JK Rowling has done it again. Books were flying out of bookstores at a rate of knots, people were queuing up for days to be one of the first to buy it, people have sat up all night reading it, and in its first week over 2.5 million copies were sold. The seventh and final instalment in the Harry Potter world has been the most eagerly awaited book of the year, speculation has been rampant about its story line and potential deaths and endings. Much legal ink has been spilt enduring that there were no leaks or early releases. So was it worth all the fuss?

It is in essence no longer a story about a young unspectacular boy who upon discovering he is a wizard has opened before him a whole new world where he is famous and can do magic. This is not a book about his school day scrapes and adventures, Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry features only as the backdrop to the final scene. No, this book is about destiny, good and evil, truth and lies, and death. Death stalks the reader from the opening scenes in which Harry's owl plummets to her demise, and a friend is left injured by a battle with the death eaters, through to the final scenes as we survey those who died in the last battle with Voldemort.

Another big issue in the book is truth. Dumbledore, Harry's friend and guide, as well as headmaster and professor at Hogwarts, died at the end of the previous book and left Harry with a task to do, to destroy the Horcrux's and thereby destroy Voldemort. However, as details are revealed about Dumbledores past Harry has to decide whether he should trust Dumbledore and fulfil the task he was given or if he should take on the challenge of the Deathly Hallows and, if he can possess all three objects, become master of death itself.

Would it be possible to master death, just think of all the good you could do. It has a particular pull for Harry as he visits his parents graves in Godric Hollow, as he has lost his Godfather, and throughout the book increasingly continues to lose his friends. If only he could master death and remove the sting, the pain of grief. Or should he complete the task he was given defeat Voldemort and rid the world of his evil, knowing full well that it may cost him his own life.

Rowling has hit upon one of the great ideas of our age, that of conquering death and the reader is longing for Harry to do just that. To be able to resurrect his parents, Dumbledore, and others that he has lost along the way. But in the end death remains unmastered. Loss, grief and pain are part of Harry's experience as it is part of ours and that is maybe what makes him so successful, he is just like us.

But what if you could master death. Jesus once said these words "He who believes in me will live, even though he dies, and whoever lives and believes in me will never die." That is an astonishing statement to make anytime, but even more so when speaking to the grieving sister of a friend who has just died. The people around have no problem believing Jesus could heal Lazarus, but raise him from the dead? No that is one step to far. Death is the uncrossable barrier. Until Jesus stands by the tomb and says to the three day old corpse "Lazarus, come out." and Lazarus come out alive and well. Rowlings story suggests resurrection, the possibility of mastery over death. But the gospels show us the real thing, accurate accounts of real events. Death mastered, the grave defeated and future assured. Surely that is something worth reading!

Christianity & Culture