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\u2026among the lampstands was someone like a son of man\u2026 In his right hand he held seven stars, and coming out of his mouth was a sharp, double-edged sword.\xa0 (Bits of Revelation 1:13, 16)

\u201c\u2026See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals.\u201d Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing at the center of the throne\u2026 (Revelation 5:5-6)

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Is God violent?\xa0

That\u2019s a pretty complex question for a short devotional, but here goes.\xa0

We talked a bit about warfare yesterday, but now I\u2019d like to jump up into the book of Revelation and look at the violence and warfare found there.\xa0

The answer to this above question has implications for how we as Christians interact with our culture today as we seek to \u201cfollow Jesus\u201d in his ways.\xa0 Are his ways violent ways that pour out wrath on enemies?\xa0 If so, then maybe we\u2019re justified when we force our ways and opinions and cruel or condescending comments and actions on others.\xa0 But if Jesus really is the Prince of Peace, then perhaps Christian superiority or self-righteousness is ill-founded.\xa0

We\u2019ve been going through the book of Revelation in our Sunday worship services as \u201cthe Last Word\u201d on the faith, so that\u2019s a good place to go with this question.\xa0 Especially because the book of Revelation is absolutely filled with violent imagery and language.\xa0

But if you notice: none of the violence is actual.\xa0 None of it is literal violence against the world or it\u2019s people.\xa0 It\u2019s a vision\u2014imagery\u2014expressed in apocalyptic language and metaphors borrowed by John from Scripture, history, and tradition.

Further, though the violence John pictures is pictured as the judgement of God and of the Lamb, we have to look really carefully at how John pictures God and the Lamb.\xa0 And when we do, we discover that John subverts the pictures.\xa0 Things are not quite how they seem.

Yes, Jesus has a sword.\xa0 But not a real sword.\xa0 It\u2019s a sword that comes out of his mouth.\xa0 It\u2019s what he speaks, the Word of God, that\u2014in the words of Hebrews\u2014penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, judging the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.

And John is furthermore told about the Lion of Judah, but when he looks, instead of seeing a powerful, violent predator, John sees a little lamb looking like it had been slain.\xa0 John saw not the perpetrator of violence, but the recipient.\xa0 The conqueror who conquered by being conquered.\xa0 This is Jesus on the cross.\xa0 The lamb that was slain, but who now sits on the throne.\xa0

I think John would like us to see and believe that Jesus put violence to death in his cross: not through an act of divine violence, but through humble submission to humanity\u2019s violence.\xa0 That is the Revelation of Jesus Christ in the book of Revelation.

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