Church Leader Austin Fischer writes:
In Revelation 5, John is caught up into a dazzling vision of heaven. There’s thunder and lightning and bizarre animals and angels—lots and lots of angels. The hurricane of heaven swirls around John—a barrage of glory and fury, deafening praise and frenetic motion—when suddenly it all ceases. The motion stops, the heavens go silent, and all of creation turns to look because Jesus, the Lion Of Judah, the Son Of God, the King Of the universe is approaching.
And perhaps like little Zaccheus, John climbs on top of a tall angel for a better view, he cranes his neck to see and there—at the throne of heaven, at the centre of the universe—is… a mangled lamb. The Lion of Judah is a mangled lamb. The King of the universe limps to his throne a mangled lamb. Surely there must be some mistake. But as John watches, all of heaven falls down around him, falls down before the mangled lamb, and they begin worshipping him. At the very centre of the universe, there is the worship of a mangled lamb.
And it’s not a mistake. Twenty-eight times in twenty-two chapters, sword-wielding, conquering, victorious King Jesus is called a lamb (and for those counting, he’s called a lion once … in the place we’re told the Lion of Judah is actually a slain lamb). And it was an image I simply could not reconcile.
At the centre of the universe, there is a suffering, crucified, mangled lamb, endlessly giving away self. It was the sort of thing that makes you stop arguing because you’re too busy worshipping.
Young, Restless, No Longer Reformed, by Austin Fischer
