The good folks at Desiring God (John Piper’s ministry) really explained Tolkien’s views well relative to how he wanted his writings to be something of a story reflecting his own Christian worldview. Yesterday we entered Lent for 2015…40 days to Easter and the culmination of the Christian story that began back on December 25th. When we celebrate Christmas, we are celebrating God coming into the world as the baby Jesus. The Christian story doesn’t work without the Incarnate God coming to us….we simply have no way to actually get to Him ourselves. And yet the story isn’t complete without Easter, the death on the cross and the resurrection three days later on Sunday.
So, take a read of how writer Jon Bloom puts it:
There Is More Faërie to Reality Than We See
It is a great, sad, tragic irony that we so often miss the true magic. This world pulses with the glory of God shining out in all that he has made (Romans 1:20) and the written Word contains “precious and very great promises” (2 Peter 1:4) of incredible magnitude, and we are often so dull to it all. The pervasiveness of our sinful depravity causes us to live so much of our days in a small jail cell of self-obsession.
But the great Hero of the true Epic has proclaimed liberty to all the captives who will follow him (Luke 4:18). The road is hard and the perils are many (Matthew 7:14). The enemies are otherworldly and far more powerful than ourselves (Ephesians 6:12). But the Hero is greater still (1 John 4:4) and he promises to be with us to the end (Matthew 28:20), even in the darkest places (Psalm 23:4) and deliver all in his fellowship safely into his heavenly kingdom (2 Timothy 4:18).
No faërie story or myth or man-made religion in all of recorded history compares with the Great Story of Christianity. But we need all the help we can get to turn our eyes away from our confined corner of reality and see the Story with fresh eyes.
For many, looking through the faërie lenses of Middle-earth has helped them see again the real Epic we each are a small part of. They have been helped to see the gleam of the true evangelium and press on in the journeys to which they have been appointed with renewed hope and courage, knowing that at the end of the Road is Home.
Lent is the preparation of the believer for Easter, an annual time of introspection, prayer and some self-denial. In some ways, it is like Advent….a time of thinking of what is to come and what this Passion story of Jesus all means. It really is an epic tale, one where we get to join the fellowship, go out into the wide and dangerous, yet beautiful, world. I pray you come join us on the journey.