The Chronicles of Narnia is getting positive reviews from many sources. But not everyone likes the film.
In The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, the children hear someone say, mysteriously, "Aslan is on the move". C. S. Lewis writes: "Now a very curious thing happened. None of the children knew who Aslan was any more than you do; but the moment the Beaver had spoken these words everyone felt quite different. Perhaps it has sometimes happened to you in a dream that someone says something which you don’t understand but in the dream it feels as if it had enormous meaning ..."
Polly Toynbee strenuously objects. She doesn’t like it at all. Polly Toynbee is apparently an atheist who writes for “The Guardian” in London. On Monday, December 5, 2005, her opinion of Narnia appeared under the title, ’Narnia represents everything that is most hateful about religion’. The summary of the article says: “Children won’t get the Christian subtext, but unbelievers should keep a sickbag handy during Disney’s new epic.” (http://www.guardian.co.uk/Columnists/Column/0,5673,1657942,00.html )
Here is part of what she wrote:
“Lewis said he hoped the book would soften-up religious reflexes and "make it easier for children to accept Christianity when they met it later in life". Holiness drenches the Chronicles…..So Lewis weaves his dreams to invade children’s minds with Christian iconography that is part fairytale wonder and joy - but heavily laden with guilt, blame, sacrifice and a suffering that is dark with emotional sadism.
Children are supposed to fall in love with the hypnotic Aslan, though he is not a character: he is pure, raw, awesome power. He is an emblem for everything an atheist objects to in religion. His divine presence is a way to avoid humans taking responsibility for everything here and now on earth, where no one is watching, no one is guiding, no one is judging and there is no other place yet to come. Without an Aslan, there is no one here but ourselves to suffer for our sins, no one to redeem us but ourselves: we are obliged to settle our own disputes and do what we can. We need no holy guide books, only a very human moral compass. Everyone needs ghosts, spirits, marvels and poetic imaginings, but we can do well without an Aslan.”
In French, they have a term for Polly Toynbee’s column, “lese majesty”: “an offense against a sovereign power; an attack against someone’s dignity or against a custom or institution held sacred.”
The Bible points out this attitude among the unbelieving peoples of this world:
Psalm 10:13—“Why does the wicked man revile God? Why does he say to himself, "He won’t call me to account"?”
Psalm 73:7-11—“From …[the] callous hearts [of the wicked] comes iniquity; the evil conceits of their minds know no limits. 8 They scoff, and speak with malice; in their arrogance they threaten oppression. 9 Their mouths lay claim to heaven, and their tongues take possession of the earth. 10 Therefore their people turn to them and drink up waters in abundance. 11 They say, "How can God know? Does the Most High have knowledge?"”
Psalm 14:1-3—“The fool {[1] The Hebrew words rendered fool in Psalms denote one who is morally deficient.}says in his heart, "There is no God." They are corrupt, their deeds are vile; there is no one who does good. 2 The LORD looks down from heaven on the sons of men to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God. 3 All have turned aside, they have together become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one.”
Paul quoted those verses in Romans 3 and applied them to all of us. There is no one who seeks God. Every one of us has turned away from God. Apart from God’s grace, no one would be saved.
In Mary’s song of praise to God, sometimes called the Magnificat, in Luke 1:46-55, she says,
“His mercy extends to those who fear him, from generation to generation. 51 He has performed mighty deeds with his arm; he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts” (50-51).
Elizabeth’s husband, Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, in his song of praise in Luke 1:67-79, says,
69 [God] has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David …72 to show mercy to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant” (69, 72).
In the high school Sunday School room here in our church is a poster with the heading, “And he shall be called…”—called what? The angel who spoke to Joseph in a dream (Matthew 1:20-21), told him, "Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins."
Jesus is the Greek form of the Hebrew name Yehoshua, (in English, Joshua), which means “the LORD saves”. He shall be called…Jesus.
On that poster that I mentioned, there are 53 different names and descriptions of Jesus from the Bible. Think about that! Some people have nicknames, but 53 of them?!
One of them that I would like us to think about today is found in Revelation 5:5:
Then one of the elders said to me, "Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, … has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals."
The setting is the throne room of heaven. In Revelation 4:1, John is invited to “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.”
In verse 2, John tells us, “At once I was in the Spirit, and there before me was a throne in heaven…”
What John sees is almost overwhelming to him:
• the one who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian (3).
• A rainbow, resembling an emerald, encircled the throne (3).
• Surrounding the throne were 24 other thrones, (4)
• and seated on them were 24 elders. They were dressed in white and had crowns of gold on their heads (4)
• From the throne came flashes of lightning, rumblings and peals of thunder. (5)
• Before the throne, seven lamps were blazing. These are the seven spirits {[5] Or the sevenfold Spirit}of God. (5)
• Also before the throne there was what looked like a sea of glass, clear as crystal (6)
• In the center, around the throne, were four living creatures, and they were covered with eyes, in front and in back. 7 The first living creature was like a lion, the second was like an ox, the third had a face like a man, the fourth was like a flying eagle. 8 Each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all around, even under his wings. Day and night they never stop saying: "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come." (6-8)
9 Whenever the living creatures give glory, honor and thanks to him who sits on the throne and who lives for ever and ever, 10 the twenty-four elders fall down before him who sits on the throne, and worship him who lives for ever and ever. They lay their crowns before the throne and say:
11 "You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being."
Then we come to ch. 5. John sees something else:
5:1 Then I saw in the right hand of him who sat on the throne a scroll with writing on both sides and sealed with seven seals. 2 And I saw a mighty angel proclaiming in a loud voice,
"Who is worthy to break the seals and open the scroll?"
3 But no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth could open the scroll or even look inside it.
What was this scroll?
“The following chapters in the book of Revelation indicate that it is the scroll containing the secrets of our world’s affairs and its history.” (Richard Bewes, The Lamb Wins!, 46)
The search for someone who is worthy to break the seals and open the scroll is “for someone who is worthy to perform the supreme service of bringing history to its [God-ordained end].” (cf. Robert H. Mounce, Revelation, 143)
Who is worthy to do such a thing? Who is worthy to bring history to its end?
John tells us (4),
“I wept and wept because no one was found who was worthy to open the scroll or look inside. 5 Then one of the elders said to me, "Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals."
Who is worthy to someday bring history to its close? The Lion of the tribe of Judah is worthy!
We don’t need a dictionary to tell us that a lion is “a large, carnivorous feline mammal, Panthera leo, of Africa and India, having a short tawny coat and a long, heavy mane around the neck and shoulders in the male” (American Heritage Dictionary).
Sometimes, we use the word “lion” as a figure of speech to describe “a person thought to resemble a lion, as in bravery, or ferocity”. Sometimes, “lion” is used to refer to “a person of great eminence or prestige” (American Heritage Dictionary).
Figures of speech are helpful tools for us to describe people and what they are like. We use figures of speech to describe what we can expect from their character and their actions.
In Genesis 49:9-10, Jacob used this figure of speech to describe his son Judah:
“You are a lion’s cub, O Judah; you return from the prey, my son. Like a lion he crouches and lies down, like a lioness--who dares to rouse him? 10 The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until he comes to whom it belongs and the obedience of the nations is his.”
…Jewish people usually applied the image of the Lion from Judah, in Genesis 49:9-10, to the … Messiah. They believed that this was a prophecy about the coming Messiah. For example, 4 Ezra 12:31-32 (cf. 11:37-38)—
“[11:37] And I looked, and behold, a creature like a lion was aroused out of the forest, roaring; and I heard how he uttered a man’s voice … and spoke, saying,
[38] "Listen and I will speak to you….
[12:31] "And as for the lion whom you saw …
[32] this is the Messiah whom the Most High has kept until the end of days, who will arise from the posterity of David….)…”
(Craig S. Keener, Revelation (NIVAC), 186-187). The Jews understood Genesis 49:9-10 as a prophetic word about their coming king from the line of David, a descendant of Judah:
Jeremiah prophesied (23:5): “"The days are coming," declares the LORD, "when I will raise up to David {[5] Or up from David’s line} a righteous Branch, a King who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land.”
“…See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals."
He is worthy to open the scroll! He is worthy to bring history to a close! John turns to look at this mighty lion. Instead, he tells us:
6 … I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing in the center of the throne…”
The story of Christmas, like much of the Bible, gives us some unexpected turns. The Jews expected a mighty king. They found a helpless baby, born to a peasant girl. They expected a strong deliverer. They found an infant laying in a feeding trough. They looked for a lion. They were told, “Look, the Lamb of God (John 1:36).”
Some of our Christmas songs have lyrics such as:
• “Sweet, little Jesus boy…”
• “…the little Lord Jesus lay down his sweet head…”
• “Holy Infant, so tender and mild”
These phrases remind us of the precious truth of the Incarnation:
John 1:14—“The Word became flesh ….”
Hebrews 2:17—“… he had to be made like his brothers in every way…”
Philippians 2:6-7—“Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, 7 but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.”
Our Savior laid aside his glory to become one of us.
But let us not grow overly sentimental in our thinking. Let us not separate the little baby helplessly lying in the manger from the triumphant Lord who rose from the grave on the third day after being crucified for our sins.
Polly Toynbee dislikes the lion in C. S. Lewis’s Narnia. She writes, “…the hypnotic Aslan … is pure, raw, awesome power… we can do well without an Aslan.””.
The power of a lion can be a scary thing. It’s the kind of awesome power we read about in Psalm 2:
Psalm 2:2, 4-12—“The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the LORD and against his Anointed One…4 The One enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord scoffs at them. 5 Then he rebukes them in his anger and terrifies them in his wrath, saying, 6 "I have installed my King on Zion, my holy hill."
7 I will proclaim the decree of the LORD: He said to me, "You are my Son; today I have become your Father. 8 Ask of me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession. 9 You will rule them with an iron scepter; you will dash them to pieces like pottery."
10 Therefore, you kings, be wise; be warned, you rulers of the earth. 11 Serve the LORD with fear and rejoice with trembling. 12 Kiss the Son, lest he be angry and you be destroyed in your way, for his wrath can flare up in a moment. Blessed are all who take refuge in him.”
Polly Toynbee is right. Aslan is powerful. Awesome power can be frightening.
But Polly Toynbee is wrong when she implies that God’s power is to be mistrusted. Such awesome power is the most wonderful thing in the world when it works for you. That is the message of Christmas:
“Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.” (Luke 2:11)
“…If God be for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?” (Romans 8:31b-32)
In Lewis’s story, Mr. Beaver is asked if Aslan is safe.
“Safe?” said Mr. Beaver. Don’t you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.”
