The Lion of Judah
Several Sundays ago, the second reading was from the fifth chapter of The Book of Revelation, or to use the more ancient and accurate title: The Apocalypse to St. John the Divine. The fifth chapter, the fifth verse:
And one of the elders said to me, “Weep no more; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals.”
The picture for the blog’s title is one I took at The Cloisters in Manhattan this past summer. The Cloisters is well worth at the very least a look at their web-site: http://www.metmuseum.org/works_of_art/the_cloisters
The photo is of a sculpture illustrating the Scripture verse cited above: Jesus Christ is the Lion of Judah. I have seen this work many times and I am struck that the Lion of Judah is smiling like a “Cheshire cat”. After a cursory ‘study’ on the internet it seems that the reference from Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland might be based upon several renditions of this grinning Lion of Judah in medieval churches. Why is He grinning? In the full statue note that the serpent, the Ancient Foe, the Serpent lies under his feet, like a cat after catching a mouse! Evil will have it’s day. The victory is won over sin, death and power of the devil! He alone can open the scroll of fallen human history and it’s seven seals. Why? He has carried our sin upon His shoulders (see Isaiah 9: 6-7 and Isaiah 53). The Lion of Judah fully entered into human history. The Church’s God-revealed Faith is the only on earth that is thoroughly historical: practically every Sunday and Liturgy of Holy Communion we confess in The Apostles’ Creed: “…suffered under Pontius Pilate”. We remember a minor Roman governor! And under Pilate, the Lion was supposedly tamed forever by brutal treatment, even death on the Cross, in that pin-point of human history: real-time. The Lion can not be tamed (see The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis). He is risen! No one else is worthy to open the scrolls. The Lion is not enthralled by the vain idolatrous worship of personality, political leaders, mammon or the self. Such idolatrous worship is the persistent promise of the devil: you will be like God (see Genesis 3). He was so tempted by Satan (see St. Matthew 4: 8-11) in every way that we are, yet was without sin (see Hebrews4: 15). In the Lion there is only Life, no death whatsoever, only eternal life and He bore our death, our evil and our sin in His life-giving Body and died that you may live. He is worthy because He suffered and all who suffer with Him will live and reign:
”Worthy are you to take the scroll
and to open its seals,
for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God
from every tribe and language and people and nation,
and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God,
and they shall reign on the earth.”
Apocalypse 5: 9-10
