Lion and the Lamb

“I began to weep loudly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to look into it. 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. And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders I saw a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain.” – Revelation 5:4-6

I tend to become task-focused when it comes to teaching my children. When they get frustrated because they can’t understand a concept or carry out a skill, I tend to want to power in there to fix things, to hammer the concept in or push until we get the assignment done. But I often learn the hard way that what my children need first when they come to me with frustrations is compassion. They need me to be gentle. They need me to listen. They need me to lay my own agenda aside so I can see and understand their struggle better.

Someone once wrote of this passage, “John was looking for a Lion—he must have been surprised to see a Lamb.” That’s interesting, isn’t it? John is told, weep no more, for the conquering Lion has come! And yet, when he looks, what he sees is a lamb. The meekest and most helpless of creatures. He was met in his grief and frustration by an image not of power or might, but of weakness.

“Compassion,” Nouwen writes, “is hard because it requires the inner disposition to go with others to places where they are weak, vulnerable, lonely, and broken.” In a sense, I cannot teach my children until I first understand where they are. I must go with them into the places of weakness, shame and struggle. I must have compassion, and the only way I can do that is if I have received it from God. The only way I can build and restore my reserves of compassion is to receive and savor the compassion of Jesus, the slain lamb.

In the end, that is what matters. It probably won’t matter ten years from now if my kids learn right now how to spell a word or solve an equation. But it might matter whether or not they see the compassion and love of Jesus in me. “Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness and patience” (Colossians 3:12).