Last night in my small group we read Revelation 5, which is one of my favorite chapters in the Bible. In this passage, the triumphant Lion of Judah, who is also a Lamb standing as though slain, is given praise and worship for His ability to save God's people and bring judgment in authority.
An old, old hymn in the Common Book of Prayer, which takes most of its wording directly from Rev. 4–5, communicates the exalted worship being offered the One on the Throne and the Lamb:
Splendor and honor and kingly power
are yours by right, O Lord our God,
For you created everything that is,
and by your will they were created and have their being;
And yours by right, O Lamb that was slain,
for with your blood you have redeemed for God,
From every family, language, people and nation,
a kingdom of priests to serve our God.
And so, to him who sits upon the throne,
and to Christ the Lamb,
Be worship and praise, dominion and splendor,
for ever and evermore.
We spoke at great length last night about the marvelous truth that we are taught here—the Lamb's once-for-all sacrifice has redeemed a people for God, which means that our identity is now different. We are not lost sinners, but the redeemed, those who are reconciled to God. (See 2 Cor 5:17-21, Romans 5:1-11.) We are a kingdom of priests to serve God, but the right and power to do that depends not on us, but on God who gives the ability, the forgiveness.
But what is so vital about this new identity? Particularly, how does this help us to serve God and others practically in our daily lives?
I want to take a hint from Mark, chs. 1-2. In Mark's account of the life of Jesus, nearly at once we are taken to Jesus' baptism. After being baptized by John (Mark omits any mention of John's scruples or feelings of unworthiness—this Gospel has a point to make and it's getting there fast), at once an extraordinary display of God's affirmation and love for Jesus is shown:
In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”Well, that's very touching. We get a glimpse into the Trinitarian love-feast that has been going on for all of creation: God the Father is beaming with delight in His Son, who is utterly pleased to be the Son of such a Father, and the Holy Spirit flits back and forth between the two with joy inexpressible to be the communication of such divinely excellent love.
—Mark 1:9-11
And it's more than touching—it's reassuring in an important way. God is not grouchy or lonely; as a Triune God He is thoroughly happy all the time, and as many theologians have pointed out, this is good news for us. The Heavenly Father is not cranky after a long day's work (shh, don't disturb him, just go to your room and play quietly!). Rather, to enter into His presence is to come to the One who is more happy than any of us ever could know. "Enter into the joy of your master!"
That's practical theology in itself but I want to push further to the connection with Mark 2. Here, Jesus is getting himself into all kinds of trouble with the established religious authorities by being, well, fun. And happy. And we certainly can't have that on the Sabbath, or around sinners. To quote from the text:
And as he reclined at table in [Levi, the tax-collector-turned-disciple]'s house, many tax collectors and sinners were reclining with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. And the scribes of the Pharisees, when they saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, said to his disciples, “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?” And when Jesus heard it, he said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”Now, this is an oft-quoted passage. We hear it often because it is a central theme in Jesus' ministry—to be one who Jesus calls, you must be the broken, the weak, the poor, the needy, not the arrogant, self-assured or self-righteous. "Blessed are the poor in spirit..." and such. And this is true, and good, and absolutely the heart of the Gospel.
—Mark 2:15-17
But I want also not to miss an important aspect of this passage: Jesus is speaking these words as a man. And he is saying, "I will not go be with the mighty, powerful and collected, who have everything together and need no help."
This should strike us to the core—because we always want to be with those kinds of people. We are drawn to people better than us, naturally. It is nice to be around collected, mature, wise, and mighty people, because a) they ask for nothing from us and b) they give us so much. When we are approved of by someone greater than us (as we see them), then we walk away delighted! We have made it! We have a stamp of approval on our person that holds at bay the nagging fear that we are insufficient or unimportant. "But so-and-so likes me!"
This holds true of the general group we associate with, also. We want our crowd of friends to be the "haves," rather than the "have-nots," we want to be counted among the good and strong and important.
What Jesus is saying in this passage, then, is that, unlike the Pharisees, and unlike us, he needs no prop for his ego. He doesn't need to gather with the strong in order to feel strong. He doesn't need to be liked by the powerful to be sure he's important.
Rather, Jesus has an internal strength of identity that allows him to give and give and give and associate only with those who desperately need him. This is extraordinary! We find it remarkable in the lives of people we have heard of—Mother Teresa, for example. But I fear that we have a tendency to overlook this character in Christ. "Well, yes," we think, "of course he's like that; after all, he is God."
Yes, he is. But he is also a man—and a part of his humanity, like ours, is a need for approval. We are designed to be approved of. ("Well done, good and faithful servant!") So where did Jesus get such strength to avoid our regular sources of affirmation? What was the source of his ministry?
It was, of course, the affirmation of God his Father. Shown forth in the baptism is the clear statement of the reality that Jesus lived—"This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased." Having the strength of God's affirmation, Jesus no longer needed to seek confirmation of his worth from other people. The love of God sprung up in him to be an infinite fountain of love for others, for the weak and poor and unrighteous. Jesus could spend time with the unsavory and unimpressive because he was rooted, deeply, in God's affection.
And this is where the truth of Revelation 5, 2 Corinthians 5 and Romans 5 come in so powerfully. To use the words of the apostle John: "Behold what love the Father has given unto us, that we should be called the children of God! And that is what we are!" (1 John 3:1)
If it is true that Christ has reconciled us to God, and purchased not only pardon but approval, not only forgiveness but also righteousness, then we, too, dwell in the infinite affection of the Lord. We are his beloved people; we are always forgiven and redeemed (and "all this is from God"—2 Cor 5:18). So we, too, have available to us the wealth of love that Jesus made his dwelling place.
The source of Jesus' ministry was an entire certainty of God's approval, which freed him to give and give without fear that he would, in the end, be the loser. He needed not waste time stroking his ego.
We, too, can follow Him. Above I put a picture of the Moravian seal—the emblem of an old Protestant denomination. Around the image of the Lamb standing as through slain are the words, "Our Lamb has conquered—let us follow him."
Indeed, we are to follow him—to follow Him with praise and acclamation, and to follow Him in imitating His ministry and life. But the source of this imitation is not pushing down or ignoring our need for love, affirmation and rest. Instead, the source of ministry is indulging these, glutting them fully, in the now fully-available resources of God's love mediated to us through Christ by the Holy Spirit. We are certain that Jesus has torn down every last bit of sin that would make us undeserving of such love; we are certain that Jesus has clothed us in all His righteousness so that God will delight to lavish us with approval. To the extent that we throw ourselves with confidence on the loving arms of God, we honor the power of Christ to redeem us.
Our Lamb has conquered—let us follow Him.
