The Ass in a Lion’s Skin

One of the lesser known books in C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia is the last in the series, titled The Last Battle. In this final installation of the tales of Narnia, world of talking beasts, a cunning Ape manipulates a donkey into wearing a lion’s skin and pretending to be Aslan, the famed and mysterious feline ruler of Narnia. Using carefully controlled appearances, he convinces more and more Narnians of Aslan’s return, and begins recruiting them to carry out atrocities in his name, believing they were being directed by Aslan.

Lewis’ story is a creative depiction of the Biblical idea of “the anti-Christ” – or someone who poses as the Christ and deceives the masses into following the wrong path. This image of an ass in a lion’s skin has been turning around in my head as a disturbing underbelly of Western Evangelicalism has become increasingly prominent.

Although typically imagined as a singular individual throughout the ages, and most prominently in end times, I wonder about a different possibility. In the apostle’s writings, the church is referred to many times as “the body of Christ” – another incarnation of the divine in the world, composed of a multitude of individuals united in love and tasked with none other than the restoration of the world. “You are the hands and feet of Jesus” – is a common phrase to communicate the idea that while Jesus is not physically present in the world, he is actively at work in it through his church.

So if the faithful actions of Christians in the world are an embodiment of Christ – what would we call that which dresses itself in the language and culture and traditions of Christianity, but is after something else altogether? That which has trampled instead of healed, alienated instead of reconciled, power grabbed instead of served, cursed instead of blessed, aligned itself with corrupted politics instead of reaffirming with Christ Himself – ‘the Kingdom of God is within you’. That which, unlike Christ, has snuffed the smoldering wick, broken the bruised reed, strained out the gnat and swallowed the camel, loaded up the weary with heavy burdens and refused to help lift them.

What would we call it? Maybe Antichrist. Maybe an ass in a lion’s clothes – folly and farce and deception.

So look out. Don’t look for your Savior in the clothes of a political movement promising to calm your fears, give you power, or keep you comfortable. And don’t let the parade of the foolish, destructive donkey make you believe that the true Aslan must not be real.