Lion, Lamb, and Light

Imagine you are going on national television in prime time as an America’s Top Talent contestant. You are asked by the judges to compose a song on the spot and sing it, on the theme of hope. What will be the lyric? How about the music score? Let me give it a try.

Hope is Peter Pan’s pixie dust; it gives you wings of faith to fly to Neverland.

Hope is the Hummer with 239 horsepower; it drives you across the uneven terrain of life.

Hope is the catchy word that enchants us; it gets Obama to the White House.

Hope is the sweet dream of a girl; it promises her a white knight prince in waiting.

Hope is the undying fire in a heap of ember; it rekindles the passion of your heart.

Hope is the assurance of tomorrow; it knows the setting sun shall rise again above the horizon.

Hope is the energizer bunny; it just keeps you going and going and going ….

Two thousand years ago, a man named Zachariah also sang his song of hope. He and his wife Elizabeth were advanced in age, without a child. One day, an angel of the Lord visited him while he was on priestly duty in the Temple of Jerusalem. To his disbelief, his wife would bear a child who shall be named John, aka John the Baptist. He would be the forerunner, the equivalent of an usher or an emcee of a Broadway show, for Jesus Christ who was to be born six months after John. On the eighth day after John’s birth, the day of circumcision according to Mosaic Law, Father Zachariah composed this song, a song of hope (Luke 1:67-79):

“Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, because he has come and has redeemed his people.

He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David (as he said through his holy prophets of long ago), salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us—to show mercy to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant, the oath he swore to our father Abraham: to rescue us from the hand of our enemies, and to enable us to serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.

“And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High; for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him, to give his people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of sins, because of the tender mercy of our God, by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven t shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace.”

This song uses two explicit metaphors to describe our Lord Jesus Chrsit: a horn of salvation, the rising sun from heaven. The song also has three implicit metaphors: Lion of Judah, Lamb of God, and Light of the World. Lion, Lamb, and Light are three reasons for our true hope in life.

First, this horn of salvation came from the household of King David in the tribe of Judah. Nearly 1900 years before the birth of Christ, Jacob, a patriarch of Israelites, prophesied by his deathbed the coming of the Shiloh, the Peace Giver, from the tribe of Judah (Gen.49:10). Judah was likened to lion’s cub. Jesus, the Prince of Peace, was referred to in the Bible as the Lion of Judah (Rev.5:5). Nine centuries later, Prophet Nathan relayed God’s promise to King David that a descendant from David will be King forever. This eternal King for the kingdom of God is none other than Jesus Christ, the true Lion King, the King of kings, and Lord of lords. Perhaps unbeknown to Zachariah then, this horn of salvation, the Lion of Judah is not only King of the Jews, but he is the King of all God’s people as well.

This Lion King was to suffer mortal wound, as animatedly depicted in the C. S. Lewis book and a recent movie by the same name of “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe”, and in another movie “The Passion of the Christ”. The Lion of Judah is also the Lamb of God. This is one greatest paradoxical truth of the bible: the King of the kingdom of God was sacrificed as the Lamb of God, in so doing, calling and winning the hearts of many lost sinners to become the citizens of the heavenly kingdom. John the Baptist, according to his father Zachariah’s song, was to present this Lord, the Lion King, to God’s people so that they will have the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of sins. This Lion King was to become the Lamb of God, by dying on the Cross to make the forgiveness of sin possible. As a priest, Zachariah probably knew better that the forgiveness of sin did not come easy; it involved the shedding of blood. In this case, it was the shedding of the precious blood of the Son of God. Have you accepted this Lion King of Judah, the Lamb of God, into your heart and received the forgiveness of sins? I encourage you to take the step of faith and accept him.

Zachariah continued in his song of hope: the rising sun will come to us from heaven. The Light of the World from another world was to come to us and make dwelling among us. That is the central message of Christmas: God the Son became God the Incarnate, the Immanuel, that is, God with us. This Light will dispel all darkness. Seven centuries before Christ’ birth, Prophet Isaiah prophesied in manifold clarity this Immanuel would be born of a virgin (Isa.7:14), as a shoot (Isa.11:1) “from the stump of Jesse” (King David’s father), and as “the great light” seen by “the people walking in darkness” and a light dawning “on those living in the land of the shadow of death” (Isa.9:2).The origin of this light is otherworldly, for his name is divinely revealing, “Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” (Isa.9:6). Jesus said, “I am the Light of the World. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (John 8:12). We live in a post-modern world that marginalize, if not outright reject, truth of any kind and brand, especially the metanarrative of biblical truth. The evolutionism you learn at schools tries to upset your faith by trumping God’s truth that God is the Creator of the Universe and Life. The Light of the World has come, full of truth and grace. Jesus says, “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32). Have you seen the light of truth? In this light, have you seen you have lived in darkness for too long? Now it is high time to come out of the darkness of sin and become a child of light. Jesus also says to his followers, “You are the light of the world” (Mat.5:14). As children of light, we are to bear witness to the light and live a life that is full of light.

Brothers and sisters, our hope of deliverance does not rest on the power of any nation in this world. It comes from the power of the world to come. The horn of salvation is mighty and able to deliver us from the oppression of any dark force, be it injustice, sin and death. Those who take pride in the ever more powerful human armaments will be put to shame. The world’s powers, more often than not, have come out of the gun barrels, but they come and go, without exception. The power of the everlasting Kingdom of God comes not by human strength, but by the mighty arm of the Lion King of Judah. The King has come, in humility and love, and he shall return, in glory and power. Are you ready for this King’s return? Prepare a way in the hearts of our own and our contemporaries, just as John the Baptist did in his time. Preach the Word all the time, in words and deeds. Be creative. Be courageous. Never lose heart.

Brothers and sisters, our hope of salvation does not come from the self righteous acts of human efforts, a common hallmark of all the world’s unbiblical religions. Our hope of salvation comes from the righteous sacrifice of the Lamb of God. He alone is able to deliver us from the penalty of sin, the power of sin, and, ultimately, the presence of sin. Any human efforts will fall short of achieving eternal salvation. Who in our right mind would think that the gift of eternal life can be sufficiently earned by our limited and imperfect acts of charity trenched in highly questionable motives of ultimate self-serving? Come to Jesus the Lamb of God for the forgiveness of sins, would you?

Brothers and sisters, our hope of understanding does not come from ever shifting scientific conjectures and speculations. It comes from the Light of the World, who bears witness to God’s truth to this world of darkness. The truth is: we are all created in God’s glorious images and likeness. We are God’s image bearers. But we are sinners and fall short of the glory of God. Now the Light has come, we ought not to continue living in darkness. Come out of the dungeon and the closet, and embrace the fresh and warm sunlight from the high heaven. Walk on the sunny side of life. What darkness are you in? What secret life are you living? What immoral web of relations are you entangled into? Come out of it. Live in the light. As Apostle Peter said, “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light” (1Pet.2:9).

Today, on the first Sunday of the Advent season, I implore all of us, behold our Lord Jesus Christ and become his. Believe the Lion King of Judah, and become his redeemed citizen of heaven. Believe the Lamb of God, and become a new member of his flock. And Believe the Light of World, and become his witness of light and life. Jesus the Lion, Lamb, and Light is the true hope of our life. God bless you.