Not A Tame Lion
CS Lewis’ Narnia Tales have been read the world over by generations of children and parents alike.
Why?
May I humbly suggest that the iconic figure of Aslan, the great Lion is the great draw for adult and child alike. Lions are like that. Majestic, strong, yet unpredictable they fascinate us as long as we’re not to close to them for we may inadvertently become lunch.
Aslan, has come from the Great Emperor beyond the seas, the Transcendent Other from who all the worlds of space-time have flowed. He bridges heaven and Earth, revealing the Divine desire for communion and realignment. Intimate, yet brutally honest with those who serve him, Aslan is an icon that draws us toward the Mystery of Divine Love. And yet he is not a tame Lion, good yes, but not tame.
Isn’t it strange then that Lewis’ Great Lion has been adopted by evangelical Christianity as a symbol of Yeshua, bar Yosef, the Nazarene prophet-teacher, known in common religious parlance as ‘The Christ’. Forgive me, but I sense a great irony lurking around this adoption of the Lion to push the standard evangelical message.
Why?
Well, I reckon that evangelical Christianity and its many offshoots are actually very safe. Please let me explain.
The obsession of much of our evangelical take on the life of the Nazarene, is certainty. Countless books have been written to shore up the historicity of the Galilean holy man. poor old Josephus, the ancient Jewish historian has been quoted to death by Christian apologists over the centuries.
Evangelicals are certain that Yeshua’s death and resurrection can be formulated as a substitutionary atonement for sin, that dysfunction of human sin that has separated us now and possibly for ever from Divine Love.
Aslan converts are certain that everything can be seen in black and white; one either surrenders their life to the evangelical Christ or remains a dupe of the Devil, the antithesis of all that Christ stands for.
Certainty has subtly become the god of the evangelical rather than the person of the Nazarene. He has been cleaned up, shaken down and repackaged by Modern scientific reasoning. There is no room for Mystery in our simplistic presentation of the Christ.
The Great Lion has been shaved of his unpredictability, caged and put on show in Sunday morning auditoriums all around the world. No longer allowed to roar, the Lion has to express itself through the texts of Holy Writings, carefully explained by those who have no great taste for his Lionish ways.
Yes the domestication of the Great Aslan has well and truly taken place. The Nazarene has been well and truly put in his sacred place, only allowed to give an occasional nod of approval to our religious rituals and practices.
May I be allowed to interpret such a shocking captivity in terms that the great Lewis penned. We, his followers, have tied the Great Lion down on our own Stone Table of interpretation, producing the knife of our sacrificial violence before dispatching him into the coffin of our belief.
Thank God for the Deeper Magic! The shocking but liberation Truth that Divine Love in all its manifestations cannot lie buried under the weight of orthodox or heretical theology.
Today, the Great Lion is shaking his mane and doing his thing.
The ascended Yeshua isn’t tame but he is good.
Best dive into the Mystery and try to keep up.
Writer Dylan Morrison 
I like this Dylan, and I think you’re spot on about it.
Thank you George.
Your encouragement is much appreciated.
Blessings
Dylan
I so relate to the theme of this post.
Being wild, risky, and yes, even ambivalent, has seemed to taken ahold of my life’s story today. Once I embraced those aspects of His Grace towards me, I hurled myself into an unknown world. I discovered how untamed I was, and yet never sensed the Spirit’s disapproval. Too many years living in the enclave of Christianity had caused me to abandon my soul to everything “good” without my knowing it.
Now I’m finding the true me. Without that wildness within, this wouldn’t have been possible. I sense that he is pleased with me discovering me.
“Living for God” had me painted into a corner. It was essential to embrace the wild to get out of that.
-Connie
Yes, we humans have condescended to God, bringing Yeshua, HIs Son, down to our level, putting Him in a box, and daring anyone to venture outside the accepted view of reality. Oh, if only we would give place to the spirit of revelation in Him (Ephesians 1:17).
Yes Dylan, our domesticated religion has tried to house train the Lion, as it has the lion in all of us. Most of Christianity has dismissed the power of God, and has consigned him to buildings made with hands and limited his communication to the sacred text. As John Sanford put it, “Perhaps God doesn’t know he was supposed to have stopped talking with people when they closed the canon of the New Testament.”
I agree that the Western church has watered down the Gospel and the Power of Christ in the believer, but lets not go from one extreme to the other and romance a wild, four legged, furry Savior. Jesus is not and never was a lion as such. He was and is a spirit being Who took on the form of a man, not a lion. The imagery of lion reflects Jesus superiority and absolute Power over all things created, not His “wildness”. We read: “Learn of me, for I am meek and lowly of heart, and you shall find rest for your soul.”—Matt. 11:29. The wildness we must display and enjoy is the lack of boundaries and restrictions to express the Truth and Love of Christ to others. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.” -Galatians 5:22,23 Man’s fallen nature seeks to control and lord it over others, while God’s desire is for us to experience the freedom of a slave under his loving Master. Man’s rebellion is over God’s mastery, but we forget that our Master gives us freedom enough to rebel against Him. We were beguiled to believe that God wants to restrict our lives, when the exact opposite is true. It is our rebellion that enslaves us, by blinding us to the reality of true love. God is not our Master because He controls our lives, He is Master because He created our lives. So yes, let us be bold in our representation of our King by exemplifying His likeness and qualities, not by being wild and reckless. “Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.” -Hebrews 4:16
Thanks for dropping by Pierre.
I can understand where you’re coming from as your thoughts were also mine earlier on my journey.
Since them I’ve come to see a greater wildness in Divine Love. It was wild the way it hijacked me back into its arms back in 2004.
I don’t believe that I claimed that Divine Love is reckless, just wild i.e. not able to be domesticated by our belief systems and scriptural interpretations of its Nature and acts of restoration.
In other words I believe that its impossible to cage the figurative Lion, by our belief. When we think we have Him all tied up and free to walk around our cage we realize that He’s busted out and gone walkabout with the broken-hearted.
This passion for communion with His created images is what defines his wildness, not the wildness of ego that has us all in such a tizzy.
Blessings on the Way
Dylan