The Lion and the Lamb

I was taught that Jesus was strong - a warrior Jesus ready to defeat God's enemies. That appealed to me as a teenager. I wanted that kind of power.

But as an adult watching the world, I see power used wrong constantly. The strong crush the weak. Jesus offering himself as a lamb for slaughter instead - that looked like weakness to me.

Reading Revelation, I see they're the same. The Lion and the Lamb. Jesus is powerful enough to take the form of a lamb. Jesus is so strong he can be slaughtered and it doesn't break him.

That's a different kind of power than I understood. Not dominance. Integrity. Being so rooted in love and truth that nothing, not even death, can stop you.

I'm rethinking what strength means. And I think Jesus was the strongest person who ever lived, not because he could conquer, but because he could lay down his life and it meant something.