Lamb & Lion

We are accustomed to the idea of the dual Lion/Lamb role of Messiah.  At his first coming, Jesus’s work was reconciliation, by sacrificing himself.  At his second coming he will be the conquering King.  An irony has been noted:  Those who were expecting Messiah when he first came were expecting the Lion, but got the Lamb; and it seems that among those expecting Jesus’s return, many are expecting the Lamb again, but will get the Lion.

But it’s not really that simple.

Jesus himself had something to say about it, and it isn’t what we might expect:  “Don’t think I’ve come to bring peace to the earth.  I haven’t come to bring peace, but a sword.  I’ve come to set family members against each other, and your enemies will be in your own house.  Know this:  If your family loyalty exceeds your loyalty to me, you aren’t worthy of me.  To be worthy of me, you must pick up your own cross and follow me to execution.”  (Matthew 10:34-39, paraphrased)

What do we make of this?  At his birth the angels sang, “Peace on earth!”  But he says, “No peace—instead disruption and conflict.”  This is the Lamb speaking!  The one whose work is reconciling.

In Revelation 5 & 6 the Lion of the tribe of Judah is introduced.  He is the one worthy to open the seals, and when he does he lets loose war, famine, pestilence, death.  And how is this Lion depicted?  As a Lamb, slain as a sacrifice to achieve reconciliation. (Rev 5:6).

It is too simplistic to think of Jesus at his first coming as the Lamb, and then as the Lion at his second coming.  The fact is that he has always been, and always will be, both Lion and Lamb.  His work does differ at the two advents. He offered himself as a sacrifice once, for all time and for all people.  (Hebrews 7:27, 9:12, 9:26, 10:10 – why say it four times unless it’s really, really important?)  So when he returns, he won’t be a sacrifice again.  On the other side, he did not take the throne of David at his first coming, so that remains to be accomplished at the second.

So there are differences. But we need to recognize that he himself is the same.  He’s not different now, or in the future, than he was before.  He was always separating people—that’s not something that happens only at the final judgment.  He always insisted on allegiance to him above anything or anyone else—as King.  Conversely, the King is still working to reconcile, and that will continue right through the Kingdom age.  The Lamb has always also been the ruling Lion.  The Lion will always seek to further the Lamb’s mission of reconciliation.

He is both at once, and this is what makes him complex, three dimensional.  He’s not one cardboard cutout, then a different one later on.  He is the image of his Father, who describes himself as merciful, gracious, loving, forgiving…but will not clear the guilty.  He remains the same, forever.  So does His Son, who is likewise merciful, gracious, loving and forgiving…but who is also the Judge.  He’s always been both Lamb and Lion, and always will be.

Love, Paul