The Lamb Standing As Slain in the Midst: Meditation on Rev. 5

"Then I saw between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders a Lamb standing as if it had been slaughtered, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth."

Introduction

Each day after the horrible April 16 tragedy (massacre, rampage, killings--take your pick) at Virginia Tech Univ. brings new horrors in its wake. The day of the tragedy saw confusion and gradual clarity, as we struggled to make sense of what we were hearing. The picture only gradually emerged for us on Monday, like the landscape revealed after fog slowly lifts on a Spring day. But then Tuesday and Wednesday brought us the human cost of the killings in stark detail. We began to put faces with the numbers, and we wept at the senseless and brutal loss of life. We have now all seen the pictures and learned some of the stories of the beautiful, talented, motivated and hopeful people whose lives were so untimely ended. To mention only some does here not do dishonor to those not mentioned; it highlights the fact that in America, as throughout the world, when you scratch just a little bit beneath the surface of "ordinary" folk, you find the most extraordinary gifts and people.

We have heard about Ryan Clark, the fun-loving, 4.0 triple-major, whose twin brother said of him that his greatest joy in life was in leading the music at a conference for mentally handicapped children and adults; we wept at the story of Prof. Liviu Librescu, still teaching at 76, who had survived the Holocaust in WWII but fell victim to the gunman's fire. Several students mentioned how Librescu tried to impede entry of the shooter into the classroom, thus allowing students the time to leap from windows to safety below. Prof. Kevin Granata had established himself as a leader in the field of reflex response especially as it related to the problems faced by those with cerebral palsy.

We mourn those who had established careers and were leaders in their fields, but our mourning is intensified when we realize that almost all the others who died were those in the salad days of their lives, in the bud of their promise. Like the new flowers springing out all over campus, they are the ones who we thought would learn to paint broadly the canvas of their lives as they loved, lost, laughed and listened to life. But Austin Clark will not be able to do that; nor will Caitlin Hammaren, or Emily Jane Hilscher, or Peruvian exchange student Daniel Cueva or Brian Bluhm.

We mourn for those left behind, for friends and families of the victims, whose lives will be shattered for days, months, years and maybe forever because of one brief moment on April 16, 2007. Those of us who haven't lost as they have can only hope that pain's gift, wisdom, will be given them as days go by. We hope, too, that they might find some comfort in the fact that their loved ones were loved and that their lives touched others. We hope, too, that their quest to find meaning, rest, and insight from the loss of their loved one will provide them a community of people whom they hitherto have not known, a community that knows not only the pain, but also the strange gifts, that loss can bring.

The Slaughtered Lamb

After being immersed in the tragedy for the last two days, I decided to go back and re-read the lectionary texts for this week. With the new "eyes" of April 16, I saw how three of the four passages deal with themes of suffering. This is a remarkable fact, coming so quickly after the joy and promise of Easter life. Acts 9, the story of Saul's conversion, speaks of a conversion to suffering--"I will show him how much he has to suffer for the sake of my name" (Acts 9:16). The Gospel lesson not only presents Jesus' third resurrection appearance to disciples, but ends with the chilling reference to the manner in which the beloved disciple will suffer and die (Jn 21:19). Finally, the passage from Revelation, quoted above, speaks of the slaughtered Lamb as the only one worthy to open the seals of the book in the right hand of the one seated on the throne in heaven. As a result of 4/16, I see that the three lectionary texts are a sort of threefold cord that will not quickly be broken. I see that suffering is the theme that holds our passages together this morning. And the one most visible in his suffering is the slaughtered Lamb in the middle of the elders and living creatures. Three very brief observations are timely.

1. Christ, the slaughtered Lamb, understands suffering. He bears it in his body; he experienced it in life. The American Puritan divine Jonathan Edwards noted that in Rev. 5 Christ is called two seemingly contrary things in successive verses. In 5:5 he is called the Lion of the tribe of Judah and the Root of David, but in 5:6 he is the slaughtered Lamb. The first terms emphasize the regal and powerful nature of Christ, while the last stresses his vulnerability and suffering. By putting them together as he does, the author is interpreting the former images in light of the latter or, better said, he is "updating" the messianic understanding to emphasize that the living reality of Christ for the people is a suffering Christ. And, in practical terms, it takes one to know one. That is, in order to understand suffering in our world, Christ himself had to have suffered. He, and the Father who sent him, know that suffering is close to the heart of God.

2. Christ, the slaughtered Lamb, continues to suffer. The arresting nature of the picture in Revelation is partly due to the fact that the Lamb is, literally, "standing as slain" in the midst. This curious, seemingly contradictory, language captures the essence of Christ's suffering--that though it happened at a time and a place long ago, it still happens. He still "stands as slain" in the midst of heaven, in the midst of the four living creatures and elders, bearing the "sevens" of horns and eyes which show the universal reach of the Lamb's power. Just as these eyes and horns are the "seven spirits" of God sent out to the earth, so the one who stands slain reaches to the ends of the earth, understanding and reliving the pain of those who suffer. Jesus still stands as slain in the midst of our lives, in the midst of those who gather in his name in Blacksburg, VA, in the midst of the overwhelming pain of the world.

3. It is only the slain one, the one who suffers, who is worthy to open the book with the seven seals. While scholars might debate the full meaning of this statement, it is clear that suffering makes the Lamb worthy to enter into mysteries that no one else can fathom. When the elders and living creatures sing their hymn to the Lamb, the first thing they mention about his worthiness is that "he was slain" (5:9). Suffering opens doors that non-suffering does not. But the primary door that suffering potentially opens is an insight into what it is like to be God. The one who suffers gets a glimpse of what God lives with all the time. The massacre at Virginia Tech just highlighted for the rest of us what God sees in human conduct and loss on a daily basis. We are horrified because we have technology to tell us what happened; we have values that abhor what happened; we have resources to try to prevent this from happening in the future. But people die daily in VT-style massacres across our globe, dying frequently in a silence or desperation that is caught by no camera; covered by no newscaster. God sees, hears, and feels these losses, too. We who have ears to hear in this suffering, have now seen what it is to be "God for a day." This brief glimpse may destroy some of us--especially some who were very close to the scene or the people. But it also give us gifts of wisdom and determination--that like disasters will not be part of our individual or collective future.

Conclusion

So we have all been wounded; we have all lost something in the events of the last day. May our loss lead to wisdom and to wise action. Our hearts go out to those who have lost much, and we pray the comfort that friends and a suffering Christ can provide. The Lamb still stains as one slain in our midst today.

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