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Easter 09

The Easter Lion

We showed three films over the half term holiday at St Peter's, two of which are based on the Narnia stories by C. S. Lewis. I really enjoyed seeing The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe again, partly because it was one of my favourite children's books. My Dad read the Narnia stories to me chapter by chapter, night after night, and I can still remember some of the emotions I felt then at hearing the stories for the first time.

 I remember the wonderful sense of hope that came with Aslan's arrival in Narnia. The four children – Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy – have gone through the wardrobe and discovered this whole other world of Narnia, a land that is deep in the thrall of the White Witch's spell, a land where it is “always winter and never Christmas”. Together with the children we hear of Aslan for the first time, the great lion, the son of the Emperor-beyond-the-sea, the one who will destroy the Witch's power.

As they journey on they encounter Father Christmas – at last allowed back into Narnia – and they see signs everywhere of the coming of Spring, the beginning of the end of the Witch's oppression. Then they meet Aslan for themselves – well, three of them do.

Edmund is not there, for he has betrayed them, making a pact with the Witch to deliver his brother and sisters into her power. Too late, he realizes the full horror of what he has done, the true nature of the Witch who had beguiled him with promises of power and plenty.

Edmund is set free by Aslan's troops, but then the Witch comes to the Lion with her demand. The “Deep Magic” that the Emperor put into Narnia at its beginning states that every traitor belongs to her to be put to death: if no blood is shed “all Narnia will be overturned and perish in fire and water”.

And so it is that Aslan comes to an agreement with the Witch – one that took me totally by surprise when the book was first read to me. Meekly, submissively, setting aside his own great power, he allows himself to be killed by the Witch in Edmund's place, surrounded by the jeers and mockery of his enemies. From their hiding-place Lucy and Susan are there to witness his terrible sacrifice and now it seems all hope is lost: the Witch has won. They fall asleep, worn out with grief.

The morning after, as they leave the Stone Table on which Aslan was slain, they hear a loud cracking noise and turn to see the Table split in two. Aslan's body is nowhere to be seen. Is this more magic?, they wonder.

'“Yes!” said a great voice behind their backs. “It is more magic.” They looked round. There, shining in the sunrise, larger than they had seen him before, shaking his mane... stood Aslan himself.'

Not a ghost, but flesh and blood – as real, as tangible as he was before. How could this be? Aslan explains:

'“...though the Witch knew the Deep Magic, there is a magic deeper still which she did not know....if she could have looked a little further back, into the stillness and the darkness before Time dawned, she would have read there a different incantation. She would have known that when a willing victim who had committed no treachery was killed in a traitor's stead, the Table would crack and Death itself would start working backwards.”'

I remember Aslan's words virtually every Easter morning. Of course Lewis was writing a children's story, but he was concerned with more than a simple fiction. Through Aslan's death and resurrection, he speaks of Jesus, the One in whom Lewis himself had come to trust and believe.

Each human being is in Edmund's position – beguiled by dreams of power and plenty, in thrall to evil, our doom is death and separation from the presence of God. But Jesus died in our place, his blood shed instead of ours, to set us free to live for him and share in his resurrection. Every Easter we remember that death is a defeated enemy, that the 'deeper magic' of God's love and grace means that we have hope for ourselves and for this world. The invitation to each one of us is to receive that mercy and life from him – no one else can do that on our behalf. Happy Easter.

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