TRINITY MARCH NEWSLETTER
“If March comes in like a lion, it will go out like a lamb but if it comes in like a lamb, it will go out like a lion”.
So goes an old proverb about the month of March. It is, of course, probably a totally inaccurate prediction about weather patterns in the month of March.
However I have always found the combination of the lion and the lamb interesting, in a spiritual sense, especially since at least a part of Lent invariable occurs in March! The lion and the lamb are two very significant symbols of and titles for Christ and the imagery of both play an important part in the meaning of Lent and Easter.
Jesus is referred to as the Lion of the Tribe of Judah (Genesis 49:9-10)(Revelation 5:5). Interestingly this means He is mentioned in the first book, and in the last book of Scripture which also causes us to remember that in Revelation He is called the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End! The tribe of Judah
was identified as having the qualities of a lion, and that from that tribe would come the great leader; Christians understand that prophecy to be about Jesus. King David was of the tribe of Judah and the Messiah would come from David’s kingly line. In “animal tradition” the lion is also identified as the king of the jungle, and Jesus is called King, C.S Lewis warned us that “he is not a tame lion” and when England’s King George II continued to talk during a worship service, the clergyman in charge of the service looked King George directly in the eye and said, “ When the lion roars, all the animals of the jungle fall silent and when the Lord speaks, the kings of the earth shut their mouths!” Let us worship the Lion of Judah in silent awe and wonder!
Jesus is also referred to as the Lamb of God, (John 1:29).(Isaiah 53:7)(I Peter 1:19). In old Jewish ritual a lamb was offered as a sacrifice for the sins of the people. Jesus would be the perfect sinless Lamb of God offered, once for all, for the sins of the people. In the Revelation the Lamb of God is pictured as victorious and exalted, the position achieved only because of what He had done. Let us sing, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain!”
These two images may at first seem in contradiction to each other but as the author Henry Gariepy, in his book “100 Portraits of Christ” explains,
“we see that both portraits are essential to Christ and to His ministry. The figure of the Lamb represents His suffering and sacrifice for us. We also need the figure of the Lion that represents His conquest in His suffering and His offering. The sacrifice without the conquest would have been just another in the long succession of martyrdoms in the history of man”
In one of God’s strange turn-abouts, the Suffering Lamb has become the Victorious Lion! The great thing is that if Jesus comes into our lives first as a lion and then as a lamb, or as a lamb and then as a lion, it doesn’t matter, as long as we know He is there!
As a matter of information, the mediations during the Lenten services will be a mini-series on some of the other names and titles for Jesus. We sincerely hope you will be able to join us!
All Praise to Christ, our Lamb and our Lion!
Pastor Penny Ritter
