McDermott Aslan's Sacrifice as an Example of Agape

Lewis claims that agape is a type of selfless, unconditional love. It is sometimes used to express God’s love for humanity in the New Testament, and throughout myth and story itself, agape is often portrayed through sacrifice. I attended Catholic school for ten years, so I am very familiar with this type of love as portrayed in the Catholic faith.

In the New Testament, Jesus Christ suffered and died on the cross in order to save people from their sins. In this way, He allowed us to experience forgiveness from and reconciliation with God. This is seen as the ultimate act of love because He, according to the Nicene Creed, came down from heaven solely “for us men and for our salvation.” He did so with no intentions of getting anything in return and with the full expectation that we, as sinners, would continue to sin, making it a true act of unconditional love.

Aslan takes on Jesus’ role in the Narnia books when he sacrifices himself on the stone table in order to save Edmund, who had willingly betrayed everyone to side with the White Witch. Aslan, unline Jesus, presumably did not know that he would be resurrected, either, which makes this another example of a true act of unconditional love for sinners who, arguably, didn’t deserve to be saved. Edmund made the conscious choice to side against Aslan with evil, and yet, the lion still made the greatest sacrifice including humiliation, suffering, and death without expecting anything in return – even life after death.

I doubt I would have made the same decision Aslan did. I would have written off Edmund as a necessary sacrifice in order to keep myself alive to help the other three children with the war effort against the White Witch. And if I did sacrifice myself to save Edmund, I most certainly would have expected heartfelt thanks at the bare minimum. Agape is a significantly harder thing to do in practice than it is in theory, especially when you do not know you will be resurrected or be there to witness the effects of your sacrifice.

 

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