I Learned This From King Lune (and Joe Rigney)
This Is What It Means to Be a King
Kings do not mean anything to Americans these days (didn't we ditch our last king in 1776?). We do not think about them. We can hardly conceive of what it would be like to have a king. What makes a good king anyway? Is there is such a thing? "No chance," say we of the Democratic Guild. The Book of Proverbs would say otherwise.
According to Proverbs, kings must speak with righteous lips (16:10), sit on the throne of judgment (20:8), winnow the wicked (20:26), and build up the land by justice (29:4). Whether we have ever seen this with our own eyes is irrelevant. The fact remains that there is a godly manner in which to execute the office of king or any position of authority. And this is instructive for all of us, for we all have authority and are under authority in some sense. To examine what a true king looks like, we will travel across the mountains into the small country of Archenland.
King Lune receives very little fanfare, and indeed very little coverage in the Narnia books. He has a role in only one of the seven stories, The Horse and His Boy. He is not a Narnian king and did not travel from the world of men as the great kings and queens of the past did. If The Horse and His Boy were ever made into a film (please join me in praying that this never happens), King Lune would almost certainly be ignored or ruined. But despite featuring only briefly in the series, this merry king makes a deep impression and gives one a deep desire to visit the court of this humble and noble ruler.
Lune is "the jolliest, fat, apple-cheeked, twinkle-eyed King you could imagine" (The Horse and His Boy, pg. 154). This is no Stoic philosopher or brutal warlord. This is a flesh-and-blood man not about to let the joy of life pass him by (I am sure he thoroughly enjoyed his feasting days). He welcomes Shasta instantly and is warm in his interactions towards his children, his court, the Narnians, and even Rabadash, his traitorous enemy. He is truly, as Shasta so eloquently calls him, "an absolute brick" (pg. 205).
But do not let all this laughing, hugging, and welcoming fool you. If there is a battle to be fought, King Lune will not mess around. He defeats the bloodthirsty Calormenes in battle, including one of their finest warriors in hand-to-hand combat. He deals with Rabadash mercifully but forthrightly. He is unmoved by his insolence and prevents Edmund from fighting him, declaring the Calormene prince "one rather to be whipped by the hangman than to be suffered to cross swords with any person of honor" (pg. 194). Consider the mic dropped.
King Lune's finest contribution is his definition of kingship. In describing the office to his son Shasta, the future king of Archenland, Lune proclaims,
"For this is what it means to be a king: to be first in every desperate attack and last in every desperate retreat, and when there's hunger in the land (as must be now and then in bad years) to wear finer clothes and laugh louder over a scantier meal than any man in your land" (pg. 223).
I would encourage any reader to purchase The Horse and His Boy if it was only to catch this idea. John Piper says that "books don't change people, paragraphs do". Sentences like these encapsulate a vision for life, a mindset towards joy and sorrow, feast and famine. King Lune recognized that being a king meant taking the lead at the table and on the battlefield. The one who rules well is at the forefront of the danger (or the rearguard of it in some cases).
Joe Rigney provides this excellent summary of the idea: "First in, last out, laughing loudest." His book Live Like a Narnian is short and substantial. He covers this thought in more detail in chapter 12 (check it out here). I am indebted to him for expounding on the lessons to be learned from King Lune and how they should shape us as husbands, fathers, and leaders. We fight but we fight with joy. We are at the point of attack and the center of the laughter. That is our duty and our privilege.
Chances are that you will never ascend to the position of monarch (unless you are the long lost son of the king of Liechtenstein). But God has put you in charge of something. There is some jurisdiction where you can apply this approach. In the sphere God has placed you in, fight and laugh. Charge in the fray because He has already charged and conquered. Laugh because He is laughing right now. This shows a trust in God's kingship. He laughs because the battle has already been decided (Psalm 2:4). And trust in the great King is the mark of a good king (and a good Christian).
Lewis, C.S. The Horse and His Boy, HarperTrophy, 1994.