A great crowd of people were standing all round the Stone Table and though the moon was shining many of them carried torches which burned with evil-looking red flames and black smoke. But such people!
All the elders of the people assembled, including the leading priests and the teachers of religious law.
Here were all those who were on the Witch’s side and whom the Wolf had summoned at her command. And right in the middle, standing by the Table, was the Witch herself.
They all shouted, “So, are you claiming to be the Son of God?” And he replied, “You say that I am.”
“The fool!” She cried. “The fool has come. Bind him fast.”
They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him. They wove thorn branches into a crown and put it on his head, and they placed a reed stick in his right hand as a scepter.
They rolled the huge Lion over on his back and tied all his four paws together, shouting and cheering as if they had done something brave, though, had the Lion chosen, one of those paws could have been the death of them all.
Then they knelt before him in mockery and taunted, “Hail! King of the Jews!” And they spit on him and grabbed the stick and struck him on the head with it.
But he made no noise, even when the enemies, straining and tugging, pulled the cords so tight that they cut into his flesh. Then they began to drag him towards the Stone Table.
Then they led him away to be crucified.
But he never moved. And this seemed to enrage all that rabble. Everyone was at him now. Those who had been afraid to come near him even after he was bound began to find their courage.
The people passing by shouted abuse, shaking their heads in mockery. “Look at you now!” they yelled at him. “You said you were going to destroy the Temple and rebuild it in three days. Well then, if you are the Son of God, save yourself!”
When once Aslan had been tied on the flat stone, a hush fell on the crowd. The Witch stood by Aslan’s head. She stooped down and said in a quivering voice, “And now, who has won? Fool, did you think that by all this you would save the human traitor? You have lost your own life and you have not saved his. In that knowledge, despair and die!”
Then the soldiers nailed him to the cross. At noon, darkness fell across the whole land until three o’clock. Then at three o’clock Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachtani?” which means “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?”
The children did not see the actual moment of the killing. They couldn’t bear to look and had covered their eyes.
Then Jesus uttered another loud cry and breathed his last. And the curtain in the sanctuary of the Temple was torn in tow, from top to bottom. Some women were there, watching from a distance, including Mary Magdalene, Mary (the mother of James the younger and of Joseph), and Salome. They had been followers of Jesus and had cared for him while he was in Galilee.
As soon as the wood was silent again Susan and Lucy crept out onto the open hill-top. The moon was getting low and thin clouds were passing across her, but still they could see the shape of the Lion lying dead in his bonds. And down they both knelt in the wet crass and kissed his cold face and stroked his beautiful fur and cried till they could cry no more.
The Lion The Witch and the Wardrobe – C. S. Lewis
The Bible: The Message