Don Friesen
I want to express my appreciation to Moira T and Bill J for helping out with the worship service last Sunday, in my unexpected absence. I heard that several people were concerned that the lion remains on the loose, so I thought it best to see what I can do about this mighty animal.
Lions mostly roam in Asia and Africa; the irony is that the four months I spent in southern Africa I saw not one lion. The lion is a large beast, weighing over 250 kilograms, often called the "king of beasts," or the "king of the jungle," the second-largest living cat, and the tallest! The lion is also a prominent icon, conveying strength, power, and nobility. It is a common symbol of royalty and stateliness.
The Scriptures are ambivalent about lions, although not passively ambivalent. Whether used as a negative metaphor or a positive metaphor, the mighty power of the lion is a given. There are many passages emphasizing the ferocity of the lion, and while Samson, David and others are credited with killing lions (Judges 14:6; 1 Samuel 17:34-36; 2 Samuel 23:20) without the benefit of modern safari firepower many others did not fare so well. (1 Kings 13:24; 20:36; 2 Kings 17:25) The lion appears in the Bible as a bold, destructive creature, the bane of the flock, one passage describing a shepherd rescuing two legs and a piece of an ear from the mouth of a lion. (Amos 3:12) Proverbs says that the lion "is mightiest among wild animals and does not turn back before any...." (Proverbs 30:30)
The psalmist maintains that the fear lions instill is very real. The lion, the psalmist cautions, can tear one apart, and drag one away, with no one to come to our rescue! (Psalm 7:2) He compares his enemies to a lion, saying, "They are like a lion eager to tear, like a young lion lurking in ambush." (17:12) It gets worse: Psalm 57 "I lie down among lions that greedily devour human prey; their teeth are spears and arrows, their tongues sharp swords." (57:4) Who cannot imagine the terror of Daniel when the king threatened to throw into a den of lions? (Daniel 6:16) And the literary coup de grβce is the comparison of the devil to a lion. "Keep alert," advises 1 Peter, "(for) like a roaring lion your adversary the devil prowls around, looking for someone to devour." (1 Peter 5:8)
A Strange Choice for a Christ Figure?
It seems a little strange, then, that C.S. Lewis (1898-1963) would choose a lion as the Christ-figure in his novel, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (1950), the first book in The Chronicles of Narnia. Aslan, a lion, is the ruler of Narnia, although not at first, because the White Witch has proclaimed herself the Queen of Narnia. She's a tyrant, the effect of her evil rule such that for a hundred years in Narnia it is "always winter but never Christmas".
Aslan, a lion, is the good guy, the redeemer. I find it puzzling, however, that Lewis chose a lion for this character. Lewis confessed that when he began writing he had little idea how the story would go but then suddenly Aslan came bounding into it. "I don't know where the lion came from or why He came," said Lewis. "But once he was there, he pulled the whole story together, and soon He pulled the six other Narnian stories in after Him." (C.S. Lewis. On Stories: And Other Essays on Literature. 1982, page 53) Lewis wrote his books for children, and the children loved the lion. Children had no problem developing both reverence and affection for Aslan. The lion, after all, is a big cat, and Lewis depicted Aslan romping and playing merrily with children. Also, Aslan was a talking animal, so what's not to love?
There is, of course, some biblical basis for a positive portrayal of a lion. Not all mention of lions in the Scriptures is negative. In Genesis we read:
(Genesis 49:9, NIRV)
Lewis also sprinkles his Chronicles with various biblical allusions. For example, the book of Genesis tells us that God breathed into our nostrils the breath of life, and we became living beings. (Genesis 2:7) Lewis wrote, "The lion opened his mouth... breathing out a long, warm breath (which) seemed to sway all the beasts as the wind sways a line of trees." (Magician's Nephew, pages 125-126)
Aslan Is on the Move!
Now, I confess that I have not read the Narnia series. Dorothy read them all to our children, however, and I eavesdropped. The general story of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is that Narnia has fallen under the evil spell of the White Witch, who, when provoked, turns her opponents to stone with a wave of her wand. Her castle is filled with stone statues people who opposed her.
In the midst of the White Witch's chilly rule, the beavers of Narnia recall a prophecy regarding the true king of Narnia a great lion called Aslan who has been absent for many years but who is now "on the move again". Eventually Aslan bargains to exchange his own life for the life of one of the children. Aslan dies, but the following morning he is restored to life; for unbeknownst to the witch, "deeper magic from before the dawn of time" allows someone who willingly dies in the place of another to be returned to life.
Sounds very much like an Easter Lion! A lion who died for us, but who is again on the move. Rumours of hope begin circulating in Narnia. Aslan is on the move! Aslan travels to the Witch's castle, where he breathes upon the stone statues and also restores them to life!
One of the children, fearful of meeting Aslan, asked: "Is he quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion."
"That you will, Dearie, and no mistake,'" said Mrs. Beaver, if there's anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they're either braver than most or else just silly.'"
"Then he isn't safe?" asked the child.
"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.'" (The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, page 77)
The Leonine Character of God
Worrying about our safety in the presence of the Lion of Judah is reasonable. In the Gospels of Matthew and Mark fear is the predominant response to the resurrection (Matthew 28:4, 5, 8, 10; Mark 16:18) fear, perhaps, that it just might be true! That kind of power is frightening! Worse than scaring you to death, it could scare you to life! Imagine the power of fearless Christians!
Charles Haddon Spurgeon was once asked why he didn't defend the Bible against its naysayers, critics, and skeptics. He is purported to have said, "The gospel is like a caged lion. It does not need to be defended, it just needs to be let out of its cage." The gospel would not be good news without the resurrection, and once the power of the resurrection is unleashed, there is no taming it! A lion will be what a lion was designed to be a lion!
C.S. Lewis was on to something when he chose a lion as the symbol of Christ. His lion is a wonderful figure combining a powerful kingly nature with intimate friendliness, holiness with gentleness, fearsomeness with kindness. All of these things are on the loose, and cannot be controlled. With great stealth and cunning the Lion of Judah pursues our souls, much like the Francis Thompson's Hound of Heaven pursued him:
("Hound of Heaven," The Oxford Book of English Mystical Verse, 1917)
The Revelation passage is intriguing, not a little puzzling, and somewhat reminiscent of the same two animals co-existing peacefully in Isaiah's vision. (Isaiah 11:6-7; 65:25) Ordinarily that little lamb sitting tranquilly in front of the lion would be a convenient little snack for the lion, but something quite unique is afoot. The Lion is on the loose, with his sidekick, the Lamb-that-was-slain, together defying our conventional and to this point in human history, disastrous expectations and methods of living together harmoniously on this planet!
The Lion's Power and Prowess Is at Work!
That the Lion of Judah on the loose means that things are not the same as before , and that was certainly the case for the disciples, who were transformed from a community of fear to a community of bold and compelling witness! One day they were a disoriented and demoralized group huddled in fear, the next day they themselves were loosed from their fear, and from their hopelessness. They came to life! They came out of hiding! They took off for Jerusalem and parts unknown, hit the streets, and told everyone: "Jesus lives! Death cannot contain him!" The Lion of Judah is uncaged! And as we read on in Acts we discover that neither ridicule, nor arrest, nor beatings, nor even death could shut them up!
Simon Peter is a good example of this amazing transformation. Early on in Jesus' ministry Peter was not all that helpful. His understanding of Jesus was inadequate. One minute he would say something that made you think that this guy's really got it! Then the next moment you realized that he actually had a firm grasp of very little. A little more than a week ago Peter declared that he would be absolutely loyal to Jesus, and then that wretched rooster started crowing.
Peter was out to lunch at the Last Supper. He was out to lunch at the foot-washing service. He was out to lunch in the Garden of Gethsemane actually, he was completely out of it in the Garden of Gethsemane, having fallen asleep when Jesus needed him most. But with the Lion on the loose Peter changed, and he too was on the move. As the book of Acts recounts one crisis after another, Peter steps up to the plate and takes charge! He's matured into a disciple of even-temperedness and decisive action. Who would have thought? Peter's transformation is remarkable! Though earlier Peter misunderstood Jesus so often and by so much, it's Peter that pushes the fledgling movement into a most significant transition, resulting in Gentiles joining the Church.
The tomb is empty and Jesus is on the move. He is no longer constrained by human limitations. He comes to us in unexpected ways, in unexpected places, in people in whom we would least expect Jesus' spirit to take up residence. Some of his closest disciples didn't even recognize him after the resurrection. (Emmaus)
God Was on the Move in Lewis' Life
C.S. Lewis' ability to craft a Christ-figure that combined those leonine and lamblike qualities took special insight, but then the Lion of Judah was also on the move in Lewis' life. As a young man he did not considere himself a believer, but he began to realize that the literature he loved most had been written by Christians. As a child Lewis loved fairy stories, legends, and myths, particularly the myths of the Norsemen. They filled him with great joy and a longing a longing later fed by other great works of imagination. He read G. K. Chesterton, John Milton, Edmund Spenser, Samuel Johnson, John Donne, and other classic authors. Much to his own surprise and with great reluctance Lewis found his thinking beginning to shift, to a vague belief in a universal power of goodness, eventually admitting that there is a God who made all things and who upholds the world. With all sorts of reservations, Lewis began to think seriously about the Christian faith held by the writers he loved, and he gradually moved to the point of giving intellectual assent to Christian teaching.
In the fall of 1931 Lewis had a long discussion with two close friends, one of whom was J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973), author of his own fantasy works, The Lord of the Rings, and such. Lewis confessed to his friends that he could not see what possible meaning Christ's life, death, and resurrection could have for him two millennia after the events. Tolkien replied that the gospel works in a similar way to how myths worked in Lewis' own world-view. Lewis had no problem being moved by myths and legends but, he replied, "they are lies breathed through silver." Tolkien explained that they are not completely lies; rather, myths contain kernels of truth within the distortions and unworthy outer husks they often wear. Myths, said Tolkien, are echoes or memories of the truth that God originally made known to Adam and Eve. There are in myths memories of paradise, when the world was not stained by human rebellion. They reflect the shame and tragedy of human existence, but there are also hints of the hope of redemption, of the setting right of all things. The gospel is the true myth, said Tolkien, and on and on went the conversation. I would have loved to be a fly on the wall that evening. Their conversation was a significant turning point in Lewis' life; a few days later he came to faith in Christ, and found the joy for which he had been longing and looking. (The phrasing of this conversation borrows heavily from "Echoes of Eden in C.S. Lewis's The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe," Covenant, Spring 2006)
May the Lion of Judah Move in our Midst
The Lion is on the move, and stealthily pursues even those who thought they had him safely caged. Catherine Wallace, a writer and professor of English who has mused on the new generation of fantasy literature by J. K. Rowling ("Harry Potter and the Bullies," The Christian Century, July 18-25, 2001, pages 18-21), says that after high school she was only too happy to shake the dust of religious education off her sandals. She went off to university, and quit going to church, greatly relieved that she was done with religion." ("Call Waiting: The Comic Incompetence of Gideon," a lecture by Catherine M. Wallace)
Years later Wallace was teaching a Great Books course at the university; it included readings from the Bible, of course. She had a passing familiarity with its stories, but she had never read the Scriptures with adult imagination. She confesses that she was very earnest about being an English professor and considered herself invulnerable to these silly old stories. On one particular morning, however, Wallace sat in her office, re-reading the assignment for that day's class, which included the story of God speaking to Moses from the burning bush. In the story Moses and God argue about who's going to rescue God's people who are suffering under the yoke of the Pharaoh. God wants Moses to do it and Moses wants somebody else to do it! Wallace writes, "God comes across as persistent, patient, and affectionate. Zeus, I thought to myself, has thunderbolts for mortals like Moses. As gods go, this character Yahweh seems pretty strange. He is practically pleading." Moses claimed to be inarticulate, though he appeared to hold his own in arguing with God! God assures Moses that, when the time comes, God will put words in Moses' mouth.
Wallace writes, "I found myself urging Moses forward. Maybe all this other stuff is silly magic tricks,' I felt myself arguing, but you can trust this business of finding words in your mouth. That's real. God does that all the time, trust me. God puts words in my mouth all the time.'" When Wallace realized her deep engagement with the story, she was shocked. "I sat there for a solid hour," she writes, "unable to continue reading, unable to prepare the class I was supposed to teach, my brains frozen or locked up, as if some cerebral computer had just crashed."
She walked over to her classroom at the usual time, still unable to think, unable to think about being unable to think, merely knowing it was time to go to class. She stepped up to the lectern and took a deep breath and nothing happened. Nothing at all. The more attentive students began to stare. She tried again. Still nothing. Now the whole class was staring forty undergraduates, sitting there with spiral notebooks. "With an inner laugh," she writes, "I gave in. OK, God,' I heard myself thinking, you win. Ok.'" It was the beginning of an awakening of faith for her. ("Call Waiting: The Comic Incompetence of Gideon," March, 1995)
The Lion the Risen Christ is on the loose, among sinners like us, and working through sinners like us. The Lion is on the move when a young person makes a commitment to Christ, and to the Christian community, through baptism. The Lion is on the move when justice is established in spite of our selfishness. When the Lion on the loose, lions do lie down with lambs; and peace begins to pervade our world despite our hurry to reach for weapons and punishment. Christ is on the loose in order to loose us from every cage which constrains us. Christ is on the loose, calling us away from fear and toward hope, to a world of unleashed imagination and new possibilities!
Christ, the Lion of Judah, is on the loose, but that's okay this lion should remain on the loose, and move mightily in our hearts and in our world. AMEN
"Judah, you are like a lion's cub.
Like a lion's cub, like a lion, like a mother lion, both fierce and motherly! The prophet Hosea also portrays God as a lion, who when She roars, Her children return to Her. (Hosea 11:10) The book of Revelation announces: "Don't cry. Look! The Lion from Judah's tribe, the great descendant of David, has won the victory, and he can break the seven seals and open the scroll." (Revelation 5:5. TEV) The Lion of Judah is the Conqueror of sin and death.
You return from hunting....
Like a lion, you lie down and sleep.
You are like a mother lion. Who dares to wake you...?"
"...with unhurrying chase,
It took C.S. Lewis' literary artistry to craft a character that is both hunter and shepherd, both fierce and gentle, both cunning and compassionate, both triumphant and vulnerable. One of the intriguing things about our reading from Revelation is that it is the Lion of Judah that comes to the suffering Church (Revelation 5:5) a very welcome sight, for the powerful Lion of Judah will set things aright but then the Lion morphs into a Lamb (5:6, 8, 12 and 13), and it is to the Lamb that the people sing their praises. Expecting a lion the powerful and fierce king of beasts, and equal to taking on the world's tyrants it morphs into a Lamb bearing the marks of sacrifice. In this vision John sees not the lion who slaughters, but the Lamb who was slain. Responding to the conventional hope that power and force is best met by power and force, John, instead, sees sacrificial love as the only power which can triumph over sin and death.
And unperturbed pace,
Deliberate speed, majestic instancy ...
Fear wist not to evade, as Love wist to pursue."
Quotations of Scripture are from the New Revised Standard Version, unless otherwise noted.