RECONCILING LIONS

As I noted earlier, I have just finished reading the Chronicles of Narnia in preparation for the Disney movie coming out in December based on "The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe." Apparently, several others in my church have been reading it, too, and we've had a lot of great discussions on the Christian themes and symbolism in the series.

As we were discussing it, the question of Aslan the Lion and his similarity to Jesus Christ came up. One person asked how Aslan the Lion could represent Christ when Peter said that Satan was a roaring lion (1 Peter 5:8 -- "Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour). Good question!

I then pointed out that Christ was called "the Lion of Judah" in the Bible:

Hosea 5:14 -- "For I will be like a lion to Ephraim, like a great lion to Judah"

Rev. 5:5 -- "Then one of the elders said to me, "Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals.").

So, how do we reconcile this? It finally came to us through the terms that Peter used. Peter tells us that Satan goes about LIKE a roaring lion while the other two passages tell us that Jesus IS the Lion of Judah. In other words, Satan is a pretend lion, someone who pretends to be something he is not. He is an imitator of the real Lion, the Lion of Judah, Christ Jesus our King.