The Pilgrim's Progress: Week 3
You and I meet the monster: A guest post by Steven Froehlich
Readers, I wish I could remember when I first crossed paths virtually with Steven Froelich. It seems like he has blessing me forever with his kind notes, wise words, and generous sharing of thoughts (and prayers). I don’t think I have ever mentioned this to Steve in the ensuing years (and I hope my memory is correct), but some years ago, during what turned out to be an extended time of professional difficulty, I received an encouraging note in the mail (the old fashioned kind of mail) at my school address. I think this was the first time I knew of Steve and his wife Sheryl. (And they have been blessing me ever since. Now, after serving for 25 years, Steve is pastor emeritus of New Life Presbyterian Church in Ithaca, NY. He also served as founding board chair of Chesterton House Center for Christian Studies at Cornell University. Steve and Sheryl continue to live in Ithaca which is also home to their three sons and seven grandkids. You can read more about and from Steve at his website, linked here.
I am so delighted to share with you Steve’s beautiful and moving insights into this week’s reading of The Pilgrim’s Progress.
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YOU AND I MEET THE MONSTER
Straddling the way, “Apollyon met him. Now the monster was hideous to behold: he was clothed with scales, like a fish (and they are his pride); he had wings like a dragon, feet like a bear, and out of his belly came fire and smoke, and his mouth was as the mouth of a lion. When he was come up to Christian, he beheld him with a disdainful countenance.”
The Thrilla in Manila, The Rumble in the Jungle, No Mas. Legendary prize fights, all. Yet, while all of them are history, the confrontation between Christian and Apollyon will happen again tomorrow, and the next day, and every day until Jesus brings the conflict to an end forever. This allegorical brawl offers wisdom about real-life conflicts we pilgrims may face today.
Bunyan has thought a lot about the punches our enemy throws and the many forms his attacks take. Not all his monsters are muscular, in-your-face pugilists like Apollyon. Some are the terrors of blackness that will soon smother the weary pilgrim in the next valley. Some wear the robes of pilgrims. Apollyon has many familiar ways he tries to defeat us. But, as the journey unfolds, Bunyan will introduce us to more of Satan’s minions who have other techniques and strategies.
Satan never relents. Neither does the Spirit. Therefore, we will spend a lifetime discovering how God’s grace is sufficient in every situation, trial, and conflict of life.
“Prepare to Die!”
Apollyon begins his pummeling of Christian with the typical teeth-baring threat of a bully, “I would strike thee now, at one blow, to the ground.” The monster means, “I’m gonna kill you!”
We are often tempted to agree. In the overwhelming blast of hardship, suffering, sorrow, pain, weakness, we find ourselves believing, “This is going to kill me.”
But in Christ the bully can’t kill us. As Jesus famously told Nicodemus, the grace of salvation is the gift of everlasting life. Stretching over the far horizon, eternity has already begun for us, even though in this life we still face the cruel reality of mortality.
Richard Sibbes (1577-1635) dedicated his most famous work, “The Bruised Reed” (1630), to his friend, General Horatio Vere, commander of the British forces in the Netherlands. To one regularly clad in armor, sword in hand, Sibbes wrote:
“Soldiers that carry their lives in their hands had need, above all others, to carry grace in their hearts, that so having made peace with God, they may be fit to encounter with men; and having by faith in Christ disarmed death before they die, they may sacrifice their life with the more courage and comfort.”
We cannot win the gift of unending life given to us in the gospel. While our earthly lives may end at the hand of violence or injustice, our life in Christ continues unbroken into the unveiled presence of the One who has given his life for us and to us.
Similarly, Christian cannot kill Apollyon. Just as the monster was about to finish off embattled Christian, the pilgrim found his sword and “gave him a deadly thrust, which made him give back, as one that had received his mortal wound…. With that Apollyon spread forth his dragon's wings, and sped him away, that Christian for a season saw him no more.”
Yes, “for a season.” He’ll be back in one form or another after this battle is over.
But as it is not Christian’s job to kill Apollyon, neither is it our job to kill the enemy. It may be disappointing for Christian culture warriors among us to discover that the armor given to us (Ephesians 6) is not to conquer in a war that Christ has already won. Our Savior is the One who crushes the head of the serpent. Jesus is Christus Victor.
Life on the way as envisioned by Bunyan is not about winning. We have been equipped so that we might “stand firm” (endure or persevere) as Paul says four times in the armor passage. “Death, thou shalt die,” penned John Donne, but not by our hand. The same hand that will bring evil to an end holds and sustains us that we might live all of life with “courage and comfort.”
“You Should Love God’s Good Gifts”
The fight continues. With the second jab, Apollyon dangles earthly prosperity and security to bait Christian into giving up his Celestial quest. After all Christian’s wife, Christiana, is still back in the City of Destruction with his “sweet babes.” Mr. Worldly Wiseman has already shamed the distraught pilgrim for deserting his family. He tried to persuade Christian to believe that he should give up his journey to stay and “enjoy the benefits of the blessing which God hath bestowed upon thee.” But Christian holds those good gifts which are most dear to him with an open hand.
“It Doesn’t Have to Be So Hard”
Third, Apollyon reminds Christian of how difficult and dangerous the journey ahead of him will prove. He’s not lying. The monster suggests that the pilgrim is ignoring the hazards ahead because he’s being stupid. “When thou art in cold blood” – that is, when you come to your senses and forsake this irrational foolishness, you will return home. But Christian has fled his family and friends. He is counting the cost as best he is able. He is learning not to be naïve about what to expect in this life. “As for present Deliverance,” he says with his fellow pilgrims, “they do not much expect it; for they stay for their Glory, and then they shall have it” when the Prince returns. Life is hard – we cannot escape sickness, death, sorrow, and injustice. “Life is pain, Highness,” says Westley in The Princess Bride. “Anyone who says differently is selling something.”
These hardships reveal to us our limitations, our frailty, our “weakness,” as Paul writes to the Corinthians. Only when we know we are weak can we find the strength of God’s gracious provision (2 Corinthians 12:10). Apollyon finds such wisdom to be folly, but this is life in the upside-down kingdom of God.
However, there is a particular kind of hardship the adversary hopes will be an immobilizing discouragement to any idealistic pilgrim. Apollyon wants Christian to be undone by those who once were known as followers of Jesus, but who have given up. Or, by those who claim to be Christians, but who are predators. “It is ordinary for those that have professed themselves his Servants, after a while to give him the slip, and return again to me.”
How many times have we heard the (often justified) criticism of the church, “Look at all the hypocrites!” The health and wealth gospel is flourishing not only in the consumer-driven West, but also in some of the most impoverished parts of the world. Preachers flashing an ostentatious display of wealth as a supposed sign of God’s blessing are pillaging the poor. Pastors and church leaders are almost daily, it seems, being accused of sexual and authoritarian abuse. We are also facing a new wave of Christians grasping for power and control as they pursue a politicized corruption of the kingdom of God. Such relentless and blatant contradictions of Christ’s character take a toll on everyday Christians earnestly striving to live faithfully.
This psychological and spiritual oppression is on the mind of the writer of Hebrews. Following the dark comments in Hebrews 6 about people in the church falling away, the inspired pastor urges: Remember that your God sees your love for him. Do not let the disobedience (or as we might say today, the deconstruction) of others wear you down. Rather, “imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised.” Then a few chapters later, after the famous “Hall of Faith” passage, the pastor returns to our vulnerability, to psychological and spiritual despair: As important as faithful human exemplars may be, above all keep your eyes fixed on Jesus. Remember it was for joy, for you that he endured the suffering, shame, and humiliation of the cross. Let your thoughts linger long on him “so that you may not grow weary and lose heart” (Hebrews 12:3).
“You Failed”
Before Apollyon unleashes his physical fury on Christian, much like Satan’s assault on Job, he unloads a haymaker. He tells Christian, “You are a failure.” And, he has the receipts, a long list of Christian’s hypocrisy, sin, weakness, and foolishness. “You are so pitifully weak,” the monster insinuates, “that you fell into despair. You were seduced by legalism – how quickly you gave up on the gospel. You were fearful and had second thoughts. You are self-indulgent and proud.”
What will Christian say to these accusations? He could deny them. He could try to explain them all away. But, no. He replies, “All this is true, and much more, which thou hast left out.”
What extraordinary freedom! As Paul celebrates, “it is for freedom Christ has set us free” (Galatians 5:1). Only a person truly freed by the gospel can say without fear or condemnation, “All this is true, and much more.” This freedom is the gospel paradox of strength in weakness.
Nowhere in all of Bunyan’s tale is the gospel more powerfully illustrated than in this short reply. Christian sorrows over his sin. He weeps over his weakness. He laments his failures. And at the same time, he is confident in grace. (Although, to be fair, he will have moments when his confidence wanes.) He knows his great need of God’s mercy, and he believes with confidence that the Father has indeed given him not only unending life but also the “alien” (Luther) righteousness of Christ. As he sang at the cross when his burden fell from his shoulders and rolled into the empty tomb, “Here is the beginning of my bliss.”
A Confident Confession
What would my life be like if I were willing to be honest about my sin, weakness, and failure? To “disempower death” before I die? We call this honesty “confession.” There are times I am weak and powerless to change my circumstances or what’s happening in my body – a blow to my pride. There are times I’m willful and arrogant – I’m guilty of idolatry, loving the gods of this life more than the One who loves me most. There are times when I fail – my promises and good intentions fall by the wayside. Is it possible to be honest about all these things and still have hope? Or am I doomed to live face down in the dust, pounded to the ground by the enemy’s blows?
A confident hope is possible for one reason: the gospel is true! When Apollyon straddles the path before us in our own lives, waggling his list under our noses, let’s consider shouting aloud these replies to these questions if we are in Christ.
What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?
Reply: No one. He did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all. He will, along
with him, graciously give us all things.
Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen?
Reply: No one. It is God who justifies.
Who then can condemn?
Reply: No one. Christ Jesus who died – more than that, who was raised to life – is at the
right hand of God and is also interceding for us.
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?
Reply: No one.
Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: "For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered."
Reply: No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:31-39)
“Sighs and groans” having nearly burst his heart in the terrible fray, Christian rests, exhausted. Yet after a while, renewed, he stands, sword in hand, wary of another attack. Slowly the pilgrim turns toward the City where dwells his Prince, whose footprints can yet be seen in the path ahead.
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"Absolutely unmixed attention is prayer.” – Simone Weil1
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Reading schedule for The Pilgrim’s Progress—note I’m describing the sections since there are no chapters:
April 29: Intro to the work and discussion of “The Author’s Apology for his Book”
May 6: Beginning to introduction of Simple, Sloth, and Presumption
May 13: Introduction of Simple, Sloth, and Presumption to introduction of Talkative
May 20: Introduction of Talkative to the By-Path Meadow
May 27: By-Path Meadow to introduction of the Atheist
June 3: From the Atheist to the end
You can read the work online here. Stay tuned for the reading schedule for Part 2.
Simone Weil, Gravity and Grace, trans. By Emma Crawford and Mario von der Ruhr (London: Routledge, 2002), 117.
“Life is pain, Highness,” says Westley in The Princess Bride. “Anyone who says differently is selling something.” Oh, so true. But Christus Victor, thanks be to God! (I love that you took a quote from the Princess Bride.)
Thank you for your insightful and encouraging commentary.
Beautiful and true. Thank you.
The reading section this week included the House Beautiful, the Battle with Apollyon, and the Valley of the Shadow of Death. I have mentioned how the man in the cage in the Interpreter's house terrified me. It was the Valley of the Shadow of Death that gave me hope that I was not the first person to suffer unwanted thoughts, from this description:
'I took notice that now poor Christian was so confounded that he did not know his own voice; and thus I perceived it: just when he was come over against the mouth of the burning pit, one of the wicked ones got behind him, and stepped up softly to him, and whisperingly suggested many wicked words to him, which he verily thought had proceeded from his own mind. This put Christian more to it than anything he had met with before, even to think that he should now speak evil of Him that he had so much loved before. Yet, if he could have helped it, he would not have done it; but he had not the wisdom either to stop his ears, or to know from whence those wicked words came.’