Like so many others, The Chronicles of Narnia is one of my favorite fiction series of all time. CS Lewis masterfully gives us insight into the heart of Christ and our relationship with him through the figure of Aslan. The tales teach us unforgettable truths about us about friendship, courage, and redemption.

Lewis brilliantly captures the weight of our sin against God. The figure of Aslan helps us see the price Christ paid to atone for our wrongdoings. Near the conclusion of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe we watch an interaction that gives us insight into the cost of our sin. “’Please—Aslan,’ said Lucy, ‘can anything be done to save Edmund?’ ‘All shall be done,’ said Aslan. ‘But it may be harder than you think.’” And indeed it was. The price of Aslan’s life is required to bring about Edmund’s forgiveness.

But, Aslan gets another dimension of forgiveness wrong.

Allow me to set the scene.

A party of Narnians sent by Aslan has just rescued Edmund from his imminent death at the hand of the White Witch. Edmund ended up in the clutches of the White Witch because of his pride, longing for power, and hunger for Turkish delight. His betrayal of his brother and sisters and Aslan himself will endanger all of Narnia and ultimately cost Aslan his life.

When Edmund is brought into camp he (appropriately) has a conversation with Aslan, and then is returned to his brother and sisters.

Aslan offers Edmund to his siblings with these words, “’Here is your brother,’ he said, ‘and—there is no need to talk to him about what is past.’ Edmund shook hands with each of the others and said to each of them in turn, ‘I’m sorry,’ and everyone said, ‘That’s all right.’”

Lewis’s Aslan makes a big misstep here. This is not how gospel relationships are restored.

Dearest Jack (CS’s name to his friends), you got this part so wrong. You were so careful to navigate the vertical dimension of forgiveness with God (rightfully so!), but so sloppy with the horizontal dimension of forgiveness with others.

In the exchange between Edmund and his siblings, we have neither true forgiveness nor true reconciliation.

Forgiveness would have meant that Edmund acknowledges how he sinned against Peter, Susan, and Lucy and asks if they would forgive him. They would have the opportunity to offer their forgiveness. This isn’t to be confused with Edmund’s “I’m sorry,” and his sibling’s response, “That’s all right.” This interaction in the text is false forgiveness and nowhere near reconciliation.

An acknowledgment of sorrow is appropriate in an apology, but not to be confused with a request for forgiveness. And the response “That’s all right” is a bald-faced lie. What Edmund did was most certainly not “all right.” On the contrary. It was all wrong. We don’t forgive things that are right, we forgive things that are wrong. For someone to respond to someone expressing sorrow with a, “that’s all right,” is to declare a lie and carry part of the weight of that individual’s sin. They are now, in some way, complicit in the very sin that ought to be denounced.

Perhaps you think I’m making too big a deal over these small words. But listen to Jesus’ admonition of how to deal with a brother who sins in Luke 17:3, “If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him.” Jesus packs a great deal of practical theology into this one verse. Notice the order of events: 1. Sin; 2. Rebuke; 3. Repentance; 4. Forgiveness. To skip #2 and #3 is to cheat the path of forgiveness. There is no shortcut here.

What this false forgiveness does is also make true reconciliation impossible. The difference between forgiveness and reconciliation is that forgiveness releases the offending party of the debt that is owed while reconciliation restores the relationship between the two parties. The hope in every circumstance is that reconciliation can occur, but certain things need to happen for reconciliation to be possible. First, the aggrieved party needs to share how the sin impacted them. Peter, Susan, and Lucy ought to have had the opportunity to share how Edmund’s sin devastated them. He broke trust, and he endangered them and their Narnian friends. At this point, in addition to asking for forgiveness, Edmund could have listened, acknowledged their hurt, and committed to taking the necessary steps to repair the damage he had caused.

Aslan was wrong; there was a need to talk with Edmund about the past. For the sake of forgiveness and reconciliation, the past must be dealt with. To not do so is to try to take a shortcut to forgiveness and reconciliation that God doesn’t offer us. To not talk about the past is to place an undue burden on the victim of sin and also to not allow the victimizer the opportunity to navigate the path of release from his shame.

Aslan was wrong. Don’t shortcut the path of forgiveness like Edmund. Walk out God’s good but hard path of restoration and you will find his gift of forgiveness, release, and also of reconciliation.

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Photo by Elie Khoury on Unsplash