by Curtis Baker
In C. S. Lewis’ brilliant allegory on heaven and hell, called “The Great Divorce,” Lewis portrays a young man in conversation with his spiritual mentor. The conversation takes place in heaven, as together they watch how the souls from hell, on a holiday to tour the lands of heaven, each turn from the prospect of their salvation to return to their hellish home. The most recent case was a mother “who loved her son too much.” As the young man watched, he questions his mentor as to why such things happen as they do. A mother’s love for her son, even if excessive, seems an innocent sin. But his mentor explains to him: “There is but one good; that is God. Everything else is good when it looks to Him and bad when it turns from Him. And the higher and mightier it is in the natural order, the more demoniac it will be if it rebels.” He then goes on to explain that it is not bad mice or bad fleas that turn into demons, but archangels.
The point he is trying to make is that it is not the lesser, more base desires that usually cause a lot of damage, but the higher ones. Often, these higher desires are not the ones we pay attention to because the lower lusts are so easily seen, and their consequences so quickly discerned. The lower lusts would be things like sexual desire, various sorts of entertainment, or even excessive drinking. These things are harmful, as all sin is, but its damage is fairly localized. Lewis points out it is the higher things that pose the greatest threat; things like mother-love, art, and patriotism.
As I read those words, I stopped for a moment when thinking about why he had listed patriotism among the higher perversions. Patriotism, at its root, simply means, “love of the father land.” It is a way of loving and showing an allegiance to the land where you were born and raised. It is a love for a people, a history, and a certain story that a person is a part of. Patriotism, in and of itself is a wonderful thing. But following Lewis’ logic that the greatest demons are made of archangels, not mice or fleas, it occurred to me what he means. When patriotism loses its innocence and quits being a love for a place because it is your place, but instead becomes a love that says our place is greater and more important than any other place, then patriotism falls into one of the deadliest of human vices–nationalism.
This sin is seen very well in the 19th chapter of the Gospel of Luke. As Jesus crests the Mount of Olives in preparation to arrive in Jerusalem he cannot help but weep as he views the city. He said, “If you, even you, had known on this day what would bring you peace!” But Jerusalem had not known what would bring it peace. What would have brought it peace was Jesus’ teaching in the Sermon on the Mount and other places. But Jerusalem could not hear such words. Their expectation was for a “national” Messiah who would redeem the land of Judea back to the God given nation they always thought it was supposed to be. They saw themselves not only as one people among the world, but as “the” people of the world. Their perverted patriotism had caused them to miss God’s arrival.
When one listens to the dialogue that is present today in our own country, one can’t help but wonder if we are not dangerously close to the same kind of sin. While our focus remains on the baser lusts, which are rampant in our society and important in their implications, one can’t but wonder if we are ignoring the archangel that might cause the most desperate fall. When one listens carefully to cable news, talk radio, and the discussions in restaurants and churches that take place on a daily basis, one does not hear a simple patriotism that loves one’s place simply because it is one’s place. Instead your hear self-righteousness, an anger toward others of dissenting opinion, a pride that says we are best, that our own good is greater than anyone else’s. So it was in Jerusalem at Jesus’ time. But Jerusalem did not fall because of sins of the baser lusts. It fell because when God came to their country, they were worshiping another God. The archangel had become a demon.
(Don’t forget to join me for A Message from the Heart radio program Sunday evening at 8:00pm on KJAK 92.7FM, or streaming live at www.kjak.com)
By: Curtis Baker (curtisbaker@hotmail.com)
P.O. Box 157, Slaton, TX 79364
