PREVIOUSLY ON ‘THE LION KING’:
Mufasa shows Simba the whole of the Pridelands and tells him
that “everywhere the light touches” will be his. But he warns him never to go
out of their kingdom, into the shadowlands. Scar wants Simba dead, and he
tempts him – telling him about the Elephant Graveyard, and that only the
bravest lions go there. Simba takes Nala, lies to his parents and they run away
into the graveyard, where they are attacked by Scar’s hyenas, and are about to
be killed when Mufasa bursts in, overpowers the hyenas and generally saves the
day like the legend that he is. (This is an EPIC scene which we’ll come back to
later on…)
So here we are – we’re only interested up to 1:35 – “We’re pals right?” – “Right.”
So here we are – we’re only interested up to 1:35 – “We’re pals right?” – “Right.”
When we were watching this scene recently there were
genuinely audible sighs coming from my mates, possibly even from me. In the
middle of the film, this scene always just hits me right in the guts, but at
the same time it’s beautiful. Why?
Simba steps in his Dad’s paw-print and realises how small he
is. And I know that feeling. So often we think we’re big enough and brave
enough and strong enough to deal with everything by ourselves – we’re
independent people, we don’t need help – and then the moment comes when we lose
control, when it starts to turn sour, when there’s nothing we can do and
nothing we can say… And we look down at our little paw-print and realise that
we’re just not big enough. But sometimes - if we look closer - we can see, like
Simba does, that our Dad is a lot bigger.
And then Mufasa looks at his child and says, “Simba, you deliberately disobeyed me.”
And he knows it’s true. “And what’s
worse, you put Nala in danger.” And he knows that’s true too. And we know
that feeling, don’t we? When you don’t want to look at anyone and there’s a
cold lump in your chest because you know it was wrong, and you know it hurt
people. And there’s nothing you can say you’ve just got to wait for, “I forgive
you.” You’ve just got to hope for “I still love you.”
And Simba says, “But
you’re not scared of anything!” – and the King replies - “I was today. I thought I might lose you.” This
bit is so much truer than we know. Mufasa is more powerful than anyone else, he
rules in his kingdom. But because he is a good father, he cannot control his
son. Because he’s a good father he doesn’t force Simba to stay in the cave, he
doesn’t build huge walls to keep him in,
he doesn’t put an electric tag around his ankle. He lets his son be free. He
makes obedience a choice. And because he loves him enough to make him free, the
mighty King is vulnerable to this little cub. He is scared, because for all his
strength, all his power, he knows that some day he might lose his little boy.
And when his little boy deliberately disobeys him, when he runs away, when he
risks his life – it breaks his father’s heart. And I believe that God loves us
enough to set us free, and it breaks his heart that he might lose us. The
Creator of the Universe is our Dad; and he sits at the window and weeps, and waits,
and hopes that some day we’ll come home.
But somehow, despite all the pain, all the heartbreak;
despite all the times we put Nala in danger and she really does get hurt – our
Dad, the mighty King, still smiles when he looks at us, and laughs and plays
with us like the best dads do with their kids. And when we draw up close to
him, and ask: “We’re pals right?” He
always says, in a voice too strong and warm to doubt: “Right.”
