Then I saw in the right hand of him who was seated on the throne a scroll written within and on the back, sealed with seven seals. 2 And I saw a mighty angel proclaiming with a loud voice, “Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?” 3 And no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to look into it, 4 and I began to weep loudly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to look into it. 5 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.” 6 And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders I saw a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain, with seven horns and with seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. 7 And he went and took the scroll from the right hand of him who was seated on the throne. 8 And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. 9 And they sang a new song, saying, “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, 10 and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.” 11 Then I looked, and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, 12 saying with a loud voice, “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!” 13 And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying, “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!” 14 And the four living creatures said, “Amen!” and the elders fell down and worshiped.
The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2025), Re 5:1–14.
We often walk through life wearing goggles that are tinted by the exhausting belief that the world’s brokenness can be mended through the sheer force of human will. We look for a charismatic guru or a political savior to step forward and claim the scroll of destiny, yet the vision of John as seen in Revelation 5 shatters this optical illusion with a deafening, heavenly silence. This scene illuminates our condition, because as God holds the scroll containing His “Last Will and Testament” for creation, the search for someone worthy to open it turns up empty, exposing the bankruptcy of both secular power and religious hierarchy. John’s excruciating weeping in this moment isn’t just grief; it is the existential realization that our achievements are fundamentally unworthy. To truly see, we must remove the lenses of human effort and accept a perspective where hope does not rise from our own strength, but from the only One capable of resolving the crisis of worthiness.
This shift in perspective leads to the greatest bait-and-switch. Standing in the wreckage of our shattered expectations, John is told to look for a Lion, the ultimate symbol of raw, conquering power, but when he turns, he sees a “Lamb standing as if it had been slain.” The Lion does not become a Lamb, nor does the Lamb later transform into a predator; rather, the Lion is the Lamb. Our cultural fascination with dominance and “strongman” optics clouds our vision, making it difficult to comprehend a holiness that triumphs through vulnerability. Yet, Christ’s power is not a lack of strength, but a perfection of it. Adorned with seven horns representing total authority and seven eyes signifying an omniscience born from being a victim of the very imperial systems we often trust for security, He rules from the center of the throne. He brings worthiness to the unworthy not through competitive force, but through a union forged in the marks of the cross, proving that true sovereignty is found in the One who was sacrificed to heal the world.
A change from the sound of the lion to the vision of the lamb demands a total re-evaluation of how we define power by forcing us to choose between two irreconcilable models of sovereignty. While we are conditioned to recognize beastly power that relies on brute force and the desperate necessity of staying on top by crushing enemies, the lamb-like power of the throne stands in stark contrast. The lamb achieves victory not through the mechanics of destruction but through meek obedience and the transformative word of His mouth, presenting a radical claim that upends our instincts because Christ never rules from the militaristic view of subjugation. The religious community is tempted to pick up the tools of dominance that the world uses to achieve the goals of heaven, falling for a misrepresentation of the Gospel that suggests God will eventually abandon the cross in favor of brute force to accomplish His Will. Unfortunately, in order to believe this would suggest that violence rather than love is the source of salvation. Viewing reality from God’s perspective requires us to reject the urge to swap the crown of thorns for a helmet of iron and recognize instead that the victory of the cross was not temporary but is the final revelation of how true power actually works.
Our capacity for understanding the power God uses does not originate from our own sources of information or intellectual striving but flows instead from a posture of humility that seeks the mind of Christ. The shift toward the knowledge of the Lamb leads us to recognize that being on top of the hierarchy of power and privilege often blinds us to the very truths we claim to possess. Unlike the coercive rationalism of the world that seeks to force agreement through intellectual or social subjugation, the Lamb adopts patience as its primary method by allowing the truth to speak and maintaining a radical willingness to let the news be rejected. By viewing the world from below, we align our vision with God and discover that those with whom we disagree are actually necessary to our own process of finding truth. This perspective teaches us that we do not need to be powerful or positioned on the top rung of the ladder to matter because true knowledge manifests as kindness and grace in the face of questioning. Rooted in the intention to leave others better off than we found them, seeking the mind of Christ means refusing to waste a single moment of a precious life adding to the world’s pain through the pursuit of dominance.
Through our eyes and distorted vision we are guided to idolatry where we define worship by whatever we rely on for security. This is a high-functioning idolatry that occurs when our social connections bind us stronger than our baptism, thus trusting in human systems of subjugation rather than divine grace. In our fear, we grasp for the instruments of war to provide safety and order, choosing the path of conflict over the Word of God. This shift in loyalty exposes a fundamental misunderstanding of the Gospel, for if we believe Jesus conquers by killing his enemies, we are simply worshipping Caesar; just under a different name. To work our way back to the Lamb is to recognize that His victory is unique because He conquers by shedding His own blood rather than the blood of others. We must abandon the pursuit of power through dominance and return to the One who proves that true sovereignty is found in sacrificial love rather than the tools of the powerful.
To step away from the allure of the lion-like strongman and realign our hearts with the Lamb, we must first admit that our reliance on dominance is a symptom of deep-seated fear. Transforming our worship requires a radical migration of trust, moving from the visible security of the crowd to the invisible, cruciform power of Christ. This is not a passive surrender but an active, daily choice to view our neighbors, our enemies, and our own failures through the lens of the cross. By intentionally divesting from the pursuit of beastly power, we begin to see that holiness does not require the humiliation of others to prove its worth. Instead, we find a steady, unshakeable peace in the Lamb who rules through sacrifice, inviting us to exchange our heavy helmets of iron for the lightness of His grace.
Elpis and Shalom 