Advent - Watch Out for Aslan

This December the movie-going public will once again be given a taste of the Land of Narnia as The Voyage of the Dawntreader comes to the Big Screen. Actually the 5th book of the Narnia series, it is the 3rd to be made into a movie in the last few years.

Now, I’m a Narnia fan from way back, reading the series for the first time when I was 19 (I know, a little old, but had never encountered them until I heard about C.S. Lewis at the Intervarstity Christian book table at S.F.U.).  I guess what I’ve loved most of all about the books (having read them as a Christian) is their beautifully crafted allegory of the Bible. In The Magician’s Nephew, we saw Creation. In the Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, we saw Calvary and the Resurrection so eloquently symbolized. The imagery doesn’t end, and in fact, is quite powerful in ‘Dawntreader’. The recent M.B. Herald issue has a series of articles by Randy Klassen pointing some of these out, and I recommend reading them, either in hand or on line – from August through November so far.

But having just read the book in anticipation of the movie, I thought I’d share some of the moving moments in which we see Aslan as the Christ of our Scriptures.

Lucy, Edmund, Caspian (among others), and cousin Eustace (who undergoes a powerful conversion experience thanks to the Great Lion) sail eastward on the Dawntreader in search of lost Kings who were seeking the End of the World, where Aslan’s country is. At the climax of the book, having encountered Aslan a few times throughout the book, there is a tremendously moving re-visitation of John 21, where Jesus reinstates Peter on the shores of Galilee.

The children wade out of the Sea of Lilies onto the shore, where they encounter a Lamb so white, “that even with their eagles’ eyes they could hardly look at it”.

“Then they noticed for the first time that there was a fire lit on the grass and fish roasting on it. They sad down and ate the fish, hungry now for the first time for many days. And it was the most delicious food they had ever tasted.

‘There is a way into my country from all the worlds; said the Lamb; but as he spoke his snowy white flushed into tawny gold and his size changed and he was Aslan himself, towering above them and scattering light from mane.”

The children continue to ask questions of Aslan, and he informs Lucy that she and her brother are now too old to come back. She is heartbroken, and sobbing, saying,

“’How can we live, never meeting you?’

‘I am,’ said Aslan. ‘But there I have another name. You must learn to know me by that name.’

We know Jesus by His many titles: among them are The Christ, the Lion of Judah, and the Lamb of God. But it is only with the heart of a child, as Jesus told us in Matthew 18:3, that we could ever see the Kingdom of God. So it’s not such a stretch to think that children would be the ones to find Aslan’s country – the Royal Kingdom.

This Christmas, rediscover the ‘heart of a child’, not only with the way we view the seasonal celebrations, but also with the attitude of one seeking a King who can restore, heal, and give hope to a heart that is filled with the burden of sin and the scars of living.

And maybe take some time to read ‘Dawntreader’ (or visit the cinema), and let C.S. Lewis remind you of the hope that ‘fills our sails’ on the journey of life when we set a course for our Saviour’s dwelling place!

You can find the M.B. Herald articles about The Voyage of the Dawntreader at this website.

All excerpts from “The Voyage of the Dawntreader”, by C.S. Lewis; Fontana Lions (Collins); London, 1955; pp.186-188.