I wrote this post around 10 years ago originally, after my own reading of part of Lord of the Rings. I’m now on the fourth time reading it aloud to a child and tonight we reached my favourite part. I think I love it more each time I read it, and it catches me every time. So I wanted to just to revisit this post.
While the film version of this scene is good, the book gives so much more depth. A depth that 10 years later from the original post I’m all the more convinced we need right now. Here is the crucial part as Sam and Frodo, at the darkest part of their journey, reflect on what is happening and what it all means.
“Yes, that’s so,’ said Sam. ‘And we shouldn’t be here at all, if we’d known more about it before we started. But I suppose it’s often that way. The brave things in the old tales and songs, Mr. Frodo: adventures, as I used to call them. I used to think that they were things the wonderful folk of the stories went out and looked for, because they wanted them, because they were exciting and life was a bit dull, a kind of a sport, as you might say. But that’s not the way of it with the tales that really mattered, or the ones that stay in the mind. Folk seem to have been just landed in them, usually – their paths were laid that way, as you put it. But I expect they had lots of chances, like us, of turning back, only they didn’t. And if they had, we shouldn’t know, because they’d have been forgotten. We hear about those as just went on – and not all to a good end, mind you; at least not to what folk inside a story and not outside it call a good end. You know, coming home, and finding things all right, though not quite the same – like old Mr Bilbo. But those aren’t always the best tales to hear, though they may be the best tales to get landed in! I wonder what sort of a tale we’ve fallen into?’
‘I wonder,’ said Frodo. ‘But I don’t know. And that’s the way of a real tale. Take any one that you’re fond of. You may know, or guess, what kind of a tale it is, happy-ending or sad-ending, but the people in it don’t know. And you don’t want them to.’
‘No, sir, of course not. Beren now, he never thought he was going to get that Silmaril from the Iron Crown in Thangorodrim, and yet he did, and that was a worse place and a blacker danger than ours. But that’s a long tale, of course, and goes on past the happiness and into grief and beyond it – and the Silmaril went on and came to Eärendil. And why, sir, I never thought of that before! We’ve got – you’ve got some of the light of it in that star-glass that the Lady gave you! Why, to think of it, we’re in the same tale still! It’s going on. Don’t the great tales never end?’
‘No, they never end as tales,’ said Frodo. ‘But the people in them come, and go when their part’s ended. Our part will end later – or sooner.”
The vital thing in this story that gives hope to Sam by the end of the conversation is that they are in the same tale as the great tales of their history. Like the people in the middle of the ancient stories they do not know how their part will turn out. But the fact that the darkness they faced in the past was worse than the darkness Sam and Frodo now taste gives Sam hope. The tales Sam refers to are real – at least in the world of Middle Earth. They are part of the history of Middle Earth, and the light in their glass is the same light as was in those ancient stories.
It occurred to me that the same is true for us who seek to follow Jesus. We are part of a great tale, a never-ending story. My PhD was focused on the stories of Moses in Exodus. Fundamentally the mindblowing reality is that the same God who spoke to Moses at the bush, sent plagues on Egypt and parted the Red Sea is the God who speaks to us today. Moses did not know how the Israelites would respond to him going to them in Egypt – he thinks they are likely to reject him. He doesn’t think Pharaoh will listen. And I suspect by the end of his life he does not know how they will turn out – Deuteronomy certainly gives the impression that Moses is not at all certain the Israelites will actually live up to their calling.
And yet he kept going, kept following. The same is true of the OT “heroes of faith” who kept going, looking forward. And ultimately the same is true of Jesus. He went in the darkest of places, and he persisted to the end:
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.
Hebrews 12:1-3
Consider him. Remember we are in the same story. Remember that in the Bible there were long periods of silence from God, long periods of waiting – Abraham and Sarah waiting for Isaac. Moses perhaps giving up waiting as a shepherd. Joshua waiting for his generation to die in the desert. David waiting to be King. Lots of silence. Lots of heartache. Lots of brokenness. Consider Jesus. Remember that the joy set before him was our salvation.
Remember all this and plod on. As Sam and Frodo plodded on in Lord of the Rings. Their story is an inspiration. But if it was all I had then it would not be a lasting inspiration – it is only a story. Their inspiration in the world of the story of Middle Earth is not “there’s some good in the world, and it’s worth fighting for” (true though that is), it is “And why, sir, I never thought of that before! We’ve got – you’ve got some of the light of it in that star-glass that the Lady gave you! Why, to think of it, we’re in the same tale still! It’s going on. Don’t the great tales never end?'”
So the inspiration of Lord of the Rings for us is that it reflects a deeper reality and a truer story. A story about a tree, a cup and a green hill (to quote CS Lewis in Voyage of the Dawn Treader). A story that is real and true. A story that actually happened. Of a God who became man, that we might become like God. A God who gives us his Spirit to live in us, so that we have the light of Christ in us – a deposit guaranteeing what is to come. We are in the same tale still! Not as the great hero slaying the dragon or destroying the ring – that has been done. But our part to play is still real, and still plays a part in the victory – and strength for that part comes from the one who endured the cross.
I wrote 10 years ago: even if the greatest struggle I face now is to plod on dealing with a hyperactive child recovering from his operation with no solid sleep in the last week. Well sleep came, and life moved on. The struggles now may be different (although they do often seem to involve a lack of sleep) but I can still know that the God of Moses, the God of Abraham, the God of Elijah, the God of Jacob, the God who came as Jesus to us – that God gives me his Spirit, so that I have his light in the darkness – and that light is enough. And so the tale can go on. I place my hands, my hopes, my fears into the hand of the one who holds me.
Often then I would post a hymn, but here was just a classic chorus followed by great verses from Jude – both of which highlight this mysterious dual reality of how we keep going – we keep plodding, but we do it in His strength. We keep ourselves, as we are kept by him.
When the road is rough and steep – fix your eyes upon Jesus
He alone has power to keep, fix your eyes upon him
Jesus is a faithful friend, one on whom you can depend,He will keep you to the end: fix your eyes upon him.
and from Jude
20 But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, 21 keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. 22 And have mercy on those who doubt; 23 save others by snatching them out of the fire; to others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh.24 Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, 25 to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.
Jude 20-25
Joshua's Tree Rooted 