When we were first married, one of my happy discoveries was that my well-read wife had somehow missed reading The Chronicles of Narnia while growing up. In order to remedy this as quickly as possible, I sat her down and almost immediately began reading aloud to her from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Over the course of a month or so, we wound our way through the seven volumes of the beautiful story. We fell in love with Aslan, marveled at the transformation of the various children who were summoned to Narnia and we sometimes shivered at Lewis’ depictions of evil and sin.

Just a couple of years ago we repeated the wonderful experience with our three kids. Over the course of the summer we took deep pleasure in introducing them to these wonderful stories. We read while camping, on car trips, before bed… we really enjoyed the stories together.

Needless to say, when the movie The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe came out, we were all eager to see it together. And we really enjoyed it. How wonderful that special effects have reached a level of art that is able to depict a character like Aslan with such beauty and gravity. It was fun to see all those favorite scenes played out so lavishly, fun to re-live the story so visually.

If it’s not already obvious, I really love Lewis. So while enjoying the film deeply, I was also watching somewhat critically. And toward the end of the film, during the climactic battle scene, I was taken aback by something. After freeing the creatures-turned-to-statues at the White Witch’s castle, Aslan along with the children and the revived creatures joins the battle arriving just in time to turn the tide. Soon it is clear that Aslan and his subjects will be victorious. In the final scene of the battle sequence, Aslan knocks the Witch down and we see (from the Witch’s perspective) Aslan open his mouth and with one ferocious bite, extinguish both the Witch and her reign. This accomplished, Aslan turns, looks at the children and says, “It is finished.”

My initial thought following the movie was that the line had been misplaced. Because even a cursory reading of the gospels reveals that Jesus utters the words “It is finished” while hanging on the cross just moments before his death (John 19:30). Therefore any use of this line in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, rightfully belongs at the stone table rather than during the final battle.

The placement of that one line sent me back to the book yet again. Sure enough, it never appears in Lewis’ work at all. Not during the battle, and perhaps more surprisingly, not even at the Stone Table. I think it is because Lewis had always been clear that these stories were allegory (a story that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning). The use of that line at all might have been too literal a connection between Aslan and Jesus for Lewis’ sensibilities.

My deeper concern, however, is that placing Jesus’ statement, “It is finished” during the battle scene is theologically irresponsible. In this simple statement Jesus is signifying that his life, work and death – the very mission of God to the world – is now complete in some way. This statement belongs at the cross. To suggest that Jesus work is “finished” not in his own death but in the killing of another is perhaps not only theologically irresponsible but ethically suspect.

At this point in history, in this climate of terror and war, so many of us want to read another meaning into this allegory. We want to believe that the struggle between good and evil can be simply defined. We want to believe that good can overcome evil in a physical battle with the climactic death of the evil character (as the movie might suggest). I would imagine that Lewis might have felt the same temptation. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was first published in 1950, just a short five years after the end of World War II. I imagine Lewis was tempted to make more direct links between the regime that had just been conquered in the real world and the evil that Aslan and the children were dealing with in Narnia. He could have had Aslan kill a dictator and then pronounce, “It is finished.” But he resisted the temptation to use his story that way. I only wish the filmmakers had done the same.

It is true that Jesus’ clearest response to evil was to overcome it through death. At just the point when evil seemed to have had the last word, at just the point when evil had done its worst, at just the point when evil seemed to have made a victim of the one in whom all our hopes hung; Jesus said, “It is finished.” Yes, Jesus clearest response to evil was to overcome it with death – his own death.