From Lions to Lambs

 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 at the centre of the throne, encircled by the four living creatures and the elders.~ Revelation 5:5-6


The thing about Christianity is that victory often doesn't look like victory.

When I think of the heroes of the last century, my mind is drawn immediately to the American  missionary Jim Elliot. Jim, as is well documented, died on the  8th of January, 1956, when he, along with four other missionaries (Ed McCully, Roger Youderian, Pete Fleming, and their pilot, Nate Saint), was speared to death by warriors of the Huaorani people of Ecuador , whom he was attempting to evangelise.

And I bet no one involved in that outreach, least of all his family, felt victorious when the news came in that his body had been found floating in the Curaray river.

But Jim's sacrifice, along with the others, eventually led to the whole tribe being converted, when his widow, along with other missionaries returned to the Huaorani people.

And I think of the First Christian martyr, Stephen. His death at the hands of the Sanhedrin initially looks like a horrible blow to the church, which unleashed a potentially crushing city-wide persecution of Christians in Jerusalem.

On reflection though, it was not as though they had stamped out the fire but merely spread the sparks further afield, and the church began to grow at an exponential rate.

And Stephen's death brings into the picture, the zealous Saul of Tarsus, the man who would eventually become the Apostle Paul, arguably the most influential and effective Christian that has ever lived.

And his life too, lauded as it is, does not exactly have the ring of victory about it;

Are they servants of Christ? (I am out of my mind to talk like this.) I am more. I have worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again. ²⁴ Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. ²⁵ Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was pelted with stones, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, ²⁶ I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my fellow Jews, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false believers. ²⁷ I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked. ²⁸ Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches. ²⁹ Who is weak, and I do not feel weak? Who is led into sin, and I do not inwardly burn?~ 2Cor 11:23-29

I love how this talk of victory and triumph in Revelation 5, quickly moves to the image of the Lamb.

I think we need to ponder on how inextricably linked those two things are.

At no point was Jesus only a lamb. In his laying down of his life, he was a lion.
And whilst he will always be the Victorious lion of Judah, he always bears the scars of his sacrifice.

The devil roams the earth posturing like a lion, but he is not one. He doesn't have the courage to lay down and die. Sacrifice is an anathema to him.

Not so, our precious Lamb. In his love he held nothing back.

I would be very suspicious of anyone who told me that the Christian life is all about gain and prosperity.

How can it be, when all our heroes and founders were men and women who paid a price. Who had weighed the cost of sacrifice and found it not worthy of the comparison with the glory to come.

No sooner has he been introduced as the triumphant Lion of Judah, then he is presented to us in the vision, as a lamb, looking as though it had been slain.

We wear our scars.

We should wear them well.

I know in Heaven that there will be no more pain. But there may well be scars.

But the scars we bear that speak of sacrifice, are far, far removed from ugly. They are actually beautiful.

And the risen Lion, the Lord Jesus, walks into the room where the frightened disciples are hiding, and shows them his scars. Let's them put the fingers into the wounds.

Yes.

That sacrifice will be honoured forever, and ever, and ever.

Today I feel like I am looking as though I have been slain.

I make light of it, but even just surviving takes it toll.

But serving Jesus at a cost, is a price worth paying.

We put our hand to the plough. We dare not look back.

We weighed the cost and found the price not worthy of comparison.

A famous quote attributed to the aforementioned Jim Elliot goes thus;

"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose."

And like Aslan, the lion that represents Jesus, in C. S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia, we need to understand the deeper magic. That sacrifice is victory, and not the defeat it appears.

And they will overcome this world,

by the word of their testimony,

And the blood of the lamb,

That they did not love their lives so much as to shrink back from death.

For they who seek to keep their lives shall lose what they think they have,

but those who lose their lives for my sake shall find true life, in all it's abundance.

Lions and Lambs they will be.

Amen.