Revelation 5:1-14

“He Don’t Eat No Meat? …Okay, I’ll Make Lamb!”

Here in chapter 5 of Revelation we get a continuance of John’s vision of the heavenly throne room in which we are introduced to the one who can open the seals of a scroll.  What John hears about this one is that he is “the Lion of the Tribe of Judah.”  What John sees is a “lamb standing as if it had been slaughtered.”  What might these metaphors mean for us?  How can we conceive of a carnivore like a lion and an herbivore like a lamb – a slaughtered lamb, no less – at the same time?  Can we conflate them?  Is John telling us that the lamb devours and conquers?  Is he suggesting that the lion is vulnerable and nonviolent?  Why does it matter for us as people of faith?