Lessons from Edmund

What do 1 Timothy 2:5-6 and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe have in common? 

Being a pastor is quite an adventure. It is filled with some of the highest of highs life has to offer, and some of the lowest of lows as well. You meet strangers who end up becoming closer than family. You also run into some incredible con artists. 

Some people whole-heartedly receive the Gospel and continue to develop deep roots in the faith by intentionally pursuing discipleship relationships. Others attend gatherings when there’s going to be food served. In my 11 years in ministry, I've been prayed for at just the right time by folks who couldn't have known what I was going through. I've also been cussed out a couple of times and challenged to a fist-fight by attenders of the churches I've been at.

There are so many varying personalities that make up a standard gathering of the saints. Shepherding all of them faithfully can be a tall order. Knowing this, the apostle Paul wrote these powerful words to Timothy, a young pastor at Ephesus, “For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all (1 Tim. 2:5-6).” When Jesus died as a ransom for all people, He leveled the playing field. Perhaps like Timothy, I need to be reminded from time to time that we are all beggars at the foot of God’s door.

But let’s get back to that word ‘ransom’. A ransom is a price paid for the redemption of a prisoner, slave, or kidnapped person to the kidnapper, slave-owner or captor. So why does Paul say that Jesus is our ransom, and who or what were we ransomed from?

C.S. Lewis beautifully answers this question in his book The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. In the story, Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy discovered a wardrobe that led them into a new world named Narnia. While there, Edmund met the evil White Witch, who befriended him and offered him Turkish delight if he brought his siblings back to her. She also promised Edmund that if he accomplished that task, he would rule over his siblings. Edmund went back to his siblings, lied to them, and manipulated them, but he didn’t succeed in convincing them to follow him.

So Edmund left them and went back to the White Witch. However, according to the rules of Narnia, all traitors belong to the White Witch. He now became her slave. Eventually, the other children met Aslan the lion, the king of Narnia, and formed an army to fight the army of the White Witch. But before the battle, the Witch went to Aslan’s tent and reminded him of the rules. He couldn’t just take Edmund back, for she had the right to execute every traitor. 

Aslan persuaded her to renounce her claim on Edmund’s life by bargaining to exchange his life for Edmund’s. He negotiated a ransom. Aslan was tortured that night and finally executed so Edmund could be set free. But in the morning, Aslan was resurrected!

This is a beautiful depiction of the Gospel. We are all like Edmund, for when we sin, we choose Satan as our master—and nothing in our power can free us from his grasp. Only by the blood of Jesus can we be ransomed, redeemed, and born again into the kingdom of God. However, even after Aslan did all that was necessary for Edmund’s redemption, he didn’t force Edmund to choose life. By Jesus’ work on the cross and through His resurrection, the doors of Satan’s kingdom are now wide open for anyone on spiritual death row to go free. But they must choose to give their lives to Jesus by grace through faith in Him.

You might be thinking, “But Phil, was that really the orthodox belief of the early Church? God paid a ransom price to the devil to set us free?” Actually, yes. This is the orthodox position Christians held before the time of Constantine and until Anselm of Canterbury’s Satisfaction Theory of Atonement became popular around 1100CE.

Wikipedia shows the Ransom Theory tracing back to Origen in the 3rd century CE. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ransom_theory_of_atonement
However, check out these 2nd century CE writings of Irenaeus, bishop of Lyons and disciple of Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna, who was the disciple of the Apostle John:

“For at the first Adam became a vessel in his (Satan’s) possession, whom he did also hold under his power, that is, by bringing sin on him. … We —who were but lately created by the only best and good Being, … who is perfect in all things, as the mighty Word, and very man, who, redeeming us by His own blood in a manner consonant to reason, gave Himself as a redemption for those who had been led into captivity. And since the apostasy tyrannized over us unjustly … the Word of God, powerful in all things, and not defective with regard to His own justice, did righteously turn against that apostasy, and redeem from it His own property; not by violent means, as the [apostasy] had obtained dominion over us at the beginning, when it insatiably snatched away what was not its own. … The Lord thus has redeemed us through His own blood, giving His soul for our souls, and His flesh for our flesh.” (Irenaeus, Vol. 1 p. 759, 884 [CD-ROM])

Oh, to what lengths our Savior went to ransom all of us out of the domain of darkness! This insight really challenges me to be a better under-shepherd of the flock in my care. I am like Edmund, and so is everyone else. However, as a pastor, I am called to act like Aslan. I need to be more compassionate and humble like Jesus, for, “The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many (Matthew 20:28).”