Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Jesus as a fierce lion and a humble lamb



Jesus as a fierce lion and a humble lamb


C.S. Lewis gives us such a wonderful picture of both the fierceness of Jesus and the meekness of Jesus in his classic tale Chronicles of Narnia. When he wanted to symbolize Jesus, Lewis created Aslan the lion, and not just any lion, he’s the King of Beasts and the real ruler of Narnia. Mostly unseen because he is always on the move, Aslan is powerful and yet kind, gentle but fierce. He is to be feared and revered and honored and trusted.

In one of the most famous bits of conversation in the whole series, Lucy asks the beavers, “Is he safe?” “If there’s anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking,” Mrs. Beaver replies, “they’re either braver than most or else just silly.”

“So he isn’t safe?” asks Lucy.

To which Mr. Beaver replies, “’Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King,

I present this narrative for it reminds me of how the Church has presented a lopsided Jesus to an unbelieving world. Throughout the history of the Church Jesus has either been presented as a stern judge that shows no mercy, but only has condemnation to offer when all the rules are not followed to the T.

Or, Jesus is presented as all love with no justice or fierceness or power, but a weak sentimental Jesus who will overlook and excuse our sins as mere mistakes.

No, the Jesus of the Bible is both the fierce lion as presented in the Chronicles of Narnia, and the humble servant, as presented in the gospels, who washes his disciples feet.

My plea to the Church and to the individual Christian is to approach all of the Bible's teachings with balance---we have such a tendency to overemphasize any one particular teaching of the Bible. Let us strive as the Apostle Paul warns, not to shrink from declaring  the whole counsel of God (Acts 20:27), and as Jesus gave his parting instructions to his disciples when he told them that they were to teach others' to obey everything that he commanded (Matt. 28:27).




8 comments:

  1. You nailed it with the statement "whole council of God". Good post. I will probably move my follow status here as it is more active.
    I’ve been a follower on your other blog for a while now and would like to invite you to visit and perhaps follow me back. Sorry I took so long for the invitation

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    1. Glad that you replied. The whole council of God is certainly where we need to park. I'll get over to your site and give some thoughts and feed back on your posts, as "iron sharpens iron."

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  2. I realize that he has his detractors for some of his less than orthodox views, but I thoroughly enjoy the writings of CS Lewis. His ability to express truth on so many levels and in such varied genres is a testimony to his faith and brilliance.

    Thank you for this piece!

    (If you'd like to read an article on marriage, adapted from Lewis' "The Four Loves," see here: http://revtheruminator.blogspot.com/2012/02/four-loves.html).

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    1. Lewis is certainly an enigma. I've read his Mere Christianity and and it caused me to put on my thinking cap. I like to use the old axiom "as the old fisherman said to the man eating fish eat the fish, but spit out the bones."

      And yes, I'll take a look at the article on marriage---maybe find some useful ideas for some premarital counseling coming up on my calendar.

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  3. Thank you so much as you have been willing to share information with us. We will forever admire all you have done here because you have made my work as easy as ABC. a course in miracles

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  4. I haven’t any word to appreciate this post.....Really i am impressed from this post....the person who create this post it was a great human..thanks for shared this with us. teachings

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  5. I wanted to thank you for this great read!! I definitely enjoying every little bit of it I have you bookmarked to check out new stuff you post. what is the holy spirit

    ReplyDelete

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