Dear Friends
I hope that you are well and enjoying the long (and sometimes warm) summer days.
I was reading the book of Revelation recently and pondering the early verses in chapter five. It’s intense, heavenly throne rooms, scrolls and seven seals, powerful stuff. Yet what caught my attention was the picture of Christ in those verses.
The Apostle John wrote Revelation whilst suffering exile to the Greek isle of Patmos; in his isolation he saw heaven opened. Seeing heaven, John heard that none had been found worthy to open the scroll. John says that he wept, then one of the attending Elders comforts him saying,
‘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.’
Notice the powerful description, all is okay because the mighty ‘Lion of Judah’ can open the scroll. The name Lion of Judah reminds us of C. S. Lewis’s
mighty Aslan, a figure deliberately like Jesus. Then, amazingly, John refocuses his attention on the throne and the one taking centre; John expects the Lion but what is this that comes into view?
John recalls,
“Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing at the centre of the throne.”
At the centre of the throne, the Messiah, not as a Lion but a Lamb and ‘looking as if it had been slain’. At the centre of heaven, which must be the
centre of everything, in the holy of holies we find ultimate glory expressed in utter humility! Again, Lewis’s picture of Aslan, the mighty Lion, on the stone table comes to mind. Yet here in the scriptures, the suffering Messiah and all his vulnerability is not only visible on his cross as a past memory,
but he’s now ‘standing at the centre of the throne’. True, he is victorious, but the marks of sacrifice are clearly and deliberately seen.
Robert Mounce in his commentary on Revelation writes ‘The Lion is the Lamb: the ultimate power of God (“Lion”) is manifest on the cross (“Lamb”)’. This picture from heaven is a sure sign that ‘self-emptying love wins’; at the centre of everything is not despotic power but unending love expressed
sacrificially.
In view of this passage in Revelation, let’s meditate on Jesus’ words,
Then Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. (Matthew 16:24)
Every blessing,
Gavin