Clean your Sword

There is a scene in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe where Peter uses his sword to kill the nasty wolf Maugrim. After he does, Aslan tells him to be sure to “clean his sword.”

When the movie first came out, our Sunday school class went to see it as a group, and the next morning I taught a lesson based on the movie. The main source of the info for the lesson was from Christianity Today – Christian Bible Studies (go here to find it and other downloadable lessons). One of the questions that the lesson asked was why Aslan insists that Peter clean his sword.

I didn’t ask the class that question – mainly because I didn’t know the answer. I’ve thought about it since then, and have a few options, but I’m not sure which one might be right:

Why did Aslan insist that Peter clean his sword right away after he kills the evil Maugrim?

• Bloody swords are just icky. Of course Aslan would want him to clean it. We all need to know how to care for our gifts properly.
• If we consider that Maugrin was evil, perhaps Aslan wanted to impress on Peter that he needs to stay away from evil and sin. While we are in the world, we will be exposed to evil; we will commit sin. Perhaps Aslan just wanted Peter to understand the necessity of keeping oneself as pure as possible – striving on to wholeness.
• Aslan specifically instructs Peter to kill the wolf, so killing the wolf wasn’t bad or wrong. Aslan told him to do it. Nevertheless, perhaps Aslan wanted Peter to understand that while the act was necessary, it was not desirable. Clean your sword, and try to keep it clean.
• There are consequences to every action. A bloody sword is the result of killing the wolf, and perhaps Aslan wants Peter to understand that he is responsible for the consequences of all of his actions.

Maybe I’m tired, and I’m reading too much into a small little scene in a book, but I’ve been wondering about this question for a while.

I’ve got my copy of Beyond Words by Frederick Buechner in my briefcase – I used it in VBS – and I ran across these words about Myth:

The raw material of a myth, like the raw material of a dream, may be something that actually happened once. But myths, like dreams, do not tell us much about that kind of actuality. The creation of Adam and Eve, the Tower of Babel, Oedipus – they do not tell us primarily about events. They tell us about ourselves.

In popular usage, a myth has come to mean a story that is not true. Historically speaking, that may well be so. Humanly speaking, a myth is a story that is always true.

Maybe the lesson here is to just listen to the story, without dissecting it so much, thus enabling us to hear the truth in it. (Thanks to Vicky for the thought).

Image: I took some photos this morning on the way to work -- sunflowers and the sunrise behind some trees. Hot -- they all looked hot. I heard this morning that the heat index in DC is 111 degrees. So here's some shade from Pullman Square.