Voyage of the Dawn Treader: The Dragon You Are

Eustace was a monster. Literally.

He didn’t start out that way. He began life as a boy – an annoying boy, a lazy boy, but still a boy. When Eustace got caught up to Narnia with Lucy and Edmund, he didn’t know what to do. A magical land? And when they kidnapped him to go with that dreadful King Caspian fellow on a voyage on that terrible boat the Dawn Treader, oh horrors! So when the ship landed on an uncharted isle and everyone expected Eustace to work, he ran away and hid. And then he took a nap.

And when he woke up, he was a dragon.

It took a change of his form to make him realize what a monster he’d always been. He recognized how dreadfully he’d acted. That Lucy and Edmund and Caspian and all the rest of the crew were good people who hadn’t kidnapped him. He was the one in the wrong. But now he was a dragon… and what could be done?

Sometimes it takes something drastic to wake us up and make us realize what monsters we are. While I don’t know anyone who’s been physically transformed into a dragon, I know plenty of people who have lost friends, family, homes, jobs, and more before they realized what they were doing. I can point to times in my life, dark times, when I realized what a monster I’d become. It only took losing a girlfriend, losing many of my friends, losing my chance at college… oh, yes, I was a monster. What has it taken to open your eyes to your monstrous sins?

Eustace wept great tears… but he was stuck as a dragon. There was nothing he could do.

But Aslan is another matter entirely.

After some days as a dragon, Eustace saw a great Lion approach him. Even as a dragon, Eustace quaked in fear. He wasn’t afraid that the Lion would eat him. He was afraid of the Lion himself!

The Lion led him to a deep well. Eustace wanted to bathe… but the Lion told him to undress first.

Ah! Dragons must be like lizards. They could remove their skin. So Eustace raked his skin with his claws, and it came off easily, and without pain. But underneath lay a hide just as terrible. Eustace took off that layer… and found another terrible coat of scales. Again, and it was as if nothing had happened. Eustace realized he could not change.

Have you ever struggled like that? “I can change!” And you do! Except… it’s only like shedding the outer layer of a lizard’s skin. Maybe the outside habit has changed… but you still have the heart of a monster, so nothing real changes. I know that struggle. I know that despair. I’m not strong enough to change. Not really.
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But Aslan approached Eustace. In the boy’s own words:

Then the lion said – but I don’t know if it spoke – ‘You will have to let me undress you.’ I was afraid of his claws, I can tell you, but I was pretty nearly desperate now. So I just lay flat down on my back and let him do it. The very first tear he made was so deep that I thought he’d gone right into my heart. And when he began pulling the skin off, it hurt worse than anything I’ve ever felt. The only thing that made me able to bear it was just the pleasure of feeling the stuff peel off. … and [he] threw me into the water. It smarted like anything but only for a moment. After that it became perfectly delicious and as soon as I started swimming and splashing I found that all the pain had gone… And then I saw why. I’d turned into a boy again. … After a bit the lion took me out and dressed me.”

Eustace couldn’t shed his skin. Only Aslan could free him from the dragon he had become. Only Aslan could cut deep enough to sever those bonds. Only Aslan could wash Eustace. Only Aslan could dress him and put to death the monster in him.

You can’t shed your skin. Oh, you were a monster, make no mistake. And perhaps you tried shedding your skin many, many times.

Only Jesus could free you from the monster you had become. Only Jesus can cut deep enough to free you from the sin that so easily entangles. Only Jesus can wash you. Only Jesus can dress you in clean, clean robes of righteousness.

And now, like Eustace, you are no longer a monster.

“Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.” (I Corinthians 6:9-11)

You are different now, just as Eustace was different. Once you see yourself for the monster you were, once you have been made new by Jesus, everything changes. And your new identity? You still have a monster lurking, sure. But that’s not who you are anymore. You are no dragon.

You are Jesus’s chosen heir. You are new.

Just like Eustace.

And here’s an audio version of this blog post if you prefer listening to your blogs!