tells Eustace to follow him. He leads him to a pool and tells Eustace to take his scales off. Eustace does all he can to try to take his scales off. He scratches, pulls, and yanks. No matter how hard he tries, he cannot change himself back. Finally, Aslan tells him that only he can take his scales off. Aslan claws and rips away his scales. After the pain of what Aslan had to do, Eustace is changed back into a boy.

Do you see the parallel here?

There is nothing that we can do to make ourselves right. There is no amount of ripping and pulling that we can do to rid ourselves of our sin. We can’t be good enough or self-righteous enough to pay back the debt that we owe. 

But we are not hopeless in this! Jesus is the only one who can make us clean. Jesus is the only one who can shed off our sin and shame and make us right. It is only by his sacrifice that we have hope of being saved and made clean.

I pray that day in and day out, we would trust in the sacrifice of Jesus. Let us not think that we must make ourselves right, because Jesus has done that for us.