Monday, March 21, 2011

Sirens and Salvation

Legalism and license are the siren songs of this world, seducing us away from the narrow way of Christ and leaving us for dead.

When Jason and his Argonauts set near the sirens on the Argosy, Jason was prepared. He had brought Orpheus along and instructed him to play a lovelier music than the sirens' song and to play it more loudly than they theirs.

When Odysseus set near the sirens, he instructed his sailors to lash him to the mast so that he could not jump ship and attempt to sail to the sirens.

Paul speaks of being a bondservant to Christ. He instructs us to "stand firm." I picture a believer lashing himself to Christ, like Odysseus to the mast. If I am enslaved to Christ I am protected from all that is eternally harmful. If I am bound to Christ, I am as safe as Christ is. I go where he goes, stand where he stands, and I am prevented from the sway of sirens and the dashing of my faith upon the rocks.

I want to lash myself to Christ and play the music of the gospel, which is sweeter and lovelier than any other song, very very loudly.

3 comments:

Dave and Cassie said...

Love this analogy!!!!

Anonymous said...

Dude, you totally ripped that off from Clement of Alexandria.

Jared said...

I did?

That's cool.
The "lashed to the mast" thing came to mind while working on 'stand firm' in Galatians 5, as I was wanting to contrast with being "bound" in slavery to legalism, so I looked up the myth (on wikipedia, actually) and saw the Jason story too.

Cool that Clement did this illustration as well.