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NARNIA, EASTER & YOU

By Rev. Kenny and Lila Joseph
(On our 50th Easter in Japan)

Narnia. My generation never heard about it, let alone read the book. And yet on March 4th, the movie The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe opened in l,400 movie houses nationwide and made over $9 million dollars making it Disney's largest grossing movie ever in Japan. Why did the Christian group Word of Life Press mail out promotional materials to 9000 Christian churches asking them to promote it? Why is McDonald's giving away the Narnia toys with their Happy Meals?

Because C.S. Lewis, the author of the Narnia series once featured on the BBC in a weekly radio broadcast became famous for writing Mere Christianity which concluded that either Jesus Christ was the world's biggest liar or a madman or the Saviour of the world.

The author of Lord of the Rings, a Catholic writer named J.R.R. Tolkien and Lewis were pub buddies and Lewis was critized by the Tolkien who told him that his characters were too obvious. We were invited to a press briefing and showing of Narnia and came away deeply impressed, but we're just senior citizens. So I asked a young missionary named Victor Sullivan to give me a summary of what he saw in Narnia. He holds seminars on the subject:

"Narnia-Land is what many of us long for here in Japan to share the Gospel with unchurched Japanese. It gives us a legitimate bridge to talk about the Gospel as we interpret some of the mysterious and symbolic scenes for Japanese friends who have no idea of the Christian worldview of author, CS.Lewis, and how that worldview created the characters and the plot of the Narnia series. With no biblical background, many will miss it's deepest significance.

For example, in the movie the gentle, yet powerful lion, Aslan, lays down his life for a young boy who had betrayed is brother, his two sisters and Aslan. The evil white witch rightfully demanded that the boy should, by Narnia's fixed laws, be sacrificed. But the lion stepped forward to offer his life in exchange for the young lad's freedom, and so the witch renounced her claim on the boy's blood. After the Witch kills the lion on the stone table, there is a dark and sad scene where the children see the lifeless body of the lion.

All appears hopeless during the night, but at dawn, the children suddenly
hear a loud cracking noise. They rush to the stone table to find it split in
two, and Aslan....well, heâs gone!

The children couldn't understand until Aslan, who is now risen from the dead, appears before them and explains that he is now alive. Aslan tells the children that although the witch knew of the law that a traitor must die for his sin, she did not know that there was an even older law of Narnia that went back before the beginning of time that says, "when a willing victim who had committed no treachery was killed in a traitor's stead, the stone table would crack and death itself would start working backwards.

You don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure out how to draw some applications to this scene! Here we have so many basics: a law that a sinner must die for his sin, a picture of redemption where one who is innocent dies in place of one who is guilty, the splitting of a stone table likened to the splitting of the veil of the curtain in the temple at the crucifixion of Christ and we have the resurrection at dawn like that of Jesus. And lastly, is that not a great opportunity to share the Gospel or what? Since Japanese are a little shy about direct confrontation, Narnia gives us an indirect way of coming in the back door where their normal defenses are down."

Tom Baker writes the following in the Daily Yomiuri:

"One aspect of the stories that may go over children's heads, but quite obvious to adults, is the strong Christian motifs. The climax is highly allegorical. Aslan, the son of the mighty but unseen 'Emperor-beyond-the-Sea' takes another character's sins onto his own head and allows himself to be punished in his place. He's beaten, insulted, stripped (that is, shorn of his mane) and finally executed in public on a hilltop. But he rises from the dead, defeats evil and disappears again, this time leaving Peter in charge. Replace the lion Aslan with a man named Jesus and youâd have a story very much like the climactic portions of the New Testament What do Narnia, Easter and you have in common?

Aslan the lion died for the sin of someone else. But he revived. Got up and walked away. And that is the story of Easter. The hinge of history. Before it every other ideology must bow. They meet and proclaim that Jesus is Lord. The bones of Buddha, Confucius, Mohammed and the founders of 3,000 other religions are resting in their graves. But the tomb of Jesus is empty.

Some fathers ask their sons to sacrifice their lives for their ideologies. God, our Father, asked His Son to die and rise again for us. Only Jesus rose from the dead and proclaimed victory over death. Who could have put it better than that song that you and I sing every Easter:

Low in the grave He lay, Jesus, my Savior!
Waiting the coming day, Jesus, my Lord!
Vainly they watch His bed, Jesus, my Savior!
Vainly they sealed the dead, Jesus, my Lord!
Death could not keep his prey, Jesus, my Savior!
He tore the bars away, Jesus, my Lord!

Up from the grave He arose,
With a mighty triumph o'er His foes!
He arose a victor from the dark domain,
And He lives forever with His saints to reign;
He arose! He arose! Hallelujah! Christ arose!

The enlightened ones of Hollywood prove every year at the Oscar celebration that they just don't understand America. CNN did a beautiful story in the very center of America--in Nebraska--and the question they asked Midwesterners: 'Are you going to go and see Brokeback Mountain?" And the answer was a resounding "No." They also tuned out the Academy Awards and produced the second lowest viewership in 20 years.

Jon Stewart of the Daily Show let the cat out of the bag when Larry King asked him, 'isn't this hype about Brokeback Mountain being mainly pushed by the homosexual agenda in the blue states?'

Stewart answered. 'Hollywood is not blue or red, but green. Greenbacks!' Then he added, 'they watched The Passion of the Christ last year bring in 700 million dollars.'

Mr. Stewart, Narnia has already made 600 million dollars and that count doesn't even include Japan and other foreign countries, while Brokeback made only 70 million dollars.

What many don't understand about the Christian faith are the significance of the Resurrection and the Cross. Everyone---Jew, Christian, Muslim, Buddhist--has only one question: Where do I go when I die and how can I make sure I go to heaven? None can answer except the One Who said, "I am the resurrection and the life; he that believeth in me though he were dead, yet shall he live; and whosoever believeth in me shall never die."

Do you believe this?

Of course we all die physically. But he was talking about a spiritual life in heaven. Bill and Gloria Gaither answered this in the Easter song they wrote:

God sent His Son--they called Him Jesus, He came to love, heal and forgive, He lived and died to buy my pardon An empty grave is there to prove my Savior lives.

How sweet to hold a newborn baby
And feel the pride and joy he gives;
But greater still the calm assurance;
This child can face uncertain days because Christ lives.

And then one day I'll cross the river,
I'll fight life's final war with pain;
And then as death gives way to vict'ry, I'll see the lights of glory--and I'll know He lives.

Because He lives I can face tomorrow, Because he lives all fear is gone, Because I know He holds the future and life is worth the living--just because He lives.

So Tokyo-ites, after sleeping in late Sunday morning, come to the International Tokyo Easter Festival from 3:30 to 5:30 at the Yobodashi Church near Okubo Station on the Yamate Sen. You will be thrilled to hear Evangelist Mitsuo Fukuzawa and guest accordianist Manabu Hiyama, along with the Salvation Army Band and a multi-church choir. Admission is free and everyone is welcome. If you don't understand Japanese, come with a Japanese friend and have him/her interpret for you. This is the 41s annual Tokyo Easter service that was started by the author and Bill Clark on the rooftop of the Isetan Department Store in Shinjuku.

See you there.