The Lion Is the Lamb.

Revelation 5:6-10

March 31, 2019

I.

Last week, we heard about the scroll with seven seals, which contains the story of God’s redemptive and saving purpose for creation.  In the end, John is informed that the only One who is able to open the scroll and activate the revelation is “the Lion of Judah, the Root of David," who has “conquered.”  This is a perfect cue for the grand entrance of a mighty, roaring, triumphant lion.  That would be completely in tune with what many expected of the Messiah: a strong, conquering military hero.

But then what John actually sees appearing on the scene is… a Lamb.  And not just a Lamb, but one still bearing the visible marks of the knife that slit its throat when it was slaughtered.  We are led to anticipate a great and powerful lion.  What we get is a small, weak, apparently defeated, Lamb.

It would be quite confusing and disappointing, did we not also notice that the Lamb is still “standing.”  And it is described as having “seven horns,” symbolizing both complete power and the fullness of light, and “seven eyes,” symbolizing an omniscient, all-seeing Wisdom.  This is not an ordinary lamb.

In the Hebrew Scriptures a lamb could represent several things: there are the two lambs required to be sacrificed every day in the Temple ritual, there is the lamb whose shed blood protects the people from the power of death, when the people are about to be liberated from slavery in Egypt, and we have the Servant of God in Isaiah 53, who acts like a lamb in enduring indignities and death on behalf of the people.  We who know the gospel of John remember as well that it is when John the Baptizer names Jesus as “the Lamb of God,” that Jesus’ ministry begins.  

Earlier in Revelation, Jesus is several times called “the faithful witness” “who was dead and came to life.”  Here the Lord appears as a Lamb who sums up these images and more.  The Lamb is the witness who stands faithful in the face of violence and sin, who consequently suffers and even dies, whose life-blood is therefore poured out to redeem, liberate, and protect the creation, whom death could not annihilate, but who conquers death and lives forever.

In this the Lamb gives us the model and template for discipleship, as he reveals and fulfills the love of God in emptying himself in obedience to God, even to death, and therefore receiving the name that is above every name.  This is the One who is worthy to open the scroll and finally disclose the true nature of God and the creation.

So it is not that the Lamb replaces the lion… rather, the Lamb is revealed as the true form of the lion, whose power is revealed in weakness, whose final victory resolves out of defeat, whose eternal and transcendent life emerges out of his ignominious death.  Because the Lamb appears in the heavenly throne room, still standing and alive even with the nasty gashes of slaughter still visible in his body, he opens the way of life to all who follow him.  That is, whoever also stands fast in resistance to the power of evil in the world, whoever steadfastly says yes to God and therefore also necessarily says no to the rulers of the world, whoever also empties themselves in obedience so that God’s love and compassion may flow through them, will also stand in God’s life forever.

II.

The Lamb does not compromise.  The Lamb does not assimilate.  The Lamb does not make or accept any kind of deal with the forces of selfishness, ambition, and violence.  The Lamb dies, and so now stands as the Truth and the Way and the Life of God, having endured and absorbed the rage, fear, and hatred of the world, even to the point of letting go of his own mortal existence, he emerges victorious on the other side of death.

The Lamb’s horns and eyes are “the seven spirits of God,” which is to say they represent the fullness of God’s Holy Spirit, “sent out into all the Earth.”  It is important to note that the Spirit comes in and through the Lamb, meaning that the message and meaning of the Spirit is identical to that of the slaughtered Lamb.  If you want to know what the Spirit is saying to the churches, then look at what the Lamb does, whose witness brings him through suffering and death.  

In Isaiah these seven spirits of God are wisdom, understanding, counsel, strength, knowledge, reverence, and the fear of God: interior attitudes that ground, focus, and orient our actions.  They are themselves based on the foundation of our trust in God’s Truth, which the slaughtered Lamb represents.  The Lamb is the only One who is worthy to open the scroll containing the source code of the universe, revealing the ultimate nature, meaning, and destiny of everything.  

It all comes down to Jesus Christ, the One who loves us.  He is the slaughtered Lamb, the faithful witness, the Servant of God, who demonstrates that holding on tight to the love of God no matter what, is what truly keeps us alive; and that it means at the same time letting go of everything that would separate us from God’s love.  It means emptying ourselves as Christ empties himself, revealing God’s eternal self-emptying, in creating, redeeming, and sustaining the creation.  

John is accessing this knowledge by means of a vision, which is an interior, contemplative experience.  This suggests to me that we do not receive these gifts of the Spirit until and unless we receive them personally, in our hearts.  For the vision, because it is about everything, also includes each one of us, and has to start within us, as Jesus says about the Kingdom of God.  If we don’t see the Kingdom of God first within ourselves, we will not see it anywhere.

Only the slaughtered Lamb is worthy, is able, to reveal our true nature, our true meaning, and our true destiny.  The Lamb opens the scroll of my life, therefore I may understand how he opens the scroll of all of life.  Because he discloses my true nature, I begin to perceive with awe and wonder the true nature of everything.

III.

What does it mean to welcome the slaughtered Lamb, the faithful witness who was dead and who is now alive, into the throne room of your own life?  What does it mean to have him, the One whose strength is in weakness and whose life is revealed in his death, be declared worthy to tell you who you really are?  What does it mean to have him take and open the scroll upon which is written your purpose, nature, meaning, and destiny?

I think it means I give up my own self-importance, and my own delusions of grandeur, always imagining that I need to be a ferocious, punishing, vindictive lion.  It means no longer imagining that I am here to save others or even the world.  It means giving up my self-serving plans, desires, and schemes.  It means I stop assuming that life demands a strong defense and a potent offense.  It means letting go of the fear and anger and even hatred demanded by my ego.  It means releasing all the comfortable, cozy, self-centered lies that separate me from others and from God.  It means I stop trying to avoid and provide against death at all costs….  Because only through his eyes and his action, only by his example and teaching, can I know and express who I truly am.  Only he, the One who empties himself out of love for the whole world, can show me my true Self.  Because if I am at all, I am in him. 

When the Lamb takes the scroll, all the creatures in the whole throne-room bow down before him.  They burn billows of fragrant incense representing the ascending prayers of all God’s people, and they erupt, as so often in this book, in joyful song.  By the way, the book of Revelation is actually a musical!  Characters periodically just start singing.

They sing that the Lamb is worthy to take and open the scroll because his shed blood serves to “ransom” God’s people.  His blood buys back the lives of those who had been enslaved to sin and death, setting them free.  In the Bible, blood means life.  By his blood Jesus purchases us from our slavery to our own ego.  By shifting our obedience to him, keeping his commandments and loving each other as he loves us, we share together in his life.  His life-blood creates and feeds repentance and discipleship — new ways of thinking and acting — in those who are fed by it.  This is what’s going on in the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper: his body and blood nourish his life in us, which we then express in our obedient actions, doing justice, kindness, and humility in the world. 

At least as important as this transaction is the truth that the ones whose lives are bought by the Lamb come “from every tribe and language and people and nation.”  Faith in Jesus Christ embraces, welcomes, and includes everyone.  It realizes the promise of God to Abraham that all peoples will be blessed in him.  The Kingdom of God is multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, multi-racial, and multi-lingual.  Unfortunately, these days it must be said that there is therefore zero basis for anyone to say, as some motivated by evil, hatred, and fear do, that Christianity is about maintaining white supremacy or restoring European civilization. 

IV.

The end of the hymn says that those who are ransomed by the Lamb have been made “to be a kingdom and priests serving our God, and they will reign on earth.”  We are the kingdom and priesthood of the Lamb, when we place our whole-hearted trust in the One who was dead but is now alive.  We are the witnesses to the life beyond the power of death we see in the Faithful Witness to God’s saving love.  We are now able to walk freely on the Earth without fear or anger, shame or violence, because the Servant of God has given his life for us and to us.  

Indeed, the hymn says we will reign on the Earth.  But the sovereignty of the ransomed saints of God will not be according to the corrupt, hateful, arrogant, and selfish manner of ego and Empire.  It will not be by weaponry or coercion, threats and extortion.  

In the Lamb we reign in service and compassion, we rule in humility and forgiveness, and we govern by gentleness and gratitude.  Because indeed it is our participation in the Lamb’s self-giving love, letting go of our own agendas and desires, letting the shalom of God flow through us into a needy, broken, and blind world.

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