“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.”
This is an excerpt from the Christian author C.S Lewis’ and his novel “The Cornicles of Narina: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe”. The book is a Christian analogy that reflects different aspects of the Christian faith. As an example, Aslan is a lion whose character is to be analogy for Jesus. The opening quotation comes from a conversation between a Mr. Beaver (who is a beaver) and Susan (a young girl), in this conversation Susan learns that Aslan the lion is not safe, but he is good.
Does this apply to Jesus? It sure does. Jesus teaches many times in the gospel that to be his disciple one must be willing to,
“deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it”. (Matthew 16:24-25)
The 12 disciples and other followers of Jesus throughout history would later come and know what that means. It means they faced persecution for being a Christian, for confessing the name of Jesus, for standing on the truth of God’s Word when it wasn’t popular to do so and many of them for martyred for it.
In this sense following Jesus is not safe, but those who believe in Jesus’ word and hear what he has done for us all we also know that Jesus is good.
Jesus is good because he would let the world be condemned because of our sins. Jesus is good because he takes the punishment for our sins on the cross. Jesus is good because he sends to us the Holy Spirit to give us faith in him and to learn to trust in his word. Jesus is good because he is the king who rose from the dead ascended in heaven and reigns seated at the right hand of God our Father. Jesus is good because he goes away to prepare a place for us in heaven. Jesus is good because he will come again on the last day to deliver us from this sinful world. Jesus is good because he will raise our bodies from the dead on the last day and give us new glorified bodies that will never die again.
In this world it is unsafe to: follow and be disciple of Jesus, because of the persecutions that Christians face. In the end as Christians we look to more than this life and world. We look to the eternal goodness of Jesus that is to come for us all.
“For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us” (Romans 8:18)
Thank you Jesus for your eternal goodness to us, that we do not earn, nor deserve!
