Throughout my life I have probably read through the Chronicles of Narnia about 20 times. There are some interesting things about the books that make them somewhat unique as a series of children’s fairy tales.

The first curious thing about the Narnia books is that while fairy tales directed at children, they are also Christian allegories with deeper spiritual meaning interwoven. This applied to my life in that I loved reading about Narnia as an 8-year-old schoolboy because of the fantastic stories of knights, dragons, talking animals, sea voyages, and other adventurous things that 8-year-old boys are interested in.

However as an adult, the books take on new meaning as the stories essentially force me to face and deal with powerful truths about myself, this world, and Christ.

The second curious thing about Narnia is that every time I read these books, I discover some new radical truth or uncover a new perspective on the world that is earth-shattering to my core being. That is quite unique for a children’s book!

I am now yet again finishing up the final book in the series, The Last Battle, and am once again discovering something new. To be honest, this has always been my least favorite book. Not because it is poorly written or anything like that. I have a hard time reading this book because everything wrong that could possibly happen, does happen. There are very few happy moments while reading this book.

I get the most disgust and unease during this book as several evil characters use a donkey in a lion skin to impersonate the Christ-figure of the Narnian world, Aslan. These characters use this “Aslan” to put words into the real Aslan’s mouth for their own selfish gain and the suffering of others. As a result, many of the talking animals, dwarves, and other mythical creatures begin to fear Aslan for his injustice or disbelieve him altogether.

When I read this story again, I finally realized the parallel to our world, where there are many that fabricate their own version of Jesus, attributing words and actions to him that simply do not belong. The real Jesus is not a socially-conservative Republican, nor is he a compassionate and environmentally-savvy Democrat. He is not so small that he fits in our little boxes. Many groups lay claim to their own version of Jesus, styling him after themselves rather than how he reveals himself as the Word of God, the suffering servant who came to befriend and reconcile outcasts and sinners to God. These groups with their fake Jesus’s in the end only turn people away from the real Jesus, as many Narnians turned away from Aslan.

When we try to put Jesus on our team, it is as ill-fitted as the lion skin on the jackass. As Christians, we must not try to get Jesus on our team. It is the Christians who must first get on the team of Jesus.