A Revelation Invitation

(Greek Funerary Lion, Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Providence, Rhode Island)

And one of the elders said to me, “Weep no more; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals.”

And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders I saw a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain, with seven horns and with seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth.(Revelation 5:5-6 ESV)

You may have experienced a situation like this: You interact with a coworker over the phone for weeks or even months. In your mind’s eye you develop an image of what she looks like based only on the sound of her voice. Then when you finally meet her in person, her appearance isn’t at all what you were expecting.

John was distraught by the hopelessness of his and the church’s turbulent future hidden in this sealed scroll. One of the elders announced to him that a savior had arrived, a lion. Yes! That’s what we need! A lion to go before us! No one dares confront a lion. But when he looked up, he sees not a lion, but a lamb. And this lamb, the most helpless of domesticated creatures, had been slaughtered. How could a slain lamb comfort him in this moment of hopeless distress?

The lion imagery is unmistakably messianic. At his death Israel described his son Judah as a lion cub prophesying that a descendant would emerge as a ruler of his people (Genesis 49:8-10). To strengthen this messianic claim, the lion was also said to be the Root of David (Isaiah 11:1,10), a royal descendant with a claim to David’s throne. When John was told of the presence of the Lion of the tribe of Judah, he knew immediately that it was Jesus, one who had conquered, one whom he could confidently look to for deliverance from their enemies, especially the last great enemy of death. The Lion rules whatever domain he inhabits, including the grave. Their salvation had come.

However, when John raised his eyes, he saw no lion, or rather the lion appeared as a lamb. As a symbol of power the Lamb is the polar opposite of the Lion, especially a lamb that has been slain. What John was confronted with was a lion who had conquered by bearing witness through his atoning, self-sacrificial death on the cross. We see here an entirely different paradigm of power and conquest than what the world would expect using different weapons with which to overcome his enemies. At his trial Jesus defied the religious authorities in Jerusalem standing silent in the face of all the allegations leveled at him save one: “Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?” the high priest accused. And Jesus defiantly replied, “I am, and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven” (Mark 14:60-61 ESV). He also defied the Roman authorities refusing to defend himself before Pilate except to answer this one question: “Are you the King of the Jews?” He replied: “You have said so” (Mark 15:2 ESV). This was not passivity that we observe, but defiance as his enemies threatened him with their most effective weapon of all—death on a cross. That execution elevated Jesus to his throne. The power of the Lion was projected paradoxically through the weakness of the Lamb, albeit an all-powerful (seven horns) and all-seeing (seven eyes) lamb. He conquers the enemies of God, those who corrupt and destroy God’s creation, but he does so as a Lamb through his sacrifice. His was not a conquest through passivity. No, this lamb was standing … in defiance of and ruler over all the corrupt powers of the world.

In the strength of the Lamb we too can bear witnesses to the world in the face of hostile opposition. To be this kind of witness is to conquer. The Lion’s power is made perfect in the Lamb’s weakness.

Lord, help me trust your weapons in this conflict. Weakness is your strength. Help me trust that you are with me when I stand up to opposition without fighting back with the weapons of the world. You have said that our battle is not against flesh and blood. Therefore, I should not trust the weapons of the world to fight with. I will overcome through my own self-sacrificial life in accordance with your self-sacrificial death. Amen.