Easter 3C, 2025

Text: Revelation 5:1-14

Title: The Strange Lamb

Alleluia!  Christ is Risen!

There’s always a danger of Jesus becoming too familiar, too comfortable, too predictable.

You’ve heard the stories, you know what they mean and how they apply to you, and it becomes hard for Jesus to surprise you anymore. And that’s dangerous.

Any time you think you have Jesus figured out, it’s not really Jesus anymore, but a caricature, a simplification, an approximation of Him you have in mind.

Take, for example, the teaching that Jesus is the Lamb of God.  You know this metaphor well.  You sing it over and over again Sunday after Sunday, “O Christ, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.”

You know what it means for Jesus to be the Lamb of God.

He’s innocent, but He takes your sins in your place as your substitute. 

He’s humble.  He’s gentle.  He goes willingly to the slaughter without resisting.  We hear the prophecy from Isaiah 53 every year on Good Friday, and we sing “Lamb of God, pure and holy, who on the cross didst suffer.”

Because Jesus died, you are forgiven, you are released from the punishment that you deserve.

You know that Jesus is the Lamb of God, you know what that means, and how it applies to you.

Or do you?

The Revelation to St. John does a good job of breaking down your preconceived notions of Jesus.  Just when you think you have Him figured out, there’s something strange, something odd, something that doesn’t quite fit.

Take this Lamb in Revelation chapter five.

This is not your typical lamb from Old MacDonald’s Farm.

If you saw this lamb in the petting zoo, you’d probably run away or cringe in horror.

Did you catch the physical description of this lamb.

John says that He’s standing, even though He’s been slain.  This Lamb has been mortally wounded, horribly disfigured, and yet it’s still alive.  It’s still standing.

And what’s more, it has seven horns and seven eyes.

Can you picture what this Lamb looks like? There’s a pretty literal rendering on the back of your bulletin.  That Lamb doesn’t look like this lamb or that lamb or those lamb.  It’s like some sort of monstrous creature.

If you’ve ever read much of the Book of Revelation, you’ll know that most of the images are symbolic, they have a deeper, often hidden meaning to them.

Let’s work back through them.

First, the seven eyes.  Eyes are for seeing, of course, and the more you have, the more you see, and the more you see, the more you know and understand.  The eyes are a way of talking about the wisdom of the Lamb.

Seven is a perfect number, a holy number, a complete and godly number.  In seven days, God made the world and all that exists.  It was perfect, it was holy, it was good. 

The number seven is the number for God and His work in the world, which He does through His spirit.  The spirit of God was there hovering over the waters of creation. The spirit was at work when God spoke the world into being.  The spirit gave Adam life and made him a living being.

So, this lamb with seven eyes is all seeing, all knowing, filled with the Spirit of God.

And it has seven horns.

Most lambs are lucky to have two.  This one has seven.

Horns are for strength, for power and authority. These seven horns show us that the Lamb is all-powerful, again, in connection, in relation to this creation, this world that God has made.  He is ruler over all creation.

And if you think that it’s strange to have a seven-eyed, seven-horned Lamb, a Lamb that has a mortal wound and is still alive, we’re just getting started.

Did you hear how this Lamb was introduced?

One of the elders tells John that the one who has conquered is actually a Lion, the Lion of the tribe of Judah.

How can Jesus be both a lion and a lamb at the same time?  Aren’t they opposites?  Aren’t they completely different from one another?

It just goes to show that the titles “Lion,” and “Lamb,” can’t fully capture who Jesus is.  He’s a lion unlike any other lion you would see in a zoo or on safari. He’s a lamb unlike any other lamb you would see at the farm.

He’s strong and mighty and powerful, and yet at the same time humble and gentle.  He’s dangerous and peaceful. 

It’s not as though He’s got a split personality, and He’s a lamb one day and a lion the next.  He’s both at the same time.

Jesus is totally different, totally unique, He’s the only one like Him that ever has or ever will exist. 

And that’s a good thing.  He is the only one who is qualified, who is worthy to open this special scroll, this book that holds the future of the world within.

That power, that authority belongs to Jesus, to the Lamb.  But not because of His power, not because of His wisdom.

Jesus is worthy because He died.

What seemed like a defeat was actually a victory.

Jesus’ death on the cross is what makes Him qualified to reign and rule over all creation for all time.

It doesn’t make sense.  It’s not what you’d expect.  No matter how many times you hear it, it’s still a mystery.

That death is what sets you free.

So what do you do with this strange Lamb who’s also a Lion?

What do you do with this one who conquers by dying?

What do you do with Jesus?

All you can do is praise Him.

When you come to a Jesus that you can’t understand, that doesn’t fit your preconceived notions of what a Savior should or should not be, the result is praise for the one who is beyond your ability to comprehend.

We praise, we honor those who are beyond us. You praise the musician who creates music that is so beautiful, so powerful, so profound, that it blows your mind. You praise the athlete who has superhuman abilities of speed, strength, and skill. 

You don’t praise the ordinary, the mundane, the everyday.

You praise what is different, what is extraordinary, what is beyond your ability to comprehend.

And that’s what the world does with Jesus, the Lamb of God.  Praise and worship Him.

Songs of praise echo throughout the Book of Revelation.

This one starts with the twenty-four elders. The elders stand for the church, the whole people of God.  Twelve is the number for God’s people.  Twelve tribes in the Old Testament, twelve apostles in the New, twelve and twelve make twenty four.

The great song of salvation, the praise and worship of the lamb starts with the people whom He has ransomed with His blood, making them priests, servants who will reign with Him.

But it doesn’t stop there.

Who takes up the song next?  The holy angels.  God’s messengers and servants.  They name the Lamb worthy of “power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.”  How many? Seven.  That’s another way of saying “everything.”  Everything that is good and best belong to Jesus.

And it still doesn’t stop there.

It starts with the church.  It’s joined by the angels.  And finally, all creation joins in.  Every creature in the sky, on the ground, under the ground, and in the ocean join in the song.

Jesus died to redeem all creation, everything that He has made, and so every living creature, every voice join in the song, “Blessing and honor and glory and might” belong to Jesus.  Why just four?  Are we three short?

No, this is the song of creation, and the number of world is four- north, south, east, and west, everything in the world belongs to Jesus, too.  Penguins and parrots, porpoises and panda, all united in praising their creator.

Which brings us back to you.  And to me.  We are here today to worship Jesus, the Lamb who’s a Lion, who died and who lives, who is totally God and totally human.  We worship Him because of who is He is and what He’s done for us.  We worship Him even when, especially when we can’t comprehend or understand Him.  We worship Him with the whole church, even those who have died.  We worship Him with thousands upon thousands of angels.  We worship Him with all the creation He has made.

Let’s do it.
Alleluia, Christ is Risen!