Jesus the Lamb

Agnes Dei by Josefa Ayala, cc

There is only 1 line in the Bible that states that Jesus is the Lion of Judah! This is surprising to me because of the number of times I hear this title of Jesus and the numerous paintings I see with this depiction. We learn of Jesus as the Lion of Judah in Revelation chapter 5: "Stop weeping; behold the Lion that is from the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has overcome so as to able to open the scroll and its 7 seals."¹ It is very interesting to note that the title of Jesus the Lamb−the "slaughtered Lamb" is found throughout the entire Bible. In the book of Revelation, we see this title of Jesus 13 times from chapters 5 through 8 and a total of 29 times in the entire book.²

In the Bible there is a large number of times Jesus is referred to as the Lamb and only 1 account of Jesus as a Lion. What does this tell the Bible-believing, Jesus-loving person? What does it tell me? As I spent time answering this question for myself, I came to the opinion that in God's Kingdom with its principles that are opposite of the world's principles, the lion is not the fierce, strong and overcoming one. It's the Lamb; the Lamb that lays its life down for others. In God's Kingdom the lamb is not weak and powerless. In chapter 17 we read "These will wage war against the Lamb and the Lamb will overcome them."³

I wonder why I hear Christians often say that Jesus is coming back as a lion. I never hear them say Jesus is coming back as a "slaughtered Lamb," a term found 3 times in chapter 5 alone, and yet the book of Revelation is a prophetic book about future events. Revelation chapter 6 says "Fall on us and hide from us the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb!"⁴ This image of the Lamb carries with it a sense of strength, power and overcoming virtue; that which one typically attributes to an animal such as a lion.

I feel that we Christians often choose to identify with the lion, the "king of the jungle" because its strength is the mightiest of all animals. I'd like to focus on a depiction of the lamb whose behavior is like that of the Christ. This lamb's strength is not in brute force, that which we see depicted in the image of a lion. The lion is powerful, dominating, loud when it roars, and strong in physical strength. It conquers by force and is able to devour prey with ease. The lamb is gentle, tame, non-aggressive and quiet. I believe the strength of Jesus the Lamb is found in humility, love and giving up its life for others.

Going forward on my walk as a Christ-follower, I will choose to focus more on the Lamb and less on the Lion. My prayer is that God would help me to behave like Jesus, the Lamb.

Notes
 
1. Revelation 5:5
2. These numbers may be off by 1 or 2.
3. Revelation 17:14 
4. Revelation 6:16