Introduction
This morning we’re going to find out about a lion. A great big powerful victorious lion. So I thought I’d bring along an example. Now you need to be careful I don’t want to frighten anyone, so be warned this is one ferocious lion I’ve got back here. It gave me quite a bit of bother on the way down in the car actually. So are you ready, are you prepared for the worst. Well here he is. [Bring out little sheep key ring.] Confounding expectations.
There was a program on TV last night about Fawlty Towers. Most of the humour comes from the fact that the people in the sitcom are the very last people who should be doing the jobs they do. They have the rudest man alive, working in the service industry, with the public, running a hotel. You have the waiter who is Spanish but is working in an English hotel but doesn’t speak English. You have the contrast between the expectations and the actual delivery. The guest were expecting a certain thing or for things to work a certain way but it really happened nothing at all like that.
The passage we read this morning has one of those contrasts in it. It’s not designed for humour though. But there is this almost inherent out of placeless about Christianity, the feeling that things aren’t quite what you might expect. And this comes out in Revelation 5. We are introduced to this great scene in heaven, where this scroll is produced, which has 7 seals and lots of writing. You kind of get the impression that it is a very important scroll which has lots of interesting stuff in it. However, there is a problem, no-one can be found who is worthy to break the seals and open it. They searched the whole earth and when no-one was found who was worthy, they searched all of heaven and no-one was found who could open the scroll. But then just when John thinks all hope is lost and the scroll is to remain forever sealed, one of the elders announces that someone has been found who is worthy. The lion of Judah, the root of David, the one who has triumphed.
The only one in heaven and earth who is worthy to open the scroll, who is described as a lion, the one who is a descendant of David, the great warrior King, who extended the borders of Israel further than anyone else. The one who is described as having triumphed. You build up this great picture in your mind, of a great warrior. Someone great and powerful who is mighty in battle. But then in the next verse John describes not a lion but a lamb. Not a great and powerful lion who takes down his prey on the hoof, but a meek lamb who eats grass. Not only is a lamb described when your expecting a lion, but then the lamb has been killed. We’re expecting a victorious lion but instead we get a lamb who has been killed, which would seem to indicate defeat rather than victory. It’s not really who we are expecting. Of course he then goes on to describe the lamb as having 7 eyes and 7 horns and we’re really not expecting that. But we’re not going to get into that this morning. The book of revelation is highly symbolic and we’re just going to scratch the surface this morning by looking at this contrast between the lion and the lamb.
So what does John mean by contrasting the two images here. We are told to expect a great lion and victor but then we are introduced to a lamb that was slain. What does John mean by this? Many of the symbols and pictures in Revelation are biblical pictures and symbols. The book is designed to be read by people familiar with the Old Testament and other Jewish writings so that they can understand what all the pictures and symbols mean. So lets look back and see if these titles have cropped up anywhere else in Scripture.
Lion of Judah
The first title is lion of Judah. Unfortunately, this is the only reference in the entire Bible to the lion of Judah. The title is not used anywhere else in the Bible. However, we don’t draw a complete blank because there is a Judah who is described as a lion. The passage is from Genesis 49 and verses 8-12. Jacob is near the end of his life and as is the custom he gathers his sons round him to give them a blessing. However, this is not a normal blessing. God grants Jacob insight into the futures of his sons and their descendants. Let’s see what he said about Judah.
Judah, your brothers will praise you; your hand will be on the neck of your enemies; your father’s sons will bow down to you. 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? The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until he comes to whom it belongs and the obedience of the nations is his. He will tether his donkey to a vine, his colt to the choicest branch; he will wash his garments in wine, his robes in the blood of grapes. His eyes will be darker than wine, his teeth whiter than milk.
Here Jacob speaks of Judah as a lion. The lion is linked both with kingship and power. Although Israel will exist for hundreds of years without a king, when there is eventually a king he will be a descendant of Judah. 600 years later, David is crowned king and his descendants are to sit on the throne forever. But this is not just any kind, the lion also speaks of power. He will be a strong and victorious king. It’s also worth noting that this points forward to someone to come who will have the kingship and who will rule the nations. You can easily image this person being described as the lion of Judah.
However, this is not the only reference to lions in the Old Testament, although it is the only reference that links lions and Judah, there is some other stuff about lions. While there are a few references to real lions, like the ones Daniel faced and David and Samson defeated, we are really interested in metaphorical lions. When lions are used symbolically like they are in Revelation what things are they used to describe. One of the very common themes they represent are great military victories. Sometimes the lion is God who defeats either Israel’s enemies or Israel herself because of her misdeeds. Sometimes it is Israel who is the lion when they win a great victory. Sometimes the lion is a foreign army, sent by God to punish wickedness. But the theme that runs through all of them is that the lion is strong and completely victorious in battle.
So if we approach Revelation 5, with these ideas in our mind the Lion of Judah, would be a great King, one who has the right to rule all of the nations. He also comes from a great victory over his enemies. The Lion of Judah. The all conquering hero King. But if that’s the lion what about the lamb.
The lamb that was slain
While references to the lion of Judah were scarce, references to lambs in the Old Testament were plentiful and most of them were dead. When I looked up lion in the Bible Gateway website I got a couple of pages of references to lions but pages and pages of references to lambs. You see the lamb was one of the most common sacrificial animals and every other chapter in Leviticus and Numbers seems to be describing a lamb for this sacrifice or that festival. Then you get into Samuel and Kings and you find that so many hundred lambs were sacrifices with several thousand bulls and various other animals to celebrate great victories or to dedicate the temple or for some other reason. In fact if you do a search for lamb in the Bible it begins to sound like a slaughter house. There is just so much death.
Just the other week we looked at Abraham who trusted God to provide the lamb for the sacrifice, in place of his son. But the perhaps the most memorable lamb from the Old Testament is the passover lamb. The Israelites were slaves in Egypt. God had sent Moses to tell Pharaoh to let his people go. But Pharaoh had refused, so God had sent 9 plagues upon the Egyptians but Pharaoh would not let the people go. So finally God sent one last plague to make a total of 10. He sent the angle of death upon the land to kill all the first born children of the land. However, the Israelite first born children would be safe, if each family took a lamb and killed it and spread the blood on the door posts. When the angle came if he saw the blood he left them alone. After this tenth plague the Israelites left Egypt. But the image we have is of the lamb dying so the first born son did not have to. Which might remind you of Abraham and Isaac and God providing the ram. Then the Israelites are taken into the wilderness where God gives them the law. Here the lamb was one of the sacrificial animals that could be sacrificed to God, to atone for sin or to give thanks to God for his provision. One of these sacrifices was one we looked at in the run up to Christmas when Joseph and Mary did it for Jesus, only they were so poor they couldn’t afford a lamb so they used two birds as the law allowed. This was to redeem the first born child. All first born animals were to be sacrificed to God, but first born children were to be redeemed by sacrificing a lamb instead. Hmmm. I’m beginning to see a pattern here.
Then we can move on to the New Testament. John the Baptist sees Jesus and tells his followers to behold the lamb of God. John, the disciple this time, takes this further and stages the crucifixion to take place while the priests are slaughtering the passover lambs in the temple. Just in case we didn’t grasp it by now, Paul says that Jesus is our passover lamb and Peter describes Jesus as the lamb without blemish or defect.
And then we get to Revelation which talks about the lamb who was slain. Jesus was the one who died to cleanse us from sin, like the Old Testament sacrifices but was also the passover lamb who died so that we don’t have to. Yes, we will die physically if Jesus doesn’t return first but Jesus died so that it would not be the end and we would not die spiritually. We would not be separated from God and the physical death would be reversed in the resurrection and we will never die again. Jesus the lamb who was slain. Notice also the strange phrasing. The lamb who was slain. Not the lamb who is dead, but the lamb who was slain. Jesus is no longer dead but rose again.
Conquering through his death
So what are we to make of this great conquering lion who turns out to be lamb who was killed. This incongruity, this apparent reversing of what we might expect is at the very heart of the gospel. It happened first at the level of what the Jews were expecting their Messiah to be. They were expecting the great warrior king, the great victorious lion, who would fight the Romans and destroy them in battle. Instead they got Jesus who wandered about upsetting the religious leaders, talking about a different way, not military revolt. Worse he accepted sinners and pointed the finger at highly respected members of society. Then to cap it all he was arrested and killed on the cross by the Romans. He was the ultimate failure suffering the same humiliation and defeat that met so many so wannabe Messiahs in the first century. They all ended up dead on a Roman cross. But Jesus and his followers didn’t even resist didn’t even try to go out in a blaze of glory, fighting for what they believed, but he went meekly without resistance.
But this lion who was a lamb was not only about subverting expectations. There was a great victory won, there was a conquering hero. But the victory was over sin and death and the victory was won by the lamb, by the death of the lamb. More fully by the life, death and resurrection of the lamb but in short hand form the death of the lamb. When Jesus in one sense took our place and died for us, he was the passover lamb, he was the sin offering, he was the lamb of God. He was the one who died so that we don’t have to. And that was the victory he won. He won the victory not by defeating those humans who were in opposition to God, but by converting them. By giving them the chance to be on God’s side. By dying so that their sin could be forgiven, so they could be released from slavery to sin, so they could enjoy an unbroken relationship with God. It was death, sin and the devil that he defeated. Humans he came to save. The victory was won but it was won by the lambs death. And so the lion is the lamb. It might not be what we were expecting but it was the only way.
Jesus is the lion of Judah. The great ruler who has a right to rule over all the world. He was the conquering one, who had won a great victory. But only because he was the lamb, who was slain. He was worthy to open the seal because he was the lamb, who was slain. He was the lion but only because he was also the lamb. Rather than being exactly the wrong type of person for the job as in Fawlty Towers, he was exactly the right type of person. Because only the lamb, could be the lion.
What about us
So what are we to make of this all. What do we care about the lion and lamb? Why does it matter to us? Well to be fair you could ask the question about a lot of apocalyptic imagery. Who cares? Many of you did when we looked at what all the various beasts and horns meant in Daniel. In Revelation much of the same applies. Some people try and make it relevant by stretching it out of all recognition to make the various signs and symbols fit modern day people, nations and situations. While this may grip people’s attention more than an honest reading of the text, it is a distortion. But does this mean it has nothing to say to us? Of course not. There are many lessons we can learn from the lion and the lamb.
Firstly, for those who are not Christians. For those who have not yet trusted God to forgive their sins and restore their relationship with God, it can speak to you. It tells you that Jesus died for you. That the great victory Jesus won was not to kill all of God’s enemies or all those who had sinned. But rather that he defeated sin and death on your behalf. That he died so that you could be free from sin and death and so you can come to God. That God will accept you now, if you want to turn from your sin and trust him. Because Jesus died and defeated sin, you can be with God forever.
Secondly, for those of us who are Christians it is a reminder that Jesus is both the lion and lamb. The 7 churches that Revelation was originally written to were living in hard times with persecution all around and problems within. It must have been easy to feel defeated, to feel like a small enclave only barely clinging on with your last strength to a rock, while the world around swept through like a stormy sea dragging at you, trying to pull you along as it swept up everything else in its path. It would have been easy to think of yourself as barely able to hold on, survival was all. To these churches Jesus comes as the lion of Judah, the all conquering hero, who has a right to rule the world. It’s easy to get caught up in this defeatist attitude. I remember one of my friends used to object to the term soul survivor which was a Christian youth event, because it encouraged an attitude among Christian young people that the main goal of being a Christian young person was to survive being a young person and still remain a Christian at the end. It’s all about hanging on by your fingernails and surviving. I saw the same attitude being displayed in a channel 4 documentary the other week about Christian young people in the US who believed in not having sex till they were married. There was an element of barely surviving about the whole thing. And Jesus says I am the Lion of Judah, the one who conquered, the one who rules this world, the one who has already won the victory. Christianity is not about survival, its not about clinging on with our fingernails. It’s about victory. Jesus has already won the victory. We’re about applying that victory, about winning more to God, about living in our lives in daily victory over sin.
But to those who have the wrong idea about victory and who think that that means they must succeed in everything they do, be wealthy and have no problems, Jesus says remember I’m the lamb who was slain. My victory was not achieved in wealth, or success but in dying a humiliating painful death on a Roman cross. My victory was achieved through weakness and suffering. Through the circumstances of life not against them. To the suffering churches Jesus was saying you win by staying faithful and winning the victory over sin in your life despite what the world throws at you. To us he says you can win and be victorious but it will because of what you have suffered and how you have borne up and remained faithful to me through it all. Victory through death. Just because you will win the victory, it doesn’t mean you won’t suffer. For some of the churches that Revelation was written to, victory would mean not giving in even to the point of death. For us, it might mean facing down an angry youth club, who spit at you, kick you, refuse you any respect or obedience, and not giving into hate and anger. Still loving them with God’s love despite it all. It might mean enduring all that is thrown against you by the world, your boss, your neighbours and still showing them God’s love. For others it might mean opposing the evil you see in the world around. Standing up for the oppressed and downtrodden no matter what the personal cost or suffering that endures for us. That is the kind of victory that the lion was the lamb was talking about it. That is the kind of victory that is possible. And with this kind of victory God’s kingdom is extended.
Jesus the Lion of Judah and the lamb that was slain.
