Much of our modern/western ideas about the end times comes with a taste of vengeance.
Growing up I used to go to this small barber shop attached to the barbers house. Me and my little brother would both routinely after school come to get our haircuts here looking forward to sitting in this barber’s chair, watching old reruns of the Looney Tunes and getting candy out of the jar. The one part I was never really a fan of though was this barber’s talk of the end times.
This barber like many in the church environment I grew up in loved to discuss how the end times was near. Predictions would be made, connecting dots from the book of revelation to modern day events and most importantly, the attitude of “giving these sinful people” what they deserved” was a common motive behind any talk of “the end.
This kind of talk centered around the issue of “othering.” A way of placing people in the category of being “other” that distances yourself from them so that you do not have to have feelings for them or care about them in any respectful way, which in turn allows you to breed upon resentment and hateful motivations towards them.
In the case of conservative Christianity, we do this by turning the gay community into a community who is “other.” They are not of us, and they deserve God’s wrath and we long for the day they receive God’s wrath.
Take the gay community out of this equation if thats a little too real for you, and place any category of people you do not like that you believe are sinful to the point of no redemption and contemplate on how you relate to God about them. Do you long for God to smite them or redeem them and now the question becomes, how does our view of Jesus in the end times fit into all of this?
Much could be said about the tone behind talk of the end times in our modern context but I say what I have said to say this.
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this darkness, against evil, spiritual forces in the heavens.
Ephesians 6:12
“Come Through the Door”
As John wraps up receiving the message to the 7 churches, a door in heaven opens up and the first voice he ever heard comes through saying “Come up here, and I will show you what must soon take place after this”(Revelation 4:1).
John immediately is in the spirit, and notices a throne in heaven with someone seated on it. This person seated on the throne is not like the “son of man” figure he has seen before. Rather this person is God the Father, seated on the throne with 24 other thrones around him, each with 24 elders seated on them.
The elders are dressed in white clothes depicting their purity as well as crowns depicting their participation in ruling as well. But who are these 24 elders?
God’s people in the Old Testament were divided up into 12 tribes. 12×2=24. The 24 elders represent the whole of God’s people, from Old to New. God’s Kingdom is complete.
The question though we must ask is: how? How has God’s people expanded from 12-to-24?
This is where chapter 5 comes into play.
Who Will Open The Scroll?
John notices in this throne room scene, a scroll in God’s right hand. This scroll has been sealed 7 times and has writing on both sides. This scroll immediately to the people of this time would catch their attention.
Specifically when it comes to writing being on both sides. People did not regularly write on scrolls front and back, instead they would just write on the part that they had sealed up and only if they ran out of room would they write on the back. Not only is there writing on the front and the back, but usually a scroll should not be opened by anyone but to whom the letter was being sent or an official. Yet this scroll has seals that are too strong for any mere mortal to break.
An angel calls out: “Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?”
But as John notes “no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or even look in it”(Revelation 5:3). This news broke John down to the point he is crying, sobbing his eyes out at the fact that no one is able to open this scroll for us to see inside.
What is the message on the scroll? How will we ever find out what the writing on the front and the back of it have on it.
“Then one of the elders said to me, “do not weep. Look the Lion from the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered so that he is able to open the scroll and its seven seals”(Revelation 5:5).
The Lion
But as for Aslan himself, the beavers and the children didn’t know what to do or say when they saw him. People who have not been in Narnia sometimes think that a thing cannot be good and terrible at th same time. if the children had ever thought so, they were cured of it now. For when they tried to look at Aslan’s face they just caught a glimpse of the golden mane and the great, royal, solemn, overwhelming eyes; and then they found they couldn’t look at him and went all trembly.
C.S. Lewis (The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardobe)
Lion’s in ancient literature were symbols of power, of tremendous strength. They ruled the animal kingdom and nothing could stop them.
In Genesis 49:9-10 we come across this image of “the lion of the tribe of Judah” for the first time.
Judah is a lion’s cub; from the prey, my son, you have gone up. He stooped down; he crouched as a lion and as a lioness; who dares rouse him? The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until tribute comes to him; and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.
God chooses Judah to carry the messianic line that leads to Christ despite Judah’s failures. The “messianic” figure that will come though is viewed as a lion. This fierce creature who will stalk and kill its prey. This figure is ruthless like a lion and whoever opposes it will be ripped to shreds. This lion figure would strike fear in people. Much like Aslan, though you may try to catch a glimpse of this lion’s face, you will stop yourself because of fear creeping in your bones. You cannot bear to look at this lion. The King.
So what happens when John in his vision hears that the “lion of the tribe of Judah” is the only one worthy to open the scroll in God’s right hand?
Well, John turns around and sees…
The Lamb
I saw one like a slaughtered lamb standing in the midst of the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders… He went and took the scroll out of the right hand of the one seated on the throne.
Revelation 5:6-7
If you remember anything about why many Jews did not follow Jesus, then you will remember it is because Jesus did not look like the lion figure they expected.
Lamb’s were the weakest of creatures, take into account this lamb is slaughtered, so it is the weakest of the lamb’s. Lamb’s were vulnerable, they were considered stupid, they needed a shepherd to protect them because they constantly would wander off or be attacked by prey(specifically lions).
Slaughtered lambs also would bring to mind the animal used for the Passover and sacrificies in the Old Testament. When it comes to the Passover, the lamb was slaughtered to set the people free from the plagues in Egypt. Where a lamb died, and the blood was smeared, that is where you were set free to live.
This imagery used here in Revelation is one that should strike an emotion. John was just bawling his eyes at the fact that no one could open this scroll. And then told by one of the elders that there is one who can open the scroll and it is the lion of the tribe of Judah. But when John looks over to see this roaring lion, he instead sees this small, weak, slaughtered lamb, who is still alive.
Are you confused? We were told a lion would open the scroll, yet we see a bloody lamb.
Jesus is the messiah the people of Israel was looking forward to, yet Jesus was not the messiah they expected.
Jesus was expected to come as a powerful King, who would lead a great army to overtake Rome and all of Israel’s oppressors. Jesus would set these people free not by words of his mouth but by the sword.
But Jesus came saying “if you live by the sword, you will die by the sword.” Jesus came not as a ruler of a nation but as a little baby fleeing for safety in Egypt. Jesus came not as a bloody thirsty military leader, but as a gentle man healing the least of these. Just like we were expecting the lion of the tribe of Judah, yet seen a lamb. We all expect Jesus to be this ruthless, blood craving, military leader yet the way he wages war of the powers on darkness is much different than we would if we were in charge.
Jesus set his people free not by conquering Rome through violence. Jesus set His people free by laying his life down that others may live.
Summary
John sees a scroll in God the Father’s right hand, and cries at the thought that no one will be able to open this scroll and see what it has written on both sides, yet there is one who is worthy to open the scroll. The one worthy is the lion of the tribe of Judah, who does not wage war in the way of this world. This lion, is more like a lamb, who lays his life down that others may live.
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