Look to the One who broke the stone table

Christmas has a way of unlocking old memories.

My first real exposure to the Christmas story didn’t come through church or Christmas carols.

My parents emigrated from the Punjab before I was born, and I was raised in a Sikh household. Some of my earliest memories are from a home that didn’t quite know how to "do" Christmas but wanted to join in. They wanted to embrace the culture of the country they had made their home. Presents, Christmas dinner, decorations – all of it.

The only problem was: Mum had never cooked a roast dinner. So, in those early years, Christmas meant curried turkey. It wasn’t long before my mum learned how to roast a turkey, but those first Christmases were… spicy.

The Lion, the Witch and the big question: Why?

As part of our "Punjabi Christmas ritual," Mum and Dad allowed us to watch the 1980s BBC Christmas adaptation of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. For those unfamiliar (if such people exist): there’s a lion - he’s noble, powerful, and clearly the hero, and his name is Aslan. And – spoiler alert – he dies!

What I couldn’t understand, even as a five-year-old, was why? Why would the mighty lion, the warrior, the one everyone was waiting for, die? Heroes are strong. Heroes win.

That scene of his death terrified me. The stone table. The cruel witch. The dark, snarling creatures. Aslan bound, mocked, humiliated. The shaving of his glorious mane was cruelty I’d never seen or experienced before (I was only five!). The grief, the tears, the unbearable sadness felt by Lucy and Susan makes me feel emotional even as I write.

And then the table breaks.

Lucy and Susan exclaim: "Aslan, you’re not dead, you’re alive!" Aslan tells Lucy and Susan: “There’s a magic deeper still which she [the White Witch] did not know. That 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.”

At the time, I didn’t understand what the words meant, but I remember how they made me feel.

Aslan is not dead. Aslan is alive.

I hardly knew what any of that meant. But a seed was planted. One that would bear fruit decades later when I came to understand the wonderful story of a Saviour who chose suffering over glory. A King who laid down His life. And a victory that came not by might, but through love.

Aslan is on the move

Dear friends, as we approach Christmas, it’s hard to ignore how dark the world feels right now. Darker, perhaps, than it has felt for a long time. C. S. Lewis described Narnia as a place where it was “always winter but never Christmas.” A world frozen, joyless, and waiting.

But Aslan is on the move.

“The snow began to melt, and streams began to run.” The stone table is broken. Death is defeated. And now, the one who was murdered by cruel men is alive and reigns at the right hand of our Father in heaven. This is the hope of Christmas. This is the hope of Jesus. God with us. Emmanuel. Light breaking into darkness and life overcoming death.

So, this Christmas, let us celebrate our dear Lord Jesus Christ, the One who is not safe, but is good ^[1] ; the One who was slain and yet lives; the One through whom winter thaws and hope is reborn.

Christmas is coming. And it changes everything.

1. A reference to a C.S. Lewis quote from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe: "'Aslan is a lion- the Lion, the great Lion.' 'Ooh' said Susan. 'I'd thought he was a man. Is he-quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion'...'Safe?' said Mr Beaver ...'Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell you.'"