Agony

The serpent has claimed another victim. He chomps up and spews out men and women with a macabre and a disinterested glee.

In C.S. Lewis’ “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader,” the lost Eustace Scrubb stumbles upon a dragon carcass as he wanders further and further from his friends. Cold and damp drive him to move pass the horrifying mass and into its nearby cave for shelter where he finds the beast's enchanted cache. Eustace cannot resist the treasure’s allure and he begins to think of his future, a future where his friends are no longer necessary and where he will have mastery over them. He slides one of the golden bands upon his arm, and with his doom sealed, drifts off to sleep.

He awakes to discover that his lust (the treasure) has turned him into a dragon. Another one bites the dust.

On this side of reality, Heath Ledger has tragically become the serpent’s latest victim. Names like Presley, Joplin, Morrison and Hendrix, Hemingway, Monroe, Phoenix, and Anna Nicole litter the wake of this demonic juggernaut. “He was a murderer from the beginning” (John 8:44).

Each of these names weeps the cry of the cosmos. “Why am I here?” they scream. “Is there anybody out there?” beckoned Pink Floyd. “Why does this hurt so badly when it’s all I ever wanted?” they choke and sob. They have come to the point where they “have no fear of drowning; it’s the breathing that’s taking all this work” ("Work" by Jars of Clay).

In rebelling against his Creator, the one in whom he is meant to find deepest intimacy and in whom he is meant to find his purpose, Man has set himself adrift. His relationship with God broken, he finds his relationship with his fellow man broken, too. And his relationship with the world around him. And his relationship with himself. Man’s rebellion encases him in the skin of a lizard and destroys any hope he might have had in finding peace in the cosmos.

Eustace tried to abide his dragon’s skin but found only misery and loneliness. Flight was pleasant for a time and power for the moment, but what he longed for was returned intimacy with his friends. No longer able to relate to his kind, he escaped to the mountains. “He realized he was a monster cut off from the whole human race.”

And so the agony sweeps over Man. Unable to come to terms with reality, he makes his escape with the encouragement and applause of the serpent. Whether the false intimacy of sexual relationships, whether the numbing dream of drugs and alcohol, or whether the deceitful hope of false religions or Joel Osteen Christianity, man attempts to blunt reality by vaulting into what Francis Schaeffer calls non-reason. “He is a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44).

Many cannot handle the reality any longer and venture to the precipice. Death entices with lying tendrils. If not utterly destroyed , Man ends in despair, a wreckage of his God-intended stature. There he abides.

Lindsay Lohan. Paris Hilton. Brittney Spears. “Do you know what I mean when I say, 'I don’t want to be alone?'” ("Work"). Hope is gone. And we on the outside stare in, gaping, waiting for the train wreck.

And then the Lion appears. The terrible, mighty, powerful, ferocious Lion. “I wasn’t afraid of it eating me,” Eustace said. “I was just afraid of it – if you can understand.” The Lion encourages him to remove his skin. Like a molting snake, Eustace the dragon sheds a complete layer of skin. And then another. And then another still only to find more dragon beneath.

Only when Eustace submits himself to the terrible claws of the Lion is the dragon flesh ripped away. “It hurt worse than anything I have ever felt.” And, behold, all things were new. Eustace, once again a boy, finds he is able to relate truly to his friends to whom he had been such a ninny earlier in the story. Only then does Eustace enjoy the voyage. Only then does Eustace Scrubb come to know and to love the Lion.

For the Heath Ledger’s of history, it is sadly too late. They rode their despair away from the One who would heal their agony through His own. They rode it to their doom. Eustace in fantasy, and many others in reality, parked their despair at the cross of Christ and found true restoration.