JRR Tolkien’s masterpiece The Lord of the Rings has stood the test of time for many reasons. Tolkien’s trilogy asks important questions about power, despair, hope, and courage. At the heart of Tolkien’s vision for navigating our treacherous world is friendship.
JRR Tolkien had an elevated view of friendship. For years, he met with an informal group of literary friends called the Inklings at the Oxford pub, the Eagle and The Eagle and the Child (or, as the group called it, “The Bird and the Baby). Tolkien and CS Lewis were fast friends. Tolkien’s Ent Treebeard was fashioned after Lewis, and Lewis likely fashioned his protagonist Ransom in his Space Trilogy on Tolkien.
Both were shaped by The Great War, their love of languages and myths, and by their devotion to Christ. Tolkien, in fact, was crucial in Lewis’s conversion. In 1929 Lewis the atheist locked horns with the Christian Tolkien. In a debate that lasted until 3 a.m., Tolkien pressed Lewis that “Either this man [Jesus] was and is the Son of God, or else he is a liar, a lunatic, or a fraud.” It was then that Lewis “gave in, and admitted that God was God, and knelt and prayed: perhaps, that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England.”
Tolkien’s value of friendship is found throughout The Lord of the Rings. The strength of the fellowship is found in unlikely friends, bound by trust. The core friendship is, of course, Frodo and Sam’s relationship. As Frodo and Sam near Mount Doom and the heart-wrenching conclusion of their journey to destroy the ring, Sam tells Frodo,
By rights we shouldn’t even be here. But we are. It’s like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger, they were. And sometimes you didn’t want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day must come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn’t. They kept going. Because they were holding onto something. That there’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo, and it’s worth fighting for.
Sam carries Frodo the final leg of the journey when Frodo has no strength left. Of all the good things worth fighting for, I would imagine Tolkien would put friendship near the top of that list.
For the past seven years, I’ve served as co-lead pastor at New Life Bible Fellowship alongside my friend Greg Lavine. It is a gift to be able to share the responsibility and call of leadership with a partner. My decade back in Tucson has been marked by more friendships across churches than I have ever experienced. At the heart of my friendships is a covenant group of five pastors who meet monthly and take two retreats a year.
In short, I’ve never had deeper friendships in ministry than I have today.
When I recently rewatched Peter Jackson’s film adaptation of The Lord of the Rings, I was surprised how emotional the movies made me. I’ve read and watched these stories several times over, and yet, I felt nuances in the friendships I had never seen before. Each of the nine members of the fellowship brought their own strengths and weaknesses to the ring. Gandalf the wizard brings leadership and wisdom. Aragorn and Boromir are humans and are courageous and strategic. Gimli the dwarf is also dauntless and loyal. These first four members of the fellowship can all be proud and tempted by power. Legolas the elf is swift and lethal in battle, but also can be haughty. The four hobbits compose the final four members: Pippin and Merry are adventurous and fun-loving, but both can be foolish. Sam is loyal and brave, but can also be suspicious. Frodo is brave and understanding, but also caves to the temptation to wield power. These nine friends are bound together in love and loyalty against all odds. And they emerge victorious.
God, in his grace, has also ringed me with friendships. Each friend brings their own unique strength into my life. Each offers something to me beyond what I naturally possess: wisdom, grace, compassion, mercy, courage, patience, generosity, hope.
God has granted each one of us a mission and a fellowship for that mission. Without that ring of fellowship, we stand no chance of fulfilling God’s calling on our lives. With the ring of fellowship through the power of the Spirit, we cannot fail. As Paul says to the church at Philippi, “He who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it” (Phil. 1:6).
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