December 5 - Revelation 5: A Different Kind of Lamb

Look—the Lion from Tribe Judah, the Root of David’s Tree, has conquered. He can open the scroll, can rip through the seven seals.”So I looked, and there, surrounded by Throne, Animals, and Elders, was a Lamb, slaughtered but standing tall. Seven horns he had, and seven eyes, the Seven Spirits of God sent into all the earth. He came to the One Seated on the Throne and took the scroll from his right hand. The moment he took the scroll, the Four Animals and Twenty-four Elders fell down and worshiped the Lamb.

The slain Lamb is worthy! Take the power, the wealth, the wisdom, the strength!Take the honor, the glory, the blessing!  (5:5-8, 12)

The image of Christ as the Lamb can be confusing when taken with the other Biblical image of sheep, which is us. Christ is wholly other than us, but this same barn animal is used to represent both His Worthiness and our unworthiness. He is described as the Lion-Lamb, the slain Lamb, the sacrificial Lamb. We are described as needy, stupid, lost, unable to provide for or save ourselves.

I've been pondering over the seemingly apparent disconnect in this Biblical symbol for the past couple of days. It may be because it's the Christmas season, but the word incarnation keeps coming to mind. Jesus, Emmanuel, God with us. He came to be with us, to be one of us. He is the Lion-Lamb who came to earth to live as a lowly sheep - among us, with us, because of His great love for us and for the delight of His Father.

 "...on the threshold of the Incarnation... a touching dialogue between Father and Son. It is as if the Father, now that the moment has come, were anxious to coax his Son into what, he knows, will be cruelly painful. Father says,...You see, Son, that your bride has been made in your image, and insofar as she is like you, she suits you very well. But she is different in that she has flesh... Perfect love has a law, that the lover should want to be like the one he loves... The Son hops over the Father's tact with an irrepressible 'yes!'  His Father's will is his total delight; and the chance which it gives him of announcing to the world his Father's 'beauty', 'gentleness' and 'sovereignty', is for him irresistible." (The Impact of God, Soundings from St. John of the Cross,  Father Iaian Matthew)

"for in all things like to them / he would himself become / and he would come to them / and with them make his home, / and God would be man / and man would God become / he would spend with them his time / and eat and drink together / and with them he would stay, / he himself constancy.  (Ballads, St. John of the Cross)