Not Safe, But Good

In The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, Susan, one of the Pevensie children trying to understand the strange land of Narnia, asks Mr. Beaver about Aslan, the great lion. Susan, who, having heard talk of Aslan and assumed him to be a man, responded with surprise, “Is he – quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous meeting a lion.” At this point, we might expect Mr. Beaver to say something like, “Yes, don’t worry, he’s totally safe.” Instead, he responds, “Safe? Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good.”

If we, as C.S. Lewis intended, allow this story to help us better understand the Christian story, we are confronted with a challenge. If Aslan is suggestive of Jesus, how can he not be safe? Doesn’t Jesus want us to be safe?

The answer is complicated. On one hand, the God of the Bible is passionate about protecting vulnerable people. Creating safe spaces for victims of any kind of oppression has always been a component of authentic Christian mission. However, at some point, creating safe spaces stops being about protecting vulnerable people and instead becomes an effort in shielding us from anything that might make us uncomfortable. When this becomes our focus, we’re no longer in sync with the biblical witness. One cannot read the Bible and conclude that God is intent on keeping his people out of discomfort.

When we appreciate this tension, we can begin to understand that being with Jesus might not be safe. He might ask us to go places – both physical and emotional – that might be quite uncomfortable, even dangerous. Whether Stephen testifying before the religious leaders who were ready to kill him, Peter sitting down for a meal with a Gentile, or Paul nearly drowning in a shipwreck, Jesus often asks his people to go places that none would describe as “safe.”

However, just as Mr. Beaver said of Aslan, so we say about Jesus: “He’s good.” If we have experienced and understood Jesus as good, then we can trust him, even as he leads us into uncomfortable territory, whether in the world around us or in our own heart.

We can see both God’s disregard of safety and his goodness most clearly on the cross. Jesus, God with us, went to the cross, and it is through the cross that we are reconciled to God. Jesus didn’t hesitate to walk into danger, and, in doing so, he showed the depth of his goodness.

Maturing as a Christian involves accepting that God’s primary purpose in our lives is not to keep us safe, and, from that acceptance, entrusting ourselves to him, because we know that he is good. In other words, we relinquish control, no longer living with, in the words of a well-known bumper sticker, “God as my co-pilot,” but, rather, as Jesus told his disciples, take his yoke on us, which, we discover is “easy.” Not “easy” in the sense of without effort, but easy because we know that he is good, and that, no matter the danger in which we might find ourselves, we can trust his goodness.

As we at Christ Church continue on the journey of discipleship, while we work for safe spaces for vulnerable people, let’s abandon our pursuit of keeping ourselves from anything uncomfortable – whether in our personal relationship with God, our corporate life of worship, prayer, and service, or in the world around us that God so loves – and instead entrust ourselves to the One who, for our sake, went to the cross, showing us that, while he certainly won’t keep us from discomfort and danger, he is good.

Peace,

Chris