The Wrath of the Lamb

Throughout scripture, the word “wrath” connotes destruction and punishment. For example: Deuteronomy 29:23 ”All its land is brimstone and salt, a burning waste, unsown and unproductive, and no grass grows in it, like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which the LORD overthrew in His anger and in His wrath.” The New Testament also uses this word to denote annihilation: Ephesians 5:6 “Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.” There are, however, two occurrences of its use which throw an interesting curve into this mix of anger, wrath, destruction and mayhem. The first is in Matthew. John the Baptist has sprung up out of the wilderness of Judea, warning the people to repent, “For the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Seeing the hypocrites, he says to them “Who has warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” and a little later, 1 "His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clear His threshing floor; and He will gather His wheat into the barn, but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire." (Matthew 3:1-12) Another intriguing text is Revelation 6:16 “and they said to the mountains and to the rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb…” John the Baptist warned of the wrath to come. This Wrath was none other than Jesus Himself. Whether John read into the mission of Jesus the coming of the physical kingdom—the ousting of the Romans and the setting up of David’s throne-we don’t know. But when Jesus came, He was gentle, meek and mild. Children and women flocked to Him. He raised no army, inspired no rebellion, ignited no riots. Those in power turned against Him because He did not meet their expectations of victory over the hated Roman occupation of Israel. They desired an earthily kingdom; He ushered in the heavenly, spiritual kingdom. They hated Him for this and killed Him, at least partially because of it. Jesus’ wrath was not a physical violence, but a spiritual one. He was warring on a completely different plane than expected. He destroyed that which causes violence between humans, the greed and lust for power and supremacy, that which takes rather than gives. Make no mistake: He came to destroy, to uproot, to overthrow. But it was the rebellious heart of men and women which He came to destroy, replacing the old stony heart with a heart of flesh-soft, yielding, giving. In the Revelation text, we have the image of a crowd fleeing an unknown terror. Perhaps, we, walking down a dusty road, hear behind us the cries of fear of a mob of people. Bursting over a hilltop, they shout “Flee! Run for your life! He is coming!” Becoming worried ourselves, we corner one of the mob long enough to ask “Who is coming?” The answer shocks us: “The Lamb is coming! Run for your life!” It’s a rather incongruous sight: thousands of grown men and women fleeing from a lamb. That lamb, elsewhere in Revelation is described as a slain lamb. If you’ve ever seen a lamb gamboling around its mother, you can imagine nothing less fearful. Add to that the image of a dead lamb, and there is nothing threatening or fearful at all. Nothing is weaker; nothing less frightening. But here the whole world is fleeing the wrath of the Lamb. Most theologies make this scene to be one at the end of time in which Jesus, coming in power and great glory, scares the hell out of everyone. They’d rather die than face Him. But let me suggest another scenario, one which matches more closely the image of a lamb. Is it possible that here, again, the scene is one in which those who fear are terrified of losing what they consider their identity—their comfortable self? Are we not so protective of our natural self that we will fight or flee to protect it? In one of C. S. Lewis’s books, (I believe it is The Voyage of the Dawn Treader), he describes one of the children becoming a dragon and finally recognizing what he truly is, endures the excruciatingly painful process of having his dragon nature removed. Paul describes it in Romans 7 as: “Who will deliver me from this body of death?” In Chapter 6 he says: 3 “Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, 6 knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; 7 for he who has died is freed from sin.” Death is never pleasant; it is an unnatural event. We all know this by instinct and fight against it with every power and all the resources at our disposal. Billions of dollars are spent each year to stave off its advances, yet we all, sooner or later, succumb. It is no less of a struggle in the spiritual realm. Every resource available to us will be brought to bear to resist the death on His cross of our self. Perhaps, then, when we read of God’s wrath, we might consider that the destruction is meant to us as a remedy, like a surgeon’s cut-a healing wound rather than as a god who has lost his temper. This sets all those outbursts of god against Israel and all the bloody Psalms and bloodier events of the Old Testament into a new context. He is surgically cutting away that which will destroy mankind if left to grow unchecked. He is aiming at a higher goal than mere physical conquest; He is battling for our spirit, not our body. We, the targets of this gentle, loving wrath, resist. He will do all in His limitless power to win us to His side. It is a bloody battle, but one which He will ultimately gloriously win over all of us. Think what a world of people might be like, all of whom were truly and irredeemably conquered by the wrath of the Lamb. What a place and what a time that will be! 07/27/13