Superman. What’s not to like about him? The man of Steel! No one can beat Superman – unless they have Kryptonite. But, without that, he’s all steel. And we like that about Superman, but there’s something else about Superman we like – Clark Kent. We like that he can also be that dorky, vulnerable guy, don’t we? We like that he’s loyal and sensitive and compassionate. We like his voluntary soft side, even though he’s the man of steel.
In the 1970’s, Aubrey Andelin wrote a book I read called Man of Steel and Velvet. It was to help me learn to be a more balanced man as I prepared to be married. Andelin compares a man’s character to a building with a strong foundation and steel supports, but also with interior decorations, artwork, and landscaping. Steel and velvet – he’s firm and well-tempered; he provides his family with security and raises the admiration of those around him. Still, like soft velvet, he has sensitivity and gentleness that is caring of others and protects those who need it. We admire men with that balance, don’t we?
According to Carl Sandberg, Abraham Lincoln was such a man. Speaking of his steel side he writes:
“He commanded the most powerful armies till then assembled in modern warfare; … he abolished the right of habeas corpus; he directed politically and spiritually the wild, massive, turbulent forces let loose in the civil war. …failing to get action, as chief executive having war powers, he issued the paper by which he declared the slaves to be free under ‘military necessity.’”
And at the same time, Lincoln is remembered for his gentleness:
“often with nothing to say, he said nothing, slept not at all and on occasions was seen to weep in a way that made weeping appropriate, decent, majestic. …a…man heard him say, ‘Voorhees, don’t it seem strange to you that I, who could never so much as cut off the head of a chicken, should be elected or selected, into the midst of all this blood?’”
Occasionally, we run across the stories of such men. Some of them have been real shapers of society – like Abraham Lincoln. Men of steel and velvet.
As we journey toward Christmas, each week we’re taking a look at some of the baby pictures of Jesus – the oldest views we have of Him that actually come from long before Bethlehem. The goal, remember is for us all to KNOW Jesus – not just to know about Him.
We’ve seen Him as a snake handler, and a rock. Today we’re looking at 2 views of Him that are as different from each other as they can be, but that necessarily combine in the one person of Jesus, just like steel and velvet – that’s the lion and the lamb.
In OT days, few animals were respected or feared more than lions. They symbolized power, especially the kind that makes us scared. People who fear lions live longer than those who don’t. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Hosea, and Amos all use a lion to describe God’s power at war.
Isaiah 31:4 As a lion growls, a great lion over his prey-- and though a whole band of shepherds is called together against him, he is not frightened by their shouts or disturbed by their clamor-- so the LORD Almighty will come down to do battle on Mount Zion and on its heights.
Amos 3:8 The lion has roared -- who will not fear? The Sovereign LORD has spoken -- who can but prophesy?
The idea that Jesus would be symbolized by a lion goes way back in Israel’s history. Every one of the 12 tribes of Israel had a standard – a picture-symbol that stood for their tribe. They put them onto some kind of banner and raised them in the Israelite camp to mark where their tribe was. Think of it as Seahawks, Bears, Packers, Cardinals, and Panthers.
The tribe of Judah had the lion as its standard, with the motto: “Rise up, Jehovah, and let Your enemies be scattered!” Jacob had prophesied about Judah just before he died in…
Genesis 49:9 You are a lion's cub, O Judah; you return from the prey, my son. Like a lion he crouches and lies down, like a lioness--who dares to rouse him?
It was fitting that Judah would use the King among the beasts as its symbol. Judah was the tribe of kings in Israel. It was from Judah that the earthly parents of Jesus would descend.
So, when C. S. Lewis writes The Chronicles of Narnia in the late 40’s and early 50’s, and he’s looking for the character that will represent Jesus, he uses the lion Aslan, the great King of Narnia.
In one particular scene, as the 4 Pevensie children are learning about the King for the 1st time, we find them in conversation with Mr. and Mrs. Beaver. Lucy, the youngest, hears from Mrs. Beaver how Aslan is a lion, and that His appearance is impressive – even scary .
“Then he isn’t safe?” said Lucy.
“Safe?” said Mr. Beaver. “Don’t you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.”
The children do meet Aslan, and sure enough, His very presence is nothing to be taken lightly:
“People who have not been in Narnia sometimes think that a thing cannot be good and terrible at the same time. If the children had ever thought so, they were cured of it now. For when they tried to look at Aslan’s face they just caught a glimpse of the golden mane and the great, royal, solemn, overwhelming eyes; and then they found they couldn’t look at him and went all trembly.”
Lewis chose well when he latched onto this OT picture of Jesus – good, and unsafe, all at once.
(a more complete picture of the scene could be used - “Is, is he a man?” Asked Lucy.
“Aslan a man!” said Mr. Beaver sternly. “Certainly not, I tell you he is the King of the wood and the son of the great Emperor-Beyond-the-Sea. Don’t you know who is the King of Beasts? Aslan is a lion – the lion, the great lion.”
“Ooh!” said Susan, “I’d thought he was a man. Is he – quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion.”
“That you will, dearie, and no mistake,” said Mrs. Beaver, “if there’s anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they’re either braver than most or else just silly.”)
Let’s pause for a moment and reflect on that image…
Don’t you need a lion in your corner? Don’t you want a Savior Who can truly save you? I’m glad those images of Jesus are there for me to look back upon and to find some reassurance that Jesus can handle the enemy!
But as we look back at this baby picture of Jesus in the Bible, something strange and wonderful happens. In Rev 5:5, John is told to look at the Lion of the tribe of Judah, and, sure enough, a mysterious animal begins to make its entrance.
Revelation 5:5-6
Then one of the elders said to me, "Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals." Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing in the center of the throne, encircled by the four living creatures and the elders. He had seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth.
When John turns to see Him, he sees a lamb! In fact, the word suggests a little lamb, and it’s one that has been fatally wounded, like the lambs for sacrifice that the Jews offered. This lamb has symbolically carried a fatality since the creation of the world.
One of the elders from Heaven says, ‘See, the lion!’ but John, from the earth side, says, ‘I see, a lamb,’ and their 2 accounts show us how much we need both to fully appreciate Jesus’ glory.
What we’re dealing with here is an oxymoron. That’s a phrase that seems to be self-contradicting.
Jumbo shrimp
Pretty ugly
Clearly confused
Act naturally
Congressional Ethics
Airline food
Objective opinion
Tight slacks
Short sermon
From there on in Rev, the symbols of Jesus are oxymoronic. Jesus the Lion is mostly called the Lamb right up to the end. It makes for some interesting word-pictures:
6:16 "…hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb!”
Ever see an angry lamb? What will it do? Show its teeth? Make its wool stand up on the back of its neck? Bleat at you?
17:14 They will make war against the Lamb, but the Lamb will overcome them because he is Lord of lords and King of kings--and with him will be his called, chosen and faithful followers.
You don’t usually picture a lamb as a mighty general, winning a war, but that’s how Jesus is. JB introduces Him by saying, “Behold the Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world.” The Lion of Judah is also the lamb of sacrifice. If you look at what you can know about Jesus, you’d see it.
His words show He was lion and lamb
• Jesus, who harshly rebukes the hypocrisy of the Jews of Jerusalem, weeps over the city of Jerusalem because they rejected Him
• Jesus, the One with authority over death, shouts for Lazarus to come out of the grave, but doesn’t open his mouth to defend His own life in front of Herod.
His actions show He was lion and lamb
• Jesus, the Master, also stoops to do the lowliest servant’s job of washing feet
• Jesus, whose presence makes the demons beg Him to go easy them, is also the Jesus who takes children in His arms and blesses them.
In fact, His whole purpose of coming to earth was full of being both lion and lamb
• Jesus, Who commanded the wind and waves to be still, didn’t threaten those who were crucifying Him; didn’t order His angels to the rescue
• Jesus, who was the light of life, endured the worst of darkness
• Jesus, Who is the Bread of Life, allowed Himself to go hungry
• Jesus, Who exists in the form of God, empties Himself to become a helpless human baby
• Jesus, Who is the King of Kings, took on the form of a servant
• Jesus, Who is the Good Shepherd, is led like a lamb to the slaughter
• Jesus, Who is the Lord of life, died the equivalent of eternal death for all people
• Jesus, the great physician who healed so many of their physical ills, is crushed for our iniquities, bruised for our transgressions
Jesus is the perfect combination of steel and velvet – Lion and Lamb.
That means, if you want to be on Jesus’ side of life, there are a few questions you need to answer for yourself today…
I. Do You Accept Jesus for Who and What He is?
Can you say: I accept that He came not only as the mighty lion of Judah, but also as the humble lamb of sacrifice. I accept that God’s plan for my salvation included a cross and humility, and suffering. I accept Jesus the way He is.
Did you ever wonder why God commanded so many thousands of lambs to be offered as sacrifices in the OT? One reason was to teach us that sin requires the shedding of blood. (Heb 9:22) But there’s something deeper about all those sacrifices. They all point to Jesus.
The Jews were disappointed. They gave attention to the OT lion passages, but not to the lamb ones! They liked to think about liberation from Rome and freedom from worry. They liked to consider the great day that the Messiah would come and make everything better. Frankly, that’s what I would look for if I were “shopping for a savior” – but God’s ways are higher than our ways.
• So God sends Abraham up Mt. Moriah, to sacrifice his only son, and the Lord Himself provides a lamb in Isaac’s place.
• Each year, Israel sacrifices a lamb and smears its blood on their doorposts to commemorate when God freed them from slavery.
• All of the firstborn lambs are given over to the Lord to be sacrificed – a reminder that they belong to Him because He killed the firstborn of Egypt and rescued His people.
• Then there are special offerings made because of sin, and they are made with the death of a lamb.
In a few weeks, we’ll be looking at the picture of Jesus in Isaiah 53
Isaiah 53:10 “Yet it was the Lord's will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the LORD makes his life a guilt offering, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand.”
What you have to decide is if you’ll be numbered among those who accept Jesus and His work as the Lamb for you. (we’ll have a chance for you to do that in a while)
Do you accept Jesus for Who and what He is?
Here’s a 2nd question to deal with…
II. Do You Accept All That Comes With Belonging to Him?
People are package deals. Anyone contemplating marriage needs to understand this. When you find that perfect man or perfect woman, you’re also finding someone with “baggage.”
There was a powerful lesson for the 1st cent. Christians in Revelation 5:9-10 as John described for them a Lamb who is King and Conqueror – a lesson in triumph through suffering, victory through death. There wasn’t a lot of glamour to being a Christian. Jesus had won salvation by suffering and dying for them, and many of them would win their greatest victory by suffering or by dying for Him. They needed to be taken back to the old baby pictures of Jesus and be reminded that He is both lion and lamb.
That lesson doesn’t end with 1st century Christians. You were afraid I was going to point that out, weren’t you? When you accept Jesus, the Lion and Lamb, it means you also accept without shame whatever goes along with belonging to Him. The writer of Hebrews invited his readers to this…
Hebrews 13:11-14 The high priest carries the blood of animals into the Most Holy Place as a sin offering, but the bodies are burned outside the camp. And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood. Let us, then, go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore. For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come.
Peter reminded his readers…
1 Peter 4:16 However, if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name.
Paul said something similar…
2 Timothy 1:12 That is why I am suffering as I am. Yet I am not ashamed, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day.
Go ahead and idolize the hollow heroes of celebrity. The bottom line is that you and I and history look up the most to people who were put through the wringer and endured it gracefully.
The real heroes are those who were able to stand up under adversity and threat, not those who avoided it at all cost.
Jesus said, (Matthew 11:6) “Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me.”
Face it, when you accept Someone Whose actions and Whose very identity is composed of self-contradicting qualities, you accept along with Him the insults of those who think you’re silly for doing it.
Do accept that? Before you answer, let me point out what else you accept then:
You accept the association of being part of a community of believers who love each other and take care of each other – people who have got your back when you need it most. You are a part of a family of people who are free from the love of money, who care for their families, who are honest and genuine. You are a part of a living Kingdom that doesn’t exist just to feed itself but to venture out into its world and engage in meaningful service. You are a part of a trust, established by God, to organize and use His resources for projects that are an ongoing, exciting adventure.
I gladly accept what comes with belonging to Jesus! All of it! Do you?
Let’s deal with one more question…
III. Do You Accept the Challenge to Be Like Him?
Jesus’ primary reason for coming was to die, not to be an example. We can’t be the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. Still, part of being like Jesus means having this double character of lion and lamb in the way we live.
You can hear Jesus saying this when He tells His disciples,
Matthew 10:16 I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.
You can hear it in the words of Paul as he writes about suffering for being a Christian:
Romans 8:35-37
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: "For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered." No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
The same Paul who wrote…
2 Corinthians 4:10-11
We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body.
Also wrote:
2 Timothy 1:7
For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.
Shrewd as serpents, innocent as doves?
Sheep to be slaughtered, more than conquerors?
Carrying the death of Jesus, and having a spirit of power?
Steel and velvet. Lion & Lamb. Accepting Jesus means I accept the challenge to be a person like Him.
Lord’ Supper:
I will openly confess that there’s a lot about God’s ways here that I just don’t get. But, the more I think about this 2-fold identity of Jesus, the more it makes sense to me. And here’s another reason why:
Because of you. Because of me.
You and I have a 2-fold problem because of sin: We’re guilty, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins. That’s our first problem, just like when we break any law. We’re guilty. We need Someone Who will pay the price for our sin – a sacrificial lamb.
We’re also sick. (Jer 17:9) “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure.” Our lives are sin-sick. Not only do the legal books record that we’re guilty, but we also think like sinners and act like sinners. That’s our 2nd problem. It makes us like the hospital patient who has to be handcuffed to the bed. That problem can be remedied only by a powerful transformation taking place in our lives. We need a powerful friend, an ally Who will help us overcome the effects of sin in our hearts and transform us into something better.
We’re in double trouble. Guilt. Sickness. And we need a double cure. We don’t need just a lion to be our strong champion. We don’t need just a lamb to be our sacrifice.
We need the Lion and the Lamb. Jesus not only accepts the punishment of our sin by being the sacrificial Lamb, He’s also the mighty Lion Who deals with the effects of sin on our whole lives.
This double character of Jesus also means that when I do accept Him, I don’t accept Him just as my Savior. I also accept Him as my Lord. I don’t just accept His offer to pay the debt I owe. I also accept His rule in my life and I invite Him there to do a work on me.
Every week when we gather around the Lord’s Table, we’re gathering to remember both of these things. We’re remembering that Jesus was sacrificed – that He became a curse for us, and died as a perfect lamb. We’re also remembering that in His death, He won the ultimate victory, over death itself, so that the grave couldn’t hold Him! The cross is about the Lamb Who is also the Lion of Judah.
(invitation later)
I accept Jesus for Who and What He is.
I accept all that comes with belonging to Him.
I accept the challenge to be like Him.
There’s a key here: you have to accept it. No one can be forced into accepting Jesus. There’s a story that Constantine tried to force his army to become Christians by marching them through the river and “baptizing” them. Nice try, but God never forces anyone to accept the free gift of life in Jesus!
So, after you’ve seen Jesus from these different angles, what would you do?
Would you accept Him for the first time as your Lord?
Would you finally accept the challenge to be more like Him in some particular way this morning?
