Atonement: The Significance of the Stone Table
by Leia Kalnaja
". . . 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 backwards."
-- Aslan the Lion, from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
Sacrifice.
The word has become a bad word in many religious and "spiritual" circles. The idea of a sacrifice for sin is particularly distasteful to many people, particularly to those who believe that mankind is inherently good and that suffering comes not from human sin, but rather from ignorance about our own divinity. The idea of appeasing the wrath of God through a sacrifice is seen as an archaic concept to people who consider themselves thus "enlightened."
But the idea of a perfect sacrifice to take away man's sin is the central tenet of the Christian faith. Indeed, it is not just an idea, but a fact that Jesus Christ came down into the world to die for our sins that we might be forgiven. In the idea of the perfect sacrifice lies the significance of the Stone Table in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, the first of C.S. Lewis's seven Chronicles of Narnia.
Aslan the Lion is the central character throughout the Narnian Chronicles. Though the Chronicles cannot really be called a strict allegory, in the books Aslan typifies Jesus Christ. As Christ is the Son of God and Savior of the world, so Aslan is the Son of the Emperor Over-Sea and Savior of Narnia. In this first book he saves Narnia from the bondage of the White Witch, typifying the devil, and saves the child Edmund from death at the Witch's hands. It is a tale ultimately of sacrificial love. For early in the story Edmund falls captive to the Witch's temptations. He ends up betraying his own brothers and sisters, those who are on the side of Aslan, for the sake of becoming a prince of Narnia -- a promise that the Witch (who has styled herself as Queen of Narnia) has no intention of keeping.
Aslan is the true King above all Kings in Narnia, and his coming has been prophesied. It has been predicted that he will bring an end to the Winter that falls perpetually upon Narnia -- a land held in bondage by the White Witch -- and this he does. When the Beavers and the three children, Peter, Susan, and Lucy, meet with Aslan, the enchanted winter is gone and spring has come. It is the beginning of the end of the Witch's reign, but she still has one card to play -- she has Edmund, the traitor to none other than Aslan and his people. Instead of rewarding Edmund's treachery with princehood, she has rewarded him with utter contempt and treats him as less than human. Eventually the Witch and her dwarf servant decide that Edmund must be killed to prevent the prophecy of the Four Thrones of Cair Paravel from being fulfilled.
Edmund is rescued by Aslan's followers and realizes the error of his ways. But still there is the matter of his treachery. Such a thing cannot be taken lightly, since it is part of the Deep Magic put into the world at the Dawn of Time by the Emperor that a traitor must die for his crime or else the whole of Narnia would "perish in fire and water." Here the Witch plays her card, claiming Edmund's blood as her right, to appease the Deep Magic.
But Aslan will have none of this. His knowledge of the Emperor's Deep Magic extends even before the Dawn of Time, and so, unbeknownst to his people, he offers himself as a substitute, to be sacrificed on the Stone Table in place of Edmund -- the innocent suffering for the guilty. And so Aslan dies, being punished for Edmund's sin, in the sight of the two sisters, Susan and Lucy, who stayed with him in his sorrows before the time came. They grieve over him the whole night while the forces of darkness exult over their seeming victory. But in the morning the Stone Table is cracked, and the sisters witness the resurrected Aslan, triumphant over death!
The Stone Table, then, is a symbol of atonement for sin, analogous to the Cross. Its cracking is analogous to the stone being rolled away from Jesus Christ's grave. Jesus, the sinless one, died for us who had sinned against him. His death on the Cross, where he took all our sins on himself, was what allowed us to go free and to not suffer eternal death.
When Susan and Lucy first see the resurrected Aslan, they ask what it all means, and Aslan replies that the Witch did not know the Deeper Magic from before the Dawn of Time. He states 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 backwards." The Deep Magic was in this way appeased, though the Deeper Magic stated that death would not have a hold on the innocent victim.
In the same way, death could not hold Jesus down, because he had done nothing to deserve death. The Resurrection was a sign that the Father looked upon Christ's sacrifice as acceptable, for if he had remained in the grave, this would mean that death had a hold on him for something he had done. But he indeed rose, and lives today, providing salvation for those who would call upon his name. For "everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved" (Romans 10:13).
Copyright © 1999 Leia Kalnaja
E-mail: leia_kalnaja@yahoo.com
Back to the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
