Names of Jesus | Advent DevotionalSample

Friday, December 13
Revelation 5 | Lion of the Tribe of Judah
Author: David Bibee

There’s a critical difference between being peaceful and harmless. A peaceful person desires tranquility and seeks reconciliation among people. A harmless person doesn’t have the ability to stand up to anyone, even those who do evil. Jesus is peaceful, but he is not harmless.

In Rev. 5, we are shown the ascension and cosmic coronation of Jesus as the King of all creation. What I find most delightful about this passage is the juxtaposition of the image of the lion and the lamb. John weeps for fear that no one can open the scroll, but the angel tells him to weep no more because “the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered”! John turns, but what does he see? “I saw a Lamb standing as though it had been slain.” The Lion of Judah’s tribe is no lion but a Lamb—not just a lamb, but a lamb that had been killed.

I had a conversation once with a theologian of some note. He posed a question I had never considered, “When Adam and Eve were standing before God in the garden, and God asked them what had happened, Adam responded, ‘It was the woman, the woman you gave to me, who listened to the snake.’ At that moment, what kind of a husband would Eve have dreamed of? As Adam threw her under the bus, what would her dream ‘Prince Charming’ have done?”

I’d never considered the scenario from this perspective. At that moment, the kind of husband she would have hoped for was a husband who stood as her protector—a husband who might have said, “She is guilty, but allow her judgment to fall upon me instead. Spare her and take me.”

Jesus Christ is himself that better husband to the Church. Jesus is the Lion of the Tribe of Judah—the conquering warrior King—but he conquers by becoming the Lamb. Jesus does not conquer with martial strength or military prowess. No, Jesus was coming to redeem us not only from tyrannical earthly rulers but also from the dominion of sin and the devil himself. And to defeat the greatest enemies—sin, death, and the devil—Jesus conquers by his own blood. The Lion is the Lion, not because he has the power to maim and shred his enemies, but because he was willing to become the Lamb sent to the slaughter. Jesus is the one who is willing to give his life for the guilty, and his innocent blood is what secures our pardon.

In Advent, we remember the coming of the Messiah—God’s anointed. If we think that Jesus is harmless, we’ve missed the point. Jesus is not harmless; he is peaceful. And, in his desire for peace, Christ was willing to lay down his life—to allow all the punishment for sin to fall upon himself so that demonic dragons would no longer hold sway over humanity. The Lion of Judah has conquered because he was “slain, and by [his[ blood [he] ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and [he has] made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.”

In Jesus, we have been sprinkled with the blood of the spotless Lamb, which cleanses us of all our sins. We have been redeemed from the devil’s hold, rescued from the domain of darkness, and brought into the kingdom of the God who is light. In Jesus, we have been made heirs of the world, “a kingdom and priests to our God, [who] shall reign on the earth.” This Advent, let us rejoice in our great Lion—the Lamb.