Perelandra (ch.2)

In this chapter we read of the preparation for and the journey of Ransom to Perelandra and back. For our purposes of Christian reflection two matters stand out.

The first is that Ransom is to travel to Perelandra in a coffin-shaped container and that he is to travel naked. To my mind, and I suspect Lewis’ too, this can scarcely be other than his way of speaking about our lives with God in Christ as having the shape of the cross (or cruciform). As Christ died hanging naked on a cross so Ransom “dies” (hence the coffin-shaped container) to his old life and is borne naked into his new one.

Candidates for baptism in the early church would strip of their old clothes, signifying their old way of life, descend into the baptismal font naked, and arise from it to receive a white robe signifying their new life. Surely there are echoes of that here as well.

Does remembrance of your baptism play any role in your walk with God today? Do you live with the awareness that, in all truth, you died with Christ in baptism and have been raised with him to new life (Rom.6:1-4)? If not, how can you remind yourself of this signal moment in your life? How can your church assist its members to remember their baptisms and the cross-shaped way of life it commits us 

to?

Ransom tells character Lewis that some of the difficulty he felt coming to his house was inspired by the bent (that is, rebellious) eldilic resistance and that the bent Oyarsa of Thulcandra (earth, the silent planet cut off from all the others because of its Oyarsa’s rebellion) is planning some sort of action against Perelandra.

Ransom does not know why he is being sent to Perelandra. He just knows it is Maleldil’s will that he go. He confesses the oddity of his going to a far away planet to fight some unknown evil but also observes “But when you come to think of it, is it odder than what all of us have to do every day? When the Bible used that very expression about fighting with principalities and powers . . . it meant that quite ordinary people were to do the fighting” (2882).

And this is the second matter worth our reflection. Ransom contends, against character Lewis, that such fighting means more than the moral or spiritual struggles we all face.

“Haven’t you noticed how in our own little war here on Earth, there are different phases, and while any one phase is going on people get into the habit of thinking and behaving as if it was going to be permanent? But really the thing is changing under your hands all the time, and neither your assets nor your dangers this year are the same as the year before. Now your idea that ordinary people will never have to meet the Dark Eldila in any form except a psychological or moral form—as temptations or the like—is simply an idea that held good for a certain phase of the cosmic war: the phase of the great siege, the phase which gave to our planet its name of Thulcandra, the silent planet. But supposing that phase is passing? In the next phase it may be anyone’s job to meet them . . . well, in some quite different mode” (2891).

There are real spiritual entities “out there” in the world seeking to derail our loving Christ and doing God’s will. Whether one personifies these entities as a devil and demons or takes them as impersonal forces is of less importance than that we recognize their reality and activity in our world. The New Testament speaks of the “wiles” and “strategies” of our enemy suggesting that there is a coordinated intelligence of some kind opposed to God’s will and way confronting us.

That doesn’t mean he, Ransom, being chosen for this task, is anyone special, however. “One never can see, or not till long afterwards, why any one was selected for any job. And when one does, it is usually some reason that leaves no room for vanity” (2896). Part of the deal he claims is that we do not know beforehand what we are to do or say. Thus we cannot prepare because such preparation would likely less effectively communicate what needs to be said. Instead we must depend on the power that leads us and whose service we are in. Jesus told his disciples something similar when they are under attack:

“As for yourselves, beware; for they will hand you over to councils; and you will be beaten in synagogues; and you will stand before governors and kings because of me, as a testimony to them. And the good news must first be proclaimed to all nations. When they bring you to trial and hand you over, do not worry beforehand about what you are to say; but say whatever is given you at that time, for it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit” (Mk.13:9-11).

Relationship is the key here. Relationship to God. Ministry flounders and mission stagnates when relationship turns to routine and comes under our control and discretion. And this happens all to easily and all too often. “Do you love me?” Jesus asked Peter three times. It was not until Peter reaffirmed his love for, relationship to, Jesus three times that the Lord instructed him to “Feed my sheep.”

Ransom's bleeding heel is his stigmata. It draws on Gen.3 where we hear the promise that though the serpent will bite Eve's offspring on the heel, her offspring shall crush his head. 

The stage is now set. The adventure has been undertaken and concluded. All that remains is to hear from Ransom his account of his mission. And what a mission it is!