The Strangest Story of All

Bread and Wine Reading: "The Strangest Story of All", C.S. Lewis

Scripture Reading: John 1: 1-5, 10-14
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it….He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.

C.S. Lewis begins his essay by saying that now “we come to the strangest story of all, the story of the Resurrection. It is very necessary to get the story clear.” The claim is, of course, a colossal understatement. Strange, indeed! Nothing like this had ever happened before and nothing like this has ever happened since. But it is more than our merely surviving death. In the Crucifixion and Resurrection of Christ, death is, once and for all, defeated and in its place, is life recreated. Lewis describes it by saying that “something new had appeared in the Universe: as new as the first coming of organic life…A new mode of being has arisen.”

Tomorrow is Palm / Passion Sunday, the beginning of our remembrance of this last week of Christ’s earthly journey. It is a difficult week for most of us. Many of us would just assume go to sleep and wake up a week from tomorrow and not be faced with the all-too-real realization that we must walk through the earthly death of Christ in order to get to the glory of Christ’s Resurrection. Nothing can be defeated; nothing can be overcome, without facing it head-on. Ignoring it will not do. Sleeping through it will not do. The Crucifixion and the Resurrection are two chapters of the same story. The story makes no sense without both. And, strange though it may be, we have to ask ourselves what it means to us. We have to discover for ourselves how it reads into our own life. Lewis asks, “What are we going to make of Christ?” and answers that “there is no question of what we make of [Christ]; it is entirely a question of what [Christ] intends to make of us.”

This is the road we walk when all of our hopes have been dashed, when our energy is spent and exhaustion has set in, when we are overcome with regrets for what wasn’t, when we can see no way out of the mire and the mess that is our lives, and when we realize that we cannot do it ourselves. This is the road we walk when we realize that we are not alone. This is the Way of Christ making something new out of our lives. It is the way to Christ’s Resurrection, but it is also the way to our own. And when we come to the end of the road, knees bent from despair, we will bow before the seemingly God-forsaken Cross and we will allow ourselves to be handed over just as Christ did. And then…

So, what does Christ intend to make of us? Listen to Lewis’ words: “Come to me everyone who is carrying a heavy load. I will set that right. Your sins, all of them, are wiped out. I can do that. I am Rebirth. I am Life. Eat me, drink me, I am your Food. And finally, do not be afraid. I have overcome the whole Universe.” It is a strange story, but it is yours. Go now and claim it for yourself.

Discussion Questions:
1.) What does the Crucifixion mean for you?
2.) As you prepare for this final week of Lent, what is it that you need to relinquish, to surrender?
3.) What does Rebirth mean for your life, for your story?

So go forth toward the Cross and claim your story!

Grace and Peace,

Shelli