The Greatest Sacraments
Abby Harris
Just as Aslan was dragged and bound to the Stone Table in Narnia, Jesus was bound to the cross in Jerusalem. Evil watched and surrounded the scenes as both were crucified as a result of their righteous sacrifice. C.S. Lewis uses symbolism in his characters and stories in his novel, The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe to create a modern allegory of the Christian Bible, therefore highlighting the Christian tradition of reading the Bible allegorically, as seen in symbolic meanings of the Old and New Testament. Aslan, the creator and one true king of Narnia is a clear symbol of Jesus Christ in his representation as well as his narrative. Along with the allegory that C.S. Lewis installs in his novel, allegory can be seen throughout the Bible, especially in the narrative of the crossing of the Red Sea in Exodus as a prefiguration of Baptism or a Baptism in itself.
C.S. Lewis, a devout Christian and writer, suffused many of his works with Christian symbolism and biblical references, including his most famous of novels as part of the Chronicles of Narnia series, The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. In C.S. Lewis’s fictional world of Narnia, Aslan is the powerful, righteous creator and sovereign who ultimately sacrifices his life to save his people, therefore serving as an allegory for Jesus Christ, the powerful creator of heaven and earth. Throughout the novel, there are many notes of biblical symbolism, but the allegory is most apparent in the death and resurrection of Aslan in the climax of the novel. Aslan sacrifices himself in order to save one of the main characters, Edmund Pevensie (a “Son of Adam” (Lewis)), from the “deep magic” that declares that every traitor belongs to the White Witch for her to kill. In this way, the White Witch is an allegory for Satan, for whom sinners belong to when they are sent to Hell. Despite Edmund having already been forgiven for his sins by his family as well as Aslan, this novel as well as the Bible remind readers that there are consequences for sin. Like Jesus, Aslan himself is sinless, but is willing to sacrifice his own life for those who have sinned. In Jesus’s sacrifice in particular, He saved His people from sin and the detrimental hold that sin had over the world, and Aslan did the same- to save the people of Narnia from sin, the White Witch, and her evil reign.
When Aslan is brought to the Stone Table, the place of sacrifices in Narnia, he is bound with rope to the table, therefore representative of Jesus being tied to the cross. Furthermore, in both crucifixions, Jesus and Aslan are ridiculed, mocked, and shamed with evil there to witness their death- Aslan’s mane being shaved until he was unrecognizable as a mighty leader (Lewis Chapter 14) and Jesus being publicly mocked, stripped, beaten, spit on, and doubted by priests, scribes, and elders (King James Version with Apocrypha, St. Matthew 27). The Stone Table in Narnia can be seen as a symbol for the stone tablets that bared the Ten Commandments: “And the Lord delivered unto me two tables of stone, even the tables of stone written with the finger of God; and on them was written according to all the words, which the Lord spake with you in the mount of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly.” (Deuteronomy 9:10). The Ten Commandments on the stone tablets promised punishment for sin, inspiring C.S. Lewis to create the “deep magic” inscribed on the sides of the Stone Table in which in the end would be the impetus for Aslan’s resurrection: “If a willing Victim that has committed no treachery is killed in a traitor’s stead, the Stone Table will crack, and even death itself would turn backwards.” (Lewis Chapter 15). The deep magic, or “law” written on the Stone Table is symbolic of the written code of regulations inscribed on the stone tablets of the Ten Commandments for which the “rules” constitute the essence of religious spirit and tell Christians what God wants from his people and what to do to be a good Christian. Like in the Bible, the “deep magic” is the Emperor’s magic and is written on the Emperor’s scepter as a part of the very foundation of the Narnian creation at the dawn of time. The law of the Ten Commandments and the Stone Table is woven into the very fabric of the created order. The White Witch is ignorant and unaware of the deeper magic that the Emperor of Narnia established before the dawn of time. If the White Witch had known of this deeper magic, she would have known that Aslan’s sacrifice would have ended in his resurrection, as he was without treachery and sin. In the resurrection of Aslan, the Stone Table cracks in two creating a deafening noise, again representative of Jesus’s crucifixion in which “the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent” (Mark 15:38). The tearing in two of the temple can represent the barrier between God and his people whom were trapped within the complications of sin that burdened everyone. The bridge to God was the everlasting life in heaven and Jesus was the bridge. In the case of Narnia, the cracking of the Stone Table was also representative of the burden of sin, particularly in the case of Edmund’s treachery as well as the evil burdened by the White Witch to the people of Narnia. While Jesus’s resurrection took three days and Aslan’s was a matter of a few hours, Jesus and Aslan’s sacrifice provided redemption for all who believed and those like Edmund who needed forgiveness and redemption for his sin: “Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise form the dead the third day: and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.” (St. Luke 24: 46-47).
The last notable piece of allegory in the resurrection scene from the novel as well as in the Bible is when Lucy and Susan Pevensie (“Daughters of Eve” (Lewis)) are departing from the Stone Table after sitting with Aslan’s lifeless body for hours when they heard “a great cracking, deafening noise as if a giant had broken a giant’s plate” (Lewis Chapter 15). When they turned back around, they saw that the Stone Table had been broken in half and Aslan was no longer lying lifeless on the table. Then suddenly, Aslan appeared “shining in the sunrise, larger than they had seen him before, shaking his mane” (Lewis Chapter 15). The imagery created by C.S. Lewis of the shining sunrise surrounding Aslan’s resurrected body is representative of heaven, life, rebirth, and God who is the pillar of light. This scene from C.S. Lewis is representative of St. Mark chapter sixteen when Mary Magdalene and the other women go to visit the tomb of Christ only to find it empty (St. Mark 16:1-6), therefore further emphasizing the allegory established by C.S. Lewis in response to the Bible. Both the women in the Bible and the Pevensie sisters are initially instilled with fear and uncertainty, but the emotion that followed the fright was gladness and amazement.
It is clear from C.S. Lewis’s novel, The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, that Aslan is an allegorical representation of Jesus Christ because they are both powerful yet gentle, righteously angry yet compassionate, inspiring yet frightening, and are as beautiful as they are good.
Remarked as the greatest act of salvation in the Old Testament is God’s parting of the Red Sea, just as the resurrection of Jesus Christ in the New Testament can be noted as its greatest salvation. The crossing of the Red Sea as told in Exodus is often referred to by Christian commentators as an allegory for Baptism because of its purification, deliverance from evil, and a creation of a new existence for the Israelites. The redeeming action of sacrament is accomplished on different levels in Christian history- in the crossing of the Red Sea, in the death and resurrection of Christ, and in Baptism. While Baptism first originated on Easter night or the day of Jesus’s resurrection, it is often said that the crossing of the Red Sea was a “prophecy in action of the sacrament of Baptism” (DANIÉLOU 90). The deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt by Moses was an act of redemption and true “deliverance” from God is accomplished through Baptism. Redemption in Christianity is the “victory of Christ over the demon, the victory by which humanity is set free.” (DANIÉLOU 89). In the case of the crossing of the Red Sea in Exodus, the demon is Pharoah, and the Israelites are the servants of God who are victorious in crossing the sea without harm, while Pharaoh and his army are destroyed by the water. The Exodus from Egypt can also be seen as a Baptism because it marked “the end of slavery to sin and the entrance into a new existence” for the Hebrews (DANIÉLOU 88). The Israelites did not fear the Red Sea because it delivered them from the evils of the Egyptians. Another major allegory of the crossing of the Red Sea as a Baptism is the simple fact that Baptism is accomplish by the sign of water where sin is drowned, and innocence is saved which is exactly represented in the Exodus. When a person is Baptized with saving water, the devil is destroyed, and man is freed by divine grace (DANIÉLOU 98). In a moral reading of the passage in Exodus of the crossing of the Red Sea, as they were freed by divine grace, readers can have confidence that wickedness within loses all its harmfulness and poison after a Baptism. Pharoah, while being struck down many times, remained obstinate in his wickedness until he came to the waters and was destroyed. The Red Sea when analyzed as an allegory to Baptism can be seen as a baptismal sea.
God is often regarded as the pillar of light, and Baptism as an illumination. Like the symbol of light for God, in the crossing of the Red Sea, the visible symbol of God’s presence was the cloud that followed the Hebrews on their passage through the sea: “all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; and were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea” (1 Corinthians 10:1-2). The cloud designates the Holy Spirit which prefigures the union of water and the Holy Spirit as the elements of Baptism (DANIÉLOU 91).
Moses in the crossing of the Red Sea can be seen as a figure of Christ for he was the one to strike the waters with his staff to divide the sea, to enter the waters first without danger, and with God’s command, enable Pharoah and his army to be engulfed by the water (Exodus 14:21-28). Just as Christ was sent into the world by the Father to rescue the people from sin, Moses was sent into Egypt by God to rescue the oppressed people from Pharaoh. What God did through Christ was provide spiritual salvation from spiritual slavery while what God did through Moses was provide physical salvation from physical slavery. The difference was being a slave in Egypt and being a slave to sin, for God freed his people from sin just as he freed his people from slavery: “I am the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.” (Deuteronomy 5:6). The parting of the Red Sea not only finalized God’s redemption of His people from slavery, but also prefigured God’s redemption of His people from the slavery to sin.
Bibliography
Carroll, Robert P, and Stephen Prickett. The Bible: Authorized King James Version. Oxford University Press, 1998.
Lewis, C. S. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Antiquarius, 2021.
“Types of Baptism: The Crossing of the Red Sea.” The Bible and the Liturgy, by JEAN DANIÉLOU, University of Notre Dame Press, NOTRE DAME, INDIANA, 1956, pp. 86–98. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvpj7fjn.8. Accessed 30 Mar. 2021.