C.S. Lewis: Such awful people

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Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” Then Jesus told them this parable: “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent. Luke 15:1-7

“It costs God nothing, so far as we know, to create nice things: but to convert rebellious wills cost Him crucifixion. And because they are wills they can — in nice people just as much as in nasty ones — refuse His request. And then, because that niceness in Dick was merely part of nature, it will all go to pieces in the end. Nature herself will all pass away. Natural causes come together in Dick to make a pleasant psychological pattern, just as they come together in a sunset to make a pleasant pattern of colours. Presently (for that is how nature works) they will fall apart again and the pattern in both cases will disappear. Dick has had the chance to turn (or rather, to allow God to turn) that momentary pattern into the beauty of an eternal spirit: and he has not taken it.

There is a paradox here. As long as Dick does not turn to God, he thinks his niceness is his own, and just as long as he thinks that, it is not his own. It is when Dick realises that his niceness is not his own but a gift from God, and when he offers it back to God — it is just then that it begins to be really his own. For now Dick is beginning to take a share in his own creation. The only things we can keep are the things we freely give to God. What we try to keep for ourselves is just what we are sure to lose.

We must, therefore, not be surprised if we find among the Christians some people who are still nasty.

There is even, when you come to think it over, a reason why nasty people might be expected to turn to Christ in greater numbers than nice ones. That was what people objected to about Christ during His life on earth: He seemed to attract “such awful people.” That is what people still object to, and always will. Do you not see why? Christ said ‘”Blessed are the poor” and “How hard it is for the rich to enter the Kingdom,” and no doubt He primarily meant the economically rich and economically poor. But do not His words also apply to another kind of riches and poverty?

One of the dangers of having a lot of money is that you may be quite satisfied with the kinds of happiness money can give and so fail to realise your need for God. If everything seems to come simply by signing checks, you may forget that you are at every moment totally dependent on God. Now quite plainly, natural gifts carry with them a similar danger. If you have sound nerves and intelligence and health and popularity and a good upbringing, you are likely to be quite satisfied with your character as it is. “Why drag God into it?” you may ask.

A certain level of good conduct comes fairly easily to you. You are not one of those wretched creatures who are always being tripped up by sex, or dipsomania, or nervousness, or bad temper. Everyone says you are a nice chap and (between ourselves) you agree with them. You are quite likely to believe that all this niceness is your own doing: and you may easily not feel the need for any better kind of goodness.

Often people who have all these natural kinds of goodness cannot be brought to recognise their need for Christ at all until, one day, the natural goodness lets them down and their self-satisfaction is shattered. In other words, it is hard for those who are “rich” in this sense to enter the Kingdom.

It is very different for the nasty people — the little, low, timid, warped, thin-blooded, lonely people, or the passionate, sensual, unbalanced people. If they make any attempt at goodness at all, they learn, in double quick time, that they need help. It is Christ or nothing for them. It is taking up the cross and following — or else despair. They are the lost sheep; He came specially to find them. They are (in one very real and terrible sense) the “poor”: He blessed them. They are the “awful set” He goes about with — and of course the Pharisees say still, as they said from the first, “If there were anything in Christianity those people would not be Christians.””

C.S. Lewis (1898-1963) in Mere Christianity (New York: HarperCollins, 1972) 212-214. Next to the Bible, this is the greatest book of all time on my list. By the end of my life — should I be fortunate to live a long life, as I pray often to make it to 80 years — I will likely have used most of the excerpts from it as Daily Meditations. If you have not read this book, here’s a PDF edition of it.

Find yourself in today’s reading. Your generosity depends on it. Lewis explains rightly how the poor, nasty, and awful set finds blessing in Christ and why its nearly impossible for nice, rich folk. He also articulates a paradoxical idea that is central to the Christian faith: “The only things we can keep are the things we freely give to God. What we try to keep for ourselves is just what we are sure to lose.” No wonder Jesus wants us to deny ourselves and give like He gave, holding back nothing. It’s the only way to gain the Kingdom.

My wife, Jenni, meets with dozens of women as Soulcare Anchoress. She never tells me about any of her soul care and spiritual direction sessions but occasionally shares common themes. One thing she shared with me just yesterday relates to this reading. She said that many women are so drawn to the materialism of our day and so comfortable in middle-class American living that they can’t imagine life in the Kingdom being better. Thus, they are almost completely preoccupied with this life. That’s precisely the point Lewis is making. No wonder such people rarely exhibit generosity and, in the words of Jesus, it’s hard for them to enter the Kingdom. It’s only possible with God.

Again, where are you in today’s reading?