Harry Potter Review (warning, spoilers ahead)

When I first heard of Harry Potter, I was highly suspicious. I thought, with a lot of other Christians, it was an occultish novel, written to attract kids to witchcraft. Of course, I had not read the books, nor was I going to do so. What can I say? Legalism has always been a sin of mine, which Christ needs to constantly save me from.

Then, Wendy and I were talking with a church in Mississippi about going to be their youth pastor. We figured that most of the kids might have read the book (although, knowing more about the church, I realize now that was highly unlikely), so we decided to read the book. We were hooked and found out these books are not about magic at all.

They are about one thing that Jesus said, "Greater love has no man than this, then to give up his life for a friend."

Jo Rowling has ingrained that theme into every word in each of the seven books. But, even more, her books are about how sacrificial love overcomes death, evil and destruction. No where is this more apparent than in Deathly Hallows.

The first real glimpse of this is where Harry and Hermoine visit Godric's Hollow. While there, they visit Harry's parents grave and the graves of Albus Dumbledore's family. There are some interesting quotes on both of the tomb stones. On the Dumbledore tombstone, "Where your treasure is, there will your be heart be also."

The quote is from Matthew 6:21 and the sermon on the mount. It is an interesting quote, because we find out that Dumbledore, the wizard who is Harry's mentor, was not the great guy he came to be in his later years. He was obsessed with power, control, awards, etc. And it is because of that obsession that his sister died. So, it is telling that Dumbledore chose that quote for their tomb.

The second quote is from Harry's parent's tomb which reads, "The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death." This quote is so interesting, because unlike the Matthew reference, it is not as well known. It takes some finding to search this out in the Bible. It comes from 1 Corinthians 15:26. In that chapter, Paul is talking about Resurrection and the defeat of death that comes through Christ.

Now, isn't that interesting? If left here, it would just be a shadow, a hint of what JK Rowling was really writing about. But, it does not start there. I knew that Harry was going to have to make a sacrifice to save the wizarding world, all of the signs pointed to it. But, I thought she would not go so far as to have Harry die and be raised back up. I thought that she would be more subtle about it.

I was wrong and I am really glad I was wrong. Harry comes to the conclusion that he has to die to defeat Voldermort. But, more than that, that with his willing death, he will offer the same magical protection for his friends that his mother gave to him. Here is the quote, "I've done what my mother did. They're (his friends) are 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."

Wow. I mean wow. Talk about pointing to Jesus' death and atonement in a beautiful way! And even more, the scenes where Harry goes to his death strongly resemble Aslan's journey in the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Jo has given a beautiful picture that points directly to Christ and what she believes personally.

She hinted this would be so in an interview about four years ago. In that interview, she stated that she does believe in God and that she did not want to talk too much about that, as it would give away the ending of the book. Well, we have the ending and see what she is pointing at.

Thanks Jo. You have now reached my top three Christian writers of all time with Tolkien and Lewis. You deserve it.