Sacrificial Lamb. . .Christian Imagry in the Harry Potter Series Part I

“‘You won’t be killing anyone else tonight,’ said Harry as they circled, and stared into each other’s eyes, green into red. ‘You won’t be able to kill any of them ever gain. Don’t you get it? I was ready to die to stop you from hurting these people—‘
‘But you did not!’
‘---I meant to, and that’s what did it. I’ve done what my mother did. They’re protected from you. Haven’t you noticed how none of the spells you put on them are binding? You can’t torture them. You can’t touch them. You don’t learn from your mistakes, Riddle, do you?’” (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, page 738, US Edition)

For years, everyone who has battled against having the Harry Potter series in school libraries, with the most famous possibly being Laura Mallory, has assumed that the series was decidedly un-Biblical in nature and therefore should not be available for our children. Indeed, there are warnings about witchcraft in the Bible. In the book of Exodus Moses warns the Hebrews, “Do not allow a sorceress to live” (Ex 22:18). In the book of 2 Kings, Manassah, an evil king of Judah “practiced sorcery and divination” (2Kg 21:6). In fact, there can be little doubt that the genuine practice of witchcraft is admonished in the Bible. Witchcraft, as practiced in today’s society and in Biblical times, involves calling upon evil spirits. I, without reading the first book, was inclined to agree with Mallory. Although I was forced to take a field trip with my students to see Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone in 2001, I can admit I was not happy about it and really did not pay attention to the movie. As a matter of fact, I read my first Harry Potter book in 2003 when my daughter asked to see the movies. I now contend that the magic in the Harry Potter series is similar to the magic mentioned in the Narnia series by C. S. Lewis.

I grew up in a family where not allowing children to read/view items without first watching and making an informed decision was unheard of. So, when I decided I was going to read those books, it was with trepidation that I was condemning myself, yet at the same time, being an informed parent. Ten hours later when Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets were both sitting on the floor beside me completely read I realized something else. I have to say that I realized then there was more to those books than meets the eye.

I think this idea, that there is possibly a Christian theme in Harry Potter angers more than it helps. Secularists are disappointed in J. K. Rowling in turning what they perceived as an affirmation of their practices into yet another affirmation of the existence of a God with forgiveness and sacrifice. And well, Rowling states it best about Christians that the fact that the books are “not really that secular” angers evangelicals (Time Magazine 2005). If it angers these people, then perhaps they should read John Granger’s Finding God in Harry Potter to assuage their concerns. Granger predicts Harry’s sacrifice a year before Ms. Rowling was finished with the book. Granger found a theme of death and resurrection in each book:
o Book 1: Harry almost dies in the struggle against Voldemort for the Sorcerer’s Stone.
o Book 2: Harry meets certain death from the basilisk (a serpent-like creature, and another symbol of Satan), but is saved by the phoenix (a symbol of Jesus in the early church)
o Book 3: The dementors, horrible creatures that feed on despair, are repealed by Harry’s patronus, a symbol of pure love.
o Book 4: In the graveyard, Harry escapes certain death thanks to the protection of those who had passed on before him and his phoenix wand
o Book 5: Voldemort possesses Harry to get Dumbledore to “kill the boy” (chapter 36). In the end, it is his love for his godfather and the ability to see Sirius again (an admission that there is an afterlife in the books) repeals the evil.
o Book 6: Harry is saved from the Inferi.
o Book 7: Harry commits the ultimate sacrifice and does not die.

The fact that Harry does not die is significant in book 7, because it underlines the premise that I have been working on since that day in 2003 when I read the first 2 books: Harry Potter is a series that underlines the premise that love conquers all. It underlines the fact that self-sacrifice is the ultimate of all sacrifices. It underlines love and sacrifice is saving in nature. Harry sacrificed himself knowing that that was the only way to defeat Voldemort. His sacrifice made it impossible for the evil Voldemort to touch anyone Harry loved and could call his own. Remind you of someone else?

Jesus said, “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13) Isn’t that what Harry did? And didn’t his sacrifice protect his friends from evil? Jesus’ sacrifice allows Christians to call upon His name in the end times to be a barrier between the evils of Satan and the love of Christ. When we call upon the name of Christ, we are forgiven of our sins.

Did you know that C. S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia were protested in the beginning because the books included magic? C. S. Lewis, the writer of Mere Christianity, met similar outrage that Rowling did.

I personally love the Harry Potter series, because the themes I gather from the books are: Love always wins, Death is not the end, Man makes choices to become who he is, There is evil in all of our natures, We are all creatures of God regardless of our birth, and Sacrifice is part of life. For a bit of light reading, I feel Harry Potter has themes we want our children to learn and it can be a springboard for discussion. We must remind our children, however, that the magic that is in the book does not exist, and real magic involves the calling of evil spirits. The book is fiction. There is no Hogwarts. Sadly, there is no real Harry Potter. But there is Jesus, who sacrificed it all for us. He came to earth and although he, like Harry, could have made the decision to walk away, He did not. His sacrifice gave us a barrier from the evils and sin we would eventually have to face had it not been for Him. I choose to emulate Jesus ultimately, but it’s nice to step into the world of a fictional character and watch him make a choice many of us would have not as easily met.

“Finally, the truth. Lying with his face pressed into the dusty carpet of the office where he had once thought he was learning the secrets of victory, Harry understood at last that he was not supposed to survive. His job was to walk calmly into Death’s welcoming arms. . . .
And Dumbledore had known that Harry would not duck out, that he would keep going to the end, even though this was his end, because he had taken the trouble to get to know him, hadn’t he? Dumbledore knew , as Voldemort knew, that Harry would not let anyone else die for him now that he had discovered it was in his power to stop it. . . .” (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows)

Jesus knew it was in His power to keep us from making Levitcal sacrifices of birds and lambs to end our pain. He knew it was in His power to be the fulfillment of the Law and therefore he walked into Death’s arms. He decided to make that ultimate sacrifice for us. He prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane alone and as He knew He could walk away at any time, He decided not to. What does a fictional child tell us about self-sacrifice? Would we walk into Death’s arms the way Harry did to save our friends?