The end of C. S. Lewis’s Voyage of the Dawn Treader is in part a reversal of this Sunday’s text, Revelation 5. At the “very end of the world,” Edmund, Eustace and Lucy meet a lamb who invites them to join him in a fish breakfast. As they talk with him, he becomes a lion, the familiar figure of Aslan and they are told they must learn more of Aslan as he appears in their own world, a clear reference to Jesus.
At the beginning of Revelation 5, John is shown a sealed scroll and there is an angelic call for someone worthy to open it. But no one is found in heaven, on earth or below the earth. John weeps, presumably because he wished to know the contents of the scroll. Then in verse 5 an angel informs him that the scroll will be opened by “the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David,” who “has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals.”
The surprise comes in verse 6 when what John sees is not a lion, but a “Lamb, standing as slain…” The conditional translation of most versions is wrong. It’s not “as if it had been slaughtered.” There’s no “if” about it. We can see that down in verse 12 as the angelic song begins, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain.”
As Christians often caught up, even if unwillingly, in what some term “culture wars,” the surprise of this chapter of Scripture should be often on our minds. We may imagine that it is our goal as believers to “win” some sort of battle on behalf of God or what is good, whether it’s some matter of civil justice, a moral issue, or the freedom to express our faith publicly.
I can’t find a recent article I read which compared the action of Bree Newsome who scaled a South Carolina flagpole to tear down a Confederate flag “for Jesus” and the refusal of court clerk Kim Davis in Kentucky to issue licenses for gay marriages. Though coming from what are likely opposite political perspectives, they were both Christians confident that their duty was to battle evil through a public stand. But I wonder if Revelation 5 calls into question that shared perspective. What if our aim is in fact to become like the Lion who became a Lamb, and to be slain by evil rather than battling it?
The Lion of verse 5 conquered, but His victory is what we see in verse 6, being the Lamb who was slain. It’s the slain Lamb who is worthy and receives the worship of the whole universe together with “the one seated on the throne” in verse 13.
Aslan is wonderful, but perhaps we need to work a little more on being like the Lamb than like the Lion.
an excellent question steve. just wish i could find that spirit in chapter 6! it seems like john is announcing the beginning of the messianic age. did it start then? have we decided it will not start until the end time future? i think that is what we have decided. if so, to allude to your earlier sermon on why our local rabbi did not accept jesus as messiah, we too think that later on the messiah will come and be successful.
Thanks, Craig, for an excellent observation about the seeming incongruity with chapter 6. I like Eugene Peterson’s take on the white horse in chapter 6 and chapter 19: “Christ has not changed his way of working. The white horse is not a signal that Christ has given up on donkeys and lambs and crosses and is now taking up with horses and spears and scepters. Rather it is a validation that the means Christ has chosen [cross and sacrifice] to accomplish his will and work out his salvation are, in fact, and against appearances, victorious.” So all the conquering imagery for God in Revelation is just that, a picture to tell us that the way of the Cross will prevail, not a literal description of vengeance in rivers of blood. The “wrath of the Lamb” which is feared in 6:16 is a wild oxymoron reflecting the foolishness of those who live by evil rather than some viciousness on the part of Christ. Yes, Jesus will be successful when He returns, but His success will still come by grace and peace, not by force.