Christ is Risen! He is risen indeed!
In The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, C. S. Lewis makes the lion Aslan a Christ figure by having him killed and then resurrected back to life. Aslan himself says, “though the Witch knew the Deep Magic, there is a magic deeper still which she did not know. Her knowledge goes back only to the dawn of time. But if she could have looked a little further back, … she would have read … a different incantation. She would have known that when a willing victim who had committed no treachery was killed in a traitor’s stead, the Table would crack and Death itself would start working backward.”
Is this an appropriate picture of Christ? How deep does the analogy go? Is there a “deeper magic”? What is it? Let us not waste any time and get right into reading John’s account of the resurrection.
Later, Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of Jesus. Now Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jews. With Pilate's permission, he came and took the body away. He was accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who earlier had visited Jesus at night. Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds. – John 19:38-39
Taking Jesus' body, the two of them wrapped it, with the spices, in strips of linen. This was in accordance with Jewish burial customs. At the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had ever been laid. Because it was the Jewish day of Preparation and since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there. – John 19:40-42
Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don't know where they have put him!" – John 20:1-2
So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. Then Simon Peter, who was behind him, arrived and went into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, as well as the burial cloth that had been around Jesus' head. The cloth was folded up by itself, separate from the linen. – John 20:3-7
Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.) Then the disciples went back to their homes, but Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus' body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot. – John 20:8-12
They asked her, "Woman, why are you crying?" "They have taken my Lord away," she said, "and I don't know where they have put Him." At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus. "Woman," he said, "why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?" Thinking he was the gardener, she said, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him." – John 20:13-15
Jesus said to her, "Mary." She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, "Rabboni!" (which means Teacher). Jesus said, "Do not hold on to Me, for I have not yet returned to the Father. Go instead to My brothers and tell them, 'I am returning to My Father and your Father, to My God and your God.' " Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: "I have seen the Lord!" And she told them that He had said these things to her. – John 20:16-18
After this, we know from other Scriptures that Jesus appeared to the disciples and to others of a period of time before He ascended before their eyes into heaven.
One of the earliest written accounts of the post-resurrection encounters with Jesus is a passage in I Corinthians. Paul writes:
For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. After that, He appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all He appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born. – I Cor. 15:3-8
There were hundreds of eyewitnesses – so sure of what they had seen that they were willing to die rather than renounce it, and many of them did indeed die. Jesus’ resurrection is the absolute bedrock of the Christian faith. It is indeed of first importance.
Just in the Book of Acts, which tells of the growth of the earliest church, Jesus’ resurrection is the main order of business over and over and over.
But God raised Him from the dead, freeing Him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on Him. – Acts 2:24
God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of the fact. – Acts 2:32
You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. We are witnesses of this. – Acts 3:15
Then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. – Acts 4:10
The God of our fathers raised Jesus from the dead—whom you had killed by hanging him on a tree. – Acts 5:30
"We are witnesses of everything He did in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They killed Him by hanging Him on a tree, but God raised Him from the dead on the third day and caused Him to be seen. He was not seen by all the people, but by witnesses whom God had already chosen—by us who ate and drank with him after He rose from the dead. – Acts 10:39-41
When they had carried out all that was written about Him, they took Him down from the tree and laid Him in a tomb. But God raised Him from the dead, and for many days He was seen by those who had traveled with Him from Galilee to Jerusalem. They are now His witnesses to our people. – Acts 13:29-31
The fact that God raised Him from the dead, never to decay, is stated in these words:
"'I will give you the holy and sure blessings promised to David.' So it is stated elsewhere: "'You will not let your Holy One see decay.' For when David had served God's purpose in his own generation, he fell asleep; he was buried with his fathers and his body decayed. But the one whom God raised from the dead did not see decay. – Acts 13:34-37
A few things really stand out to me as I think about the resurrection of Christ, and these relate to our Narnia drama as well.
1. It really happened! The resurrection of Christ was the central argument of the early church. There were hundreds of eyewitnesses, and they were willing to die rather than recant what they had seen. Many of them did die. I don’t have time to go into this today, but many books have been written analyzing the accounts of the resurrection in detail, and you just can’t explain it away with mythology (far too little time passed for myths to form), mass hypnosis (you’re kidding, right?), doctored accounts (you have multiple accounts in the Bible, and if you put it to the same test as you do any other historical document, it comes through with shining colors – not to mention all the additional accounts by early church fathers), or anything else.
2. It makes sense! This is not just something tacked on to Christianity to fix the problem that its central figure died. There is a fundamental tension in the Bible between God’s mercy and God’s justice. In any other setting, these two concepts are absolutely opposed to each other. If you are merciful, then you have to throw justice away. If you truly deliver justice, there is no room for mercy. And yet, in Christ, we see the solution to the problem. God delivers the full weight of justice on “a willing victim who had committed no treachery.” If such a person “was killed in a traitor’s stead,” he could pay the price for that victim. Of course, the problem, up until Christ, was that no such person ever existed. The Bible is clear that all of mankind sins. Every one of us. So no such person could ever be found. But Jesus, fully God and fully Man, was that one. He was without sin. He was the only one who could ever die for all the sins of mankind. But how could God kill Him and judge Him forever? He was innocent. The problem – the tension – between God’s mercy and God’s justice could only be solved if both the full weight of God’s justice and the full benefit of God’s mercy could be poured out on Christ. And it was! As it says in Psalm 16,
“You will not let your Holy One see decay.” – Psalm 16:10
This clearly refers to Christ; indeed, the entire Psalm is messianic. It is referred to as such in Acts 13.
And this is exactly what happened, isn’t it? God killed His “Holy One,” but He did not let Him see decay. Not only did He not allow it, it couldn’t have happened and been consistent with God’s character.
But God raised Him from the dead, freeing Him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on Him. – Acts 2:24
Why was it impossible? Because God’s character could not allow it! Is this not like the “deeper magic” that the character of Aslan talked about? God’s essential nature - Who God is – predates Mosaic Law, predates all of the covenants, and even predates the fall of Adam, from which the law of sin and death was introduced into our world. God’s essential nature even predates the creation of the universe; it predates every date; it predates time itself. This is also something that the character of Aslan said.
3. God was never out of control. In the Aslan story, the witch thinks Aslan is a fool because He thinks that giving up His life will really save Edmund, when after Aslan is dead, she can kill whoever she wants. When I think about the gospel accounts, I am struck by how many people think they are in control – Judas, the Jewish leaders, the crowd, those who question Jesus, including Pilate, the soldiers who strike Jesus, those who whip Him, those who spit on Him, those who crucify Him – when in fact Jesus is fully in control of the situation. Just like the character of Aslan, He knows exactly what He is doing, and He knows exactly how it will all turn out.
The reason my Father loves Me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of My own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. – John 10:17-18
Did you catch all that? Not only does Jesus have sole authority to lay down His life, but He has authority to pick it up again. In one sense, it is absolutely true that God raised Jesus from the dead, but in another, as part of the Divine Trinity, Jesus raised Himself from the dead!
In fact, the more I think about the death and resurrection of Jesus, the more I am struck by the strength and commanding leadership of Christ. Here is some more of Christ’s words from John 10:
I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand is not the shepherd who owns the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. – John 10:11-13
Do you understand this powerful picture? Here is the situation: the wolf is coming – something that can and will destroy the sheep. In a sense this wolf is sin; in another it is death, the consequence of sin; and in other it is the terrible judgment that is to follow death. You could also interpret the wolf as Satan, I suppose. Regardless, when I think of the wolf I think of Jadis, the evil usurping queen of Narnia.
What must be done to save the sheep? There is only one thing that can be done – the shepherd must lay down his life to save them. A hired hand wouldn’t do this – he doesn’t care enough about the sheep, for they aren’t his sheep. But Jesus does care enough – and this is exactly what He does.
Again, on the cross I see all those who mocked Him, who thought He was weak, when in reality, Jesus was displaying unparalleled strength of character – choosing to die to save His sheep, just like we see Aslan choosing to die to save Edmund. And that bring me to my final thought.
4. I am that sheep that needed saving. To put it another way, I am Edmund, doomed to die for betraying my Creator. The message of Christ’s death and resurrection isn’t just a story, like Narnia. It isn’t even just a true story. It is a personal story. It is about me. And it is about you.
It’s not enough just to hear the story and say, “Wow, that was really interesting; I’ve never heard these things explained like this before.” When you understand Christ’s death and resurrection, it demands a response. If you believe it is true, there are only two real responses: to follow the Good Shepherd, or to go on going on your own way. Jesus, even now, calls people to Him. He has a voice – not usually audible, but a voice in your heart that is just as clear as an audible voice. It says, “Come, follow Me. I am the Good Shepherd. I have died for you because I love you. Follow Me.” Again from John 10:
My sheep listen to My voice; I know them, and they follow Me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of My Father's hand. I and the Father are one." – John 10:27-30
The Bible is absolutely clear that it is not enough to just believe the story is true. You must enter into a personal relationship with the Good Shepherd. You do this by talking to Him. You tell Him that you agree that you are Edmund; you are a sinner, a betrayer; indeed justice demands that you pay with your life. And then you tell Him thank You for laying down His life for you. And then you tell Him that, by faith, You will follow Him. You will be a sheep that listens to His voice, and, by faith (which means that you need a lot of help, but you trust Him to help you), you will make Him Lord of your life. As it says in the book of Romans,
If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. – Rom. 10:9
Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!
Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, descended from David. This is my gospel… - 2 Tim. 2:8
In The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, C. S. Lewis makes the lion Aslan a Christ figure by having him killed and then resurrected back to life. Aslan himself says, “though the Witch knew the Deep Magic, there is a magic deeper still which she did not know. Her knowledge goes back only to the dawn of time. But if she could have looked a little further back, … she would have read … a different incantation. She would have known that when a willing victim who had committed no treachery was killed in a traitor’s stead, the Table would crack and Death itself would start working backward.”
Is this an appropriate picture of Christ? How deep does the analogy go? Is there a “deeper magic”? What is it? Let us not waste any time and get right into reading John’s account of the resurrection.
Later, Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of Jesus. Now Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jews. With Pilate's permission, he came and took the body away. He was accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who earlier had visited Jesus at night. Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds. – John 19:38-39
Taking Jesus' body, the two of them wrapped it, with the spices, in strips of linen. This was in accordance with Jewish burial customs. At the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had ever been laid. Because it was the Jewish day of Preparation and since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there. – John 19:40-42
Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don't know where they have put him!" – John 20:1-2
So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. Then Simon Peter, who was behind him, arrived and went into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, as well as the burial cloth that had been around Jesus' head. The cloth was folded up by itself, separate from the linen. – John 20:3-7
Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.) Then the disciples went back to their homes, but Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus' body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot. – John 20:8-12
They asked her, "Woman, why are you crying?" "They have taken my Lord away," she said, "and I don't know where they have put Him." At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus. "Woman," he said, "why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?" Thinking he was the gardener, she said, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him." – John 20:13-15
Jesus said to her, "Mary." She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, "Rabboni!" (which means Teacher). Jesus said, "Do not hold on to Me, for I have not yet returned to the Father. Go instead to My brothers and tell them, 'I am returning to My Father and your Father, to My God and your God.' " Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: "I have seen the Lord!" And she told them that He had said these things to her. – John 20:16-18
After this, we know from other Scriptures that Jesus appeared to the disciples and to others of a period of time before He ascended before their eyes into heaven.
One of the earliest written accounts of the post-resurrection encounters with Jesus is a passage in I Corinthians. Paul writes:
For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. After that, He appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all He appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born. – I Cor. 15:3-8
There were hundreds of eyewitnesses – so sure of what they had seen that they were willing to die rather than renounce it, and many of them did indeed die. Jesus’ resurrection is the absolute bedrock of the Christian faith. It is indeed of first importance.
Just in the Book of Acts, which tells of the growth of the earliest church, Jesus’ resurrection is the main order of business over and over and over.
But God raised Him from the dead, freeing Him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on Him. – Acts 2:24
God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of the fact. – Acts 2:32
You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. We are witnesses of this. – Acts 3:15
Then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. – Acts 4:10
The God of our fathers raised Jesus from the dead—whom you had killed by hanging him on a tree. – Acts 5:30
"We are witnesses of everything He did in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They killed Him by hanging Him on a tree, but God raised Him from the dead on the third day and caused Him to be seen. He was not seen by all the people, but by witnesses whom God had already chosen—by us who ate and drank with him after He rose from the dead. – Acts 10:39-41
When they had carried out all that was written about Him, they took Him down from the tree and laid Him in a tomb. But God raised Him from the dead, and for many days He was seen by those who had traveled with Him from Galilee to Jerusalem. They are now His witnesses to our people. – Acts 13:29-31
The fact that God raised Him from the dead, never to decay, is stated in these words:
"'I will give you the holy and sure blessings promised to David.' So it is stated elsewhere: "'You will not let your Holy One see decay.' For when David had served God's purpose in his own generation, he fell asleep; he was buried with his fathers and his body decayed. But the one whom God raised from the dead did not see decay. – Acts 13:34-37
A few things really stand out to me as I think about the resurrection of Christ, and these relate to our Narnia drama as well.
1. It really happened! The resurrection of Christ was the central argument of the early church. There were hundreds of eyewitnesses, and they were willing to die rather than recant what they had seen. Many of them did die. I don’t have time to go into this today, but many books have been written analyzing the accounts of the resurrection in detail, and you just can’t explain it away with mythology (far too little time passed for myths to form), mass hypnosis (you’re kidding, right?), doctored accounts (you have multiple accounts in the Bible, and if you put it to the same test as you do any other historical document, it comes through with shining colors – not to mention all the additional accounts by early church fathers), or anything else.
2. It makes sense! This is not just something tacked on to Christianity to fix the problem that its central figure died. There is a fundamental tension in the Bible between God’s mercy and God’s justice. In any other setting, these two concepts are absolutely opposed to each other. If you are merciful, then you have to throw justice away. If you truly deliver justice, there is no room for mercy. And yet, in Christ, we see the solution to the problem. God delivers the full weight of justice on “a willing victim who had committed no treachery.” If such a person “was killed in a traitor’s stead,” he could pay the price for that victim. Of course, the problem, up until Christ, was that no such person ever existed. The Bible is clear that all of mankind sins. Every one of us. So no such person could ever be found. But Jesus, fully God and fully Man, was that one. He was without sin. He was the only one who could ever die for all the sins of mankind. But how could God kill Him and judge Him forever? He was innocent. The problem – the tension – between God’s mercy and God’s justice could only be solved if both the full weight of God’s justice and the full benefit of God’s mercy could be poured out on Christ. And it was! As it says in Psalm 16,
“You will not let your Holy One see decay.” – Psalm 16:10
This clearly refers to Christ; indeed, the entire Psalm is messianic. It is referred to as such in Acts 13.
And this is exactly what happened, isn’t it? God killed His “Holy One,” but He did not let Him see decay. Not only did He not allow it, it couldn’t have happened and been consistent with God’s character.
But God raised Him from the dead, freeing Him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on Him. – Acts 2:24
Why was it impossible? Because God’s character could not allow it! Is this not like the “deeper magic” that the character of Aslan talked about? God’s essential nature - Who God is – predates Mosaic Law, predates all of the covenants, and even predates the fall of Adam, from which the law of sin and death was introduced into our world. God’s essential nature even predates the creation of the universe; it predates every date; it predates time itself. This is also something that the character of Aslan said.
3. God was never out of control. In the Aslan story, the witch thinks Aslan is a fool because He thinks that giving up His life will really save Edmund, when after Aslan is dead, she can kill whoever she wants. When I think about the gospel accounts, I am struck by how many people think they are in control – Judas, the Jewish leaders, the crowd, those who question Jesus, including Pilate, the soldiers who strike Jesus, those who whip Him, those who spit on Him, those who crucify Him – when in fact Jesus is fully in control of the situation. Just like the character of Aslan, He knows exactly what He is doing, and He knows exactly how it will all turn out.
The reason my Father loves Me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of My own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. – John 10:17-18
Did you catch all that? Not only does Jesus have sole authority to lay down His life, but He has authority to pick it up again. In one sense, it is absolutely true that God raised Jesus from the dead, but in another, as part of the Divine Trinity, Jesus raised Himself from the dead!
In fact, the more I think about the death and resurrection of Jesus, the more I am struck by the strength and commanding leadership of Christ. Here is some more of Christ’s words from John 10:
I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand is not the shepherd who owns the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. – John 10:11-13
Do you understand this powerful picture? Here is the situation: the wolf is coming – something that can and will destroy the sheep. In a sense this wolf is sin; in another it is death, the consequence of sin; and in other it is the terrible judgment that is to follow death. You could also interpret the wolf as Satan, I suppose. Regardless, when I think of the wolf I think of Jadis, the evil usurping queen of Narnia.
What must be done to save the sheep? There is only one thing that can be done – the shepherd must lay down his life to save them. A hired hand wouldn’t do this – he doesn’t care enough about the sheep, for they aren’t his sheep. But Jesus does care enough – and this is exactly what He does.
Again, on the cross I see all those who mocked Him, who thought He was weak, when in reality, Jesus was displaying unparalleled strength of character – choosing to die to save His sheep, just like we see Aslan choosing to die to save Edmund. And that bring me to my final thought.
4. I am that sheep that needed saving. To put it another way, I am Edmund, doomed to die for betraying my Creator. The message of Christ’s death and resurrection isn’t just a story, like Narnia. It isn’t even just a true story. It is a personal story. It is about me. And it is about you.
It’s not enough just to hear the story and say, “Wow, that was really interesting; I’ve never heard these things explained like this before.” When you understand Christ’s death and resurrection, it demands a response. If you believe it is true, there are only two real responses: to follow the Good Shepherd, or to go on going on your own way. Jesus, even now, calls people to Him. He has a voice – not usually audible, but a voice in your heart that is just as clear as an audible voice. It says, “Come, follow Me. I am the Good Shepherd. I have died for you because I love you. Follow Me.” Again from John 10:
My sheep listen to My voice; I know them, and they follow Me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of My Father's hand. I and the Father are one." – John 10:27-30
The Bible is absolutely clear that it is not enough to just believe the story is true. You must enter into a personal relationship with the Good Shepherd. You do this by talking to Him. You tell Him that you agree that you are Edmund; you are a sinner, a betrayer; indeed justice demands that you pay with your life. And then you tell Him thank You for laying down His life for you. And then you tell Him that, by faith, You will follow Him. You will be a sheep that listens to His voice, and, by faith (which means that you need a lot of help, but you trust Him to help you), you will make Him Lord of your life. As it says in the book of Romans,
If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. – Rom. 10:9
Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!
Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, descended from David. This is my gospel… - 2 Tim. 2:8
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