The Christ Centred Cosmic Civilisation

Episode 119d - Dragon Skin and Sweet Seas

• Paul

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A painting becomes a portal, a ship cuts the waves, and suddenly we’re charting a voyage that maps the soul as much as the sea. We stay with Caspian, Edmund, Lucy, and Eustace, but our real subject is the inner life: transformation that costs, temptations that reveal, and a homesickness for a country where the sea grows sweet. This is a story about sanctification that refuses to be cosmetic—because dragon skin doesn’t peel off with effort—and a pilgrimage that doesn’t mistake arrival for starting well.

We dive deep into Eustace’s unforgettable turning: greed made visible, self-help exhausted, and Aslan’s claws cutting to heal. From the Lone Islands to Deathwater, the Dark Island to Ramandu’s shore, each stop becomes a mirror that shows us pride, fear, vanity, and desire in a harsher light. Reepicheep’s holy restlessness pushes the question further: what does it mean to live as if the far country is more real than the deck beneath our feet? Along the way, we draw on Scripture’s language of exile and promise, and the wisdom of saints and mystics who insisted that the Spirit offers not only a verdict of righteousness but a tasted presence that pulls us onward.

By the time the water sweetens and the light gathers, the lesson is clear: temptation isn’t a detour from discipleship; it is the place where discipleship happens. Transformation is Christ’s work, not ours, yet our consent matters—standing still while the lion tears away what we cannot keep so we can receive what we cannot lose. We close with an invitation to read Dawn Treader as your own map: name your islands, notice your companions, and keep your eyes on the horizon where longing and courage meet.

If this voyage stirred your hunger for the far country, share the episode with a friend, leave a review to help others find the show, and subscribe so you won’t miss our journey into The Silver Chair next. Where are you on the map today?

The theme music is "Wager with Angels" by Nathan Moore

SPEAKER_00:

Well, welcome to the next episode of the Christ-centered cosmic civilization. And we're still in our series on Narnia. I think we'll do another one of the novels, and maybe then we'll pause to look at the whole issue of the planets and Narnia, or maybe we'll leave that to the end. But let's get into the next one of the books, and it's The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, which in a way follows up from right on the heels, really, of the Prince Caspian's story. It's in the same time frame, the same characters who were involved in Prince Caspian's victory are now doing something that comes after that, which is this voyage of the Dawn Treader. And so we can picture as the novel begins a painting on the wall, a ship at sea, its prow cutting through the waves, and suddenly the painting comes alive. The water pours into the room, and three children, Edmund, Lucy, and now the cousin, Eustace, they're swept into Narnia. And that's the beginning. It takes us on then a story of pilgrimage, transformation, testing. And then now we have very much have this idea that Aslan has a home, and the far country that Aslan is in is somewhere that can be kind of travelled to, but we discover not really, not really traveled to. C.S. Lewis gives it a different flavor by flipping it around and having it as the birthplace of the sun rather than the place where the sun is going to. And it kind of works, it's just not entirely the symbolism of the Bible. But it it that's okay because it the the concept works the same. And it's this journey that becomes it's it's less and less about geography and more and more about some other kind of journey as it goes on. So the there's kind of three themes. I don't always get through all my themes that I've made and that I note, but I would like to see if we can explore these three themes of the like transformation and sanctification that's going on, and then the concept of this pilgrimage toward Aslan's country, and then temptation, the testing of character. Um, and that's where we are with this novel. It's about the Christian life, and it's the inner journey of it. That um Christian becoming a Christian is not static. Um it's not that you in there are there are some aspects where we'll say once a person trusts in Jesus and becomes a follower of Jesus, they are righteous, and we can say they simply are righteous, and that is a fixed status. But in so many ways, it's not something that's fixed and static, but that um becoming a Christian is not the end of the journey, it's the beginning of this journey into the life of God, and we are being drawn further in, higher up. Uh, and it some Christians become very nervous of that language because the idea that that that there is a process, they're worried that it's like a process that you are you you won't be saved unless you complete the process. But that no, that's not how it is. Salvation is a gift that's given at the very beginning of this uh following Jesus. As soon as a person trusts in him and follows him, they are saved, they are righteous. They don't have to have progressed on this journey, but nevertheless, the journey is there, and what is the goal of the journey is to be perfect, even as our Father in heaven is perfect, or to imitate Christ. Uh to, or uh the lank Paul uses that language of put take off the old humanity, put on the new humanity, or this pilgrimage from Egypt through the wilderness wanderings and into the promised land across the Jordan. All of this language is in the Bible, and that's the kind of theme that we're exploring with the Dawn Treader. A voyage, a pilgrimage toward the far country were Aslan, the home of Aslan. So the Dawntreder, it's a ship of exploration. King Caspian has set sail to find the seven lost lords of Narnia, who were exiled by his uncle Miraus. If you and that's re we we we note that in in Prince Caspian. These seven lords have gone journeying to the west, and this is the follow-up to that. Edmund and Lucy join King Caspian, along with this reluctant cousin Eustace, who has not experienced Narnia before, and he is not yet a Narnian, as becomes apparent. The voyage takes them from island to island, and each island presents a new challenge, a new temptation, a new lesson, and it's a as we'll see, each island is not just physically challenging, it's about something else. It's not a story of great battles or political intrigue, it's a story of inner battles, of spiritual growth, of the journey of the soul, as our ancestors were they were much more comfortable with that language of a journey of the soul. Um this uh uh and and the the idea of um or a mystical ascent that we to draw ever nearer to the life of God as we put off the flesh and walk ever more according to the spirit or walking in step with the spirit, and that um that way, I think I found it good the way the Puritans would speak of this journey, this process of sanctification, whereby when we first um following Christ or early in the journey, there are sins in our lives that we don't even notice. Um, but as we go on and draw nearer to Christ in our practical lived experience that we're living out or working out the righteousness that it that has been given to us, what we discover is we be we don't necessarily feel that less sinful, we might feel more sinful as the journey goes on because we become increasingly aware of sins that once we didn't even notice, we didn't even know they existed. But as we get closer to the far country of Christ um and the father's home, as we as that happens, so the sins that are in us become more visible. Well that's the that's the that's the that's what's going on. Um let's think then about this transformation and sanctification, because perhaps the most famous moment in the Voyage of the Dawn Treader is the transformation of Eustace. Eustace begins as selfish, arrogant, a kind of whiny boy. He's always not content about anything, he doesn't like anything, and he's quite insulting. And uh he's he nearly gets killed by Reaper Cheek before being so rude, really, and selfish. He mocks Narnia. Uh he despises adventure, he's boring, as selfish people always are. He thinks only of himself, but then they get it on Dragon Island, he is transformed, and literally so. His greed leads him to a dragon's horde, and he wakes to find himself turned into a dragon, and that is C.S. Lewis's picture of sin here, and there's this bracelet on his arm that has this effect upon him. And some people have said it's reminiscent of the ring in Tolkien, this piece of jewelry which is desirable but corrupting. Sin deforms us, it makes us less human, less ourselves, it isolates us from others. Certainly makes us less human. It may not the question is is it less ourselves, or is it is it an expression of what we really are as sinners, that as sinners we are not truly human, that the goal to be truly human is to be righteous and holy, and when we're not righteous and holy, we're we're not really human. So what it's it's interesting that when it this explanation that he desires this horde of treasure and gets it, but it does not make him good, but it destroys him, and in this, there's this idea, exploration of desire that we have things, pleasures and treasures, we desire them, we crave them, we go after them, and maybe even get them. But what does it do to us to get them? Well, what does it do to us to pursue them? But then when we imagine if we get them, that that that we'll be better, we'll be contented, we'll be satisfied, but it doesn't do that to us, it actually diminishes us and corrupts us, defiles us, when our selfish desires are given free reign, or when we indulge them, even for a time, we discover that far from being uh well we we we discover that we are well we can sometimes be disgusted with ourselves because of our greed or our anger or our pride or lust or whatever it is. We're disgusted, we're disappointed with ourselves, and we found that we might have thought we were something great or something wonderful, and then we discover we're actually something quite monstrous. Like like Eustace becomes a lonely, tormented dragon. Uh and he's not a contented social angel, but this miserable dragon. Now he tries to fix himself. Eustace tries to shed his dragon's skin, and he scratches and he claws to get rid of the dragon's skin, and he thinks he can fix himself, even by hurting himself, by putting himself through a painful process. But each time the skin grows back because he's he is a dragon, that's what he is. So he he he's he's trying to s fix himself superficially by like in a way appearing not to be a dragon by clawing off the skin, but that he can't save himself, he can't, because that's what he is, that's his nature, and again C.S. Lewis is giving us this deep thing that yeah, we may be we might be able to superficially appear not to be a dragon. But underneath what is still there? What desires are still there? What corruption and defilement and shame and guilt is still there? What are we? What are we underneath the civilized veneer? Well Eustace is hope it is is lost all hope and he's miserable, but then Aslan appears and this is so powerful because we might w like as what Aslan does is attacks him and tur heaters into Eustace's skin, ripping it away layer by layer, and it's an incredibly painful process of stripping him, and he has to be attacked, and then until eventually the boy is left raw and vulnerable, exposed, and then Aslan throws him into the water and he emerges a boy again. So it's a process a kind of of uh like a painful process of conviction of the of his sin and rottenness being confronted and this like because Aslan is is is uh uh uh causing this great pain to him, ripping into him, because what we sometimes wish, we'll say, we'll call out to God to take away our sins or bad desires, and what we want is him to just magically wave a wand, and that suddenly we don't we don't ever feel those things or desire those things or we'll never lose our temper again, or and that it all be done painlessly and magically and instantaneously, but that is extremely rare in the Christian life. What he does is says, No, we will get rid of those things, but we want to do it in such a way as it's it is a it's a process of learning, and I'm gonna show you how those things can be torn away and put to death and smashed, and we get it's a process of doing that, so that's what happens, Eustace, and then of course it's the is sim it's like a baptism thrown into the water and he emerges a boy again, like a new it's it's a new birth. This is sanctification, this is this gracious rescue that Christ alone can do, and Eustace cannot contribute to it at all. He he it's it has to be all that Aslan does, and Eustace is receives it by simply trusting, and he's barely doing that. We cannot peel away our own sin, we cannot save ourselves, only Christ can. And though his work may hurt, it's the only way to be made new, to be born again. And I love this focus on ontology, on what we are, it's not just the status, a legal status. That the cop the whole issue of a legal status is part of the gospel. But right underneath this thing about you must be born again, a transmors transformation of what you are, or Jesus uses the language of a tree, a bad tree produces bad fruit, a good tree produces good fruit. So, what kind of tree are we? That's a particularly powerful example because how can you become a different kind of tree? So Eustace's transformation is one of the most powerful images of salvation in all of children's literature. It is unforgettable unforgettable because it is so true. Sanctification is not self-improvement, it's a surrender to Christ alone. Faith alone, Christ alone, and it can be a painful work. Well then our next theme is this way that the entire journey of the Dawn Treader is a pilgrimage towards Aslan's country. Each island is a stage on the journey, each challenge is a test. So from the Lone Islands slavery must be abolished to Deathwater Island where greed for gold nearly destroys them, to the dark island where nightmares come true. And then Ramadus Island where they meet the star's daughter, and finally to the edge of the world where the sea grows sweet and the light grows stronger. It's a it's this picture of Christian life, a journey of testing, of growth, of longing for the far country, and passing through times that seem as if you're not near it at all. As if the as if with as if it's further away, perhaps, and yet it is all going. And at the end, Reaper Cheap, this valiant mouse, sails alone into Aslan's country. His whole life has been a preparation for this moment, his longing for this, and nothing satisfies him other than this. His courage, his honour, his longing all point him toward this final homecoming. And this was the book that for me, in my teenage years, it was this book and then the next one in the series, The Silver Chair. These were the two books that spoke most powerfully to me more than any of the others. At that time, then later The Magician's nephew became and uh included with those. Those were the three. Um, because, but particularly this book spoke to me because of this concept of the mystical journey in my teenage years, and that and and there was something about this like to to to be dissatisfied with this present mortal this mortal life, this present darkness, this passing age, and to be like trying to push in to an experience of the of the third heaven, the highest heaven, to to yearn for that, long for that. And and it's like with those desert fathers from so long ago who went put themselves through extraordinary physical conditions and fasting because they were like that Reapercheap kind of idea that they couldn't be satisfied with anything other than Christ and his country. Um, and you get it in all kinds of writings. There's uh the the books that were that really spoke to me when I was really feeling this. There was that there's that book, The Cloud of Unknowing, and these are these like English mystics, but the you get mystics from all s all kinds of Christian countries and cultures. Uh, the cloud of unknowing, the Richard Rowell, the fire of love, this character from more northern England, and he um Richard Rowell of Hampole, and he has this experience of the love of Christ that is so intense he cannot bear it. The fire is it's like it's like a a burning experience of the reality of the living God, Thomas Akempis in the imitation of Christ, it's full of that kind of wisdom of let that it's not enough just to have right ideas or pious thoughts, or even if we're satisfied with a low level of experience of Christ, what's the matter with us? We need to be pushing into the to the full uh you know life of the Trinity, that the that the the the the to participate in the divine nature and to to to to flee sin, flee the world, the flesh, and the devil, and go after this life of God, the fullness of God. Um everything has been provided for us, says Peter, so that we can escape the corruptions of this world and participate in the divine nature. And that's this long Reaper Cheap has that. I get I also came across it with the Puritan Thomas Goodwin, this vision of the sealing of the spirit, his amazing book on the work of the spirit, and that there's this available to us, a warm, living experience of the very person of the spirit. That this is not just theory or legal status, it's not just that, that there's available to us an encounter with and an experience of the spirit, even in this life that is so powerful and extraordinary. Uh, Thomas Brooks calls it heaven on earth to have that level of assurance of heaven and the experience of the living God, and all of this calls us on to the far country of the Father's home. The more we taste of that, as the Spirit is that a taste of that future reality of the resurrection future and the heavenly home and all of that, and the Spirit now will give us uh tastes and samples, deposits of that, so that we we we want to be absent from the body and present with the Lord Jesus, to be discontent with living a life of exile, and so it makes us if if we're like that, if we've tasted this heavenly reality, we're longing for the far country and and live that way, and it shows up in our values, our thinking, our desires, we then we live with a light grip on this passing mortal life. So we're always ready and eager to set off to sail across the sea, the final waters, to go to Aslan's home at the birthplace of light itself. Hebrews 11, 8 to 10. By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, he obeyed and went without knowing where he was going. By faith he dwelt in the promised land as a stranger in a foreign country. He lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were ers with him of the same promise, because he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God. Peter, the whole of what is that first letter of Peter, we are refugees, exiles, and he says, live like that as foreigners. Live as foreigners, exiled from your true home, but longing for it. And that causes others to ask of you, what is it about you? Where are you going? What are you longing for? What is this father's house? What is this far country? What is this highest heaven? What is this paradise? Who is this Christ, this Aslan that you believe in, that I can't see, but you love him, though you haven't seen him. So C.S. Lewis in this novel is reminding us that the Christian life it's not about staying put, it's static. Um it's not just a kind of static status. It's moving forward, pilgrimage longing for the place where the sea grows sweet and the lion waits. Every Christian then, we need to be pilgrims. Journey on. And so let me just deal with this another theme of testing, temptation, because along the way the crew of the Dawn Treader face many temptations. Caspian is tempted by pride and power. Edmund and Lucy are tempted by greed and vanity. Even Reapercheek must learn humility. He doesn't have much of that, but he must learn it. And each island that they visit is a mirror, revealing what lies in their hearts. And again, it's an outward journey, geographical journey, but it's actually, as we keep noticing, it's an inner journey. And they're discovering not just the geographical world, they're discovering the inner world, and sins are being brought to attention as they near Aslan's country, so sins must be confronted and addressed. And uh it's part of C.S. Lewis's genius. He shows us that the real battles are in the end not against witches or giants or armies, but against pride, greed, fear, selfishness. Hebrews tells us that, doesn't it? The Lord says, I will never leave you nor forsake you. Therefore, don't be selfish, don't be sexually immoral, don't be greedy. Learn to give, learn to share, learn to be pure and holy, because the battles we face, and he will come and fight with us and for us. But those are the battles. The voyage then to Aslan's country is testing, and through each test, in the story, the characters grow, they're refined, they're prepared for a greater journey ahead, and that is Christian discipleship. The Christian life is not free from temptation, it is shaped by it. The temptations and trials are essential to the Christian pilgrimage and journey because they reveal who we are, what we are. So let's pull it together. What does the voyage of the why or why does the voyage of the dawn treader matter? Well, it because It shows us that the Christian life is a journey, not a destination. When we start to follow Jesus, we are starting to follow him. Where's he going? Where's he taking us? It's an adventure, it's a journey, it's a pilgrimage. And on this journey, we are gonna face testing and trial and temptation. The voyage of the Dawn Trador shows us that transformation is Christ's work, not ours. We cannot save ourselves, we cannot give ourselves a new birth. We cannot make ourselves into something good and pure and holy. We cannot make ourselves into a good tree if we are a bad tree. Only Christ can bring about new birth by the power of the Spirit. It teaches us that temptation is not this the voyage of the Dawn Treader teaches us that temptation is not a distraction from discipleship. It's the arena in which discipleship happens. That the testing, the trial, the tough times, that's how we progress. But most of all, the Dawn Treader, I think the thing that I take from it is I feel it does awaken in us a longing for the far country, where the sea grows sweet and where the lion waits. So here's my invitation to you. Read The Voyager the Dawn Treader, but read it as as your own story. Where are you on the journey? What dragons cling to your skin, waiting for Aslan to turn them away? What temptations test your heart? What longings draw you toward the far country? I love Francis Thompson's wonderful poem The Hound of Heaven. The Hound of Heaven pursuing him down the years. And in it he talks about how all the things that he longed for and dreamed about and wanted, the things that seemed most precious to him, and he uh they were the things that seemed heaven like uh the things that seemed most beautiful and good, sort of things that he was trying to get hold of in as on earth. And this Hound of Heaven would take them all away, take from him all the things that he seemed to want the most. And uh the poem comes to this wonderful conclusion that it's not it that the Hound of Heaven takes them away from him now on earth in his earthly journey, not so that he could never have these good things, but that we would find all these good, beautiful, wonderful things in their true home, at their source in him, and that if we if we pursue these things and we think we can find them in this mortal passing age, and then Christ may strip us of them, snatch them away from us, and we might say, Why has he done that? And it's because he's saying, Because I want you to have those things in their true form, at their source, in a form the way you can enjoy them forever, eternally, safely, in my presence from me, in a new created universe. So Reaper Cheap's courage, Eustace's transformation, Caspian's testing, these aren't just fairy tale moments, they're about deep discipleship, sanctification, pilgrimage. In our next episode, we're gonna descend underground in the silver chair. But until then, may your voyage be guided by the lion, your heart be transformed by him, and your eyes fixed on his country.