Opinion
Keep re-telling the old, old story
Regular contributor Jane Walters recalls a famous allegory to the familiar Easter story, and reminds us that we should never tire of telling that story.
Last week, our house group had a ‘sharing about Easter’ evening. Each of us had to contribute a favourite reading: a song, a hymn, a poem, a paragraph or two from a book. I knew immediately what to choose…
When my son was a boy, every night was story night. We both enjoyed the snuggle at the end of a day, sharing books and a love of reading which he has continued into adulthood. I think he must have been around eight when we picked The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. I had vague memories of it from when I was younger and relished the chance to revisit it. All was well, until the terrible passage where Aslan is captured, bound and slaughtered by the White Witch.
CS Lewis meant, of course, that this series of books should point to Jesus. Children from 5 to 95 can appreciate the themes that have their roots in the biblical story, disguised as they are in ways that can best be described as ‘hiding in plain sight’.
So, when I would get to this pivotal point in the narrative, I could only think of Jesus, unfairly, cruelly treated. All dignity stripped away. His goodness reduced to humiliation. Horror upon horror. Next to my son, I heard my voice start to crack. A deep breath and I pressed on, aware of tears starting to trickle. Before long, the ache in my constricted throat stopped me speaking at all, and he had to call for his dad to take over the telling, as I shamelessly wept beside them.
I don’t ever want to be unmoved by this passage, nor the Easter message behind it. There’s a danger that familiarity all-too quickly becomes over-familiarity, and then what? We think to ourselves ‘here we go again’? I used to wonder why churches preached the basics of the gospel to a congregation that already knew them. Tell it to non-believers, yes indeed, but shouldn’t we be concentrating on issues like how to live as a Christian, how to witness, and so on?
It took a long time for me to realise that Jesus’ death and resurrection is so pivotal, so intensely necessary for mankind, that we need to say it again and again and again. Whatever age we are, however many times we’ve celebrated Easter before, let us never tire of telling the ‘old, old story’, of proclaiming, ‘Christ is risen! He is risen indeed, hallelujah!’
The lion image is courtesy of pixabay.com.
Jane Walters is Chair of the Association of Christian Writers and loves to champion writers of all ages and stages. She leads Green Pastures Christian Writers (currently meeting on Zoom) and creative writing retreats at Quiet Waters. Find out more: www.janewyattwalters.com or @readywritersretreats on Instagram.
The views carried here are those of the author, not of Network Norfolk, and are intended to stimulate constructive debate between website users.