The Lamb vs the Empire

Dr. “Joey” Alan Le, PhD

Oct 26, 2025

Christian Persecution

John wanted to prepare his churches for widespread and systematic persecution. How should Christians live under and resist an empire rife with violence, power, exploitation, and arrogance?

Revelation 5:1–10

1 Then I saw in the right hand of the one seated on the throne a scroll written on the inside and on the back, sealed with seven seals;

What exactly is in the scroll?

This is the theory that makes the most sense to me: The sealed scroll contains God’s secret plan to rescue creation.

Seven was the number of perfection from Gen. 1, therefore, it was perfectly sealed.

2 and I saw a mighty angel proclaiming with a loud voice, “Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?”

The angel has to shout with a loud voice so that all creation can hear.

The angel essentially asks: Who is worthy to disclose what God is up to in history?

Is there anybody out there who deserves to open this scroll? Is there anybody who has not, themselves, contributed in some way to the ruination of God’s beautiful creation?

3 And no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to look into it.

The ancient peoples thought the universe had three parts: the world of heavenly beings, the world of earthly beings, and the world of the dead (Phil 2:10).

Neither angels nor humans — alive or dead — are able to bring about the will of God! Angels don’t know everything, and can’t do everything. And humans have fallen headlong into rebellion and waywardness. Creation cannot help itself! No one is worthy!

This inability to open the scroll or look into it is not a reference to strength or skill. It’s not like we need a strong man to make God’s will happen on earth.

We need someone who can see all reality without sin distorting their vision.

4 And I began to weep bitterly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to look into it.

Why did John weep bitterly?

Remember, the secret of what God’s purposes for the world is, and God’s plan to bring it all about.

Unless the scroll is opened, all the pain and sorrow of creaturely life will have no purpose or meaning.

Unless the scroll is opened, Christians will have suffered and died for nothing. If the scroll is not opened, God’s plan will not be fulfilled.

John weeps with disappointment because the hope of God’s salvation appears to be postponed indefinitely.

John’s sorrow is more than he can bear. Injustice is prevailing, and God’s will is being thwarted. John probably felt powerless, unable to change, reverse, or negotiate his traumatic experiences of being mistreated and persecuted for his faith.

Where is God’s champion, the one agent worthy enough to fulfill God’s promises and save all of us?

5 Then one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep. See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals.”

See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David — No first-century Jew would miss these references. The promised messiah would come from King David’s tribe, the tribe of Judah (Gen 49:9).

The lion was a symbol of “strength, majesty, courage, and menace.” Everyone understood this image as a promise of a David-like warrior Messiah who will fight God’s battles and wreak vengeance on God’s enemies. The Lion would be a mighty, conquering military hero.

has conquered — The Lion would liberate God’s people once and for all. Well, says the elder to John, "He has done it! Look at him!"

6 Then I saw between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders a Lamb standing as if it had been slaughtered, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth.

Then I saw…a Lamb – This is the central verse that explains how to read the Book of Revelation —and, by extension, all reality.

This is completely unexpected. John heard about a conquering Lion, but all he sees is a slaughtered Lamb.

John’s audience would have instantly recognized the Passover lamb and the lambs sacrificed daily to cleanse Israel of its sins.

But until Jesus, people could not conceive of a conquering Messiah who was slain as a sacrificial lamb.

"Conquering" Means Dying

In Revelation, conquering never means killing the flesh-and-blood enemies of Christ or Christians. After all, Jesus stood before the Jewish Sanhedrin and Roman court, was faithful unto death, and this was his victory and his reign.

The Cross, in effect, redefines what it means to win.

The Lamb is John’s definitive title for Christ. He calls Christ a Lion here, and once the Lion has been revealed to be the Lamb, we never again find Christ referred to as a lion, though he is referred to as the Lamb 24 more times.

The Lion and the Lamb are now fused together. Ultimate power and supreme royalty are now fused with gentle vulnerability and self-sacrifice.

This vision reveals that selfless, outpoured love is exactly how God chooses to end evil and rescue creation.

as if it had been slaughtered — Although the Greek word sphazo may be used in the sense of a ritualistic animal sacrifice, the more usual meaning is “to kill a person with violence.” So, the Lamb is either slain in battle or martyred.

Many people, both Christian and otherwise, believe that the way to overcome their enemies, the way to have lasting peace, is to go to war and to slay the enemy.

And plenty of people have justified their holy wars on what they read in the Hebrew Scriptures. With God on their side, who could stand against them?

But they overlook the passages in Isaiah, Micah, Hosea, Jeremiah, and Jonah that command Israel to be peaceable with others.

So, which is it? Do we follow the pattern of violent conquest in the Old Testament, or the nonviolent peacemaking of Jesus?

I, for one, believe that Jesus shows us how to interpret the Old Testament. And Jesus never quoted passages that favor killing, war, or national supremacy. Jesus only quoted biblical passages that favor peacemaking.

Jesus, the slaughtered Lamb, is the key to understanding the Scriptures.

And while some Christians cite the Book of Revelation to justify a Christian crusade mentality or Christian violence against national or religious enemies, if we read the Book carefully, we find that the followers of the “Beast(s)” commit violence, while the followers of the Lamb do not.

The Lion is a Lamb who wins not with a sword in a bloody battle but with a nonviolent weapon, namely the Word of God. John’s Revelation challenges us to choose between the power of the beast that inflicts suffering and the power of the Lamb who accepts suffering.

a Lamb standing — This was (and is) not something that the worldly person can imagine: a lamb once slain but now glorified and powerful. It is a paradox. It doesn’t make logical sense.

From the Roman soldier’s eyes, and the Pharisee’s eyes…Jesus was a failed insurrectionist. How could he be a victor?

The resurrection is not the mere resuscitation of a corpse. The resurrection proves that the sacrificial love that Jesus exemplified his whole life is the way God saves and overcomes evil (without becoming evil or using evil himself). And sacrificial love is precisely the way all of Jesus’ followers are to live and overcome evil.

seven horns and seven eyes — Animals like bulls and oxen use their horns to battle. This led ancient people to associate horns with strength and power, especially the power to defeat enemies.

The eyes represent the ability to see and know things.

For the Jews, seven signifies perfection or completion.

So, seven horns represent complete power or omnipotence. And seven eyes refer to perfect vision and knowledge, or omniscience.

The slaughtered Lamb can open the scroll because he has complete power. He can look into the scroll because he has perfect vision, uncorrupted by sin or evil.

7 He went and took the scroll from the right hand of the one who was seated on the throne.

8 When he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell before the Lamb, each holding a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.

9 They sing a new song: “You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slaughtered and by your blood you ransomed for God saints from every tribe and language and people and nation; 10 you have made them to be a kingdom and priests serving our God, and they will reign on earth.”

You are worthy —

No one else was “worthy” because, “absolutely no one else would have solved the cosmic conflict between God and Satan, between good and evil, this way.

In this single sentence, we are given five reasons why the Lamb is worthy, and each of these runs counter to the way of the Empire:

slaughtered
redemptive price paid
purchased people from every nation
made the believers a kingdom of priests
People will reign with God.

for you were slaughtered —

Let’s be clear. It’s not as though Jesus tried his way of peace, failed, and got executed for it, and in the end, God will resort to violence. No!

The death of Jesus Christ, the Lamb, is the way in which God conquers evil and establishes his kingdom.

The Lamb is not weak. On the contrary, the Lamb is strong. Its strength lies in its consistent, nonviolent resistance to evil—a resistance that led to its execution.

saints from every tribe and language and people and nation — The four nouns include all human groupings in the world—by common ancestry, common language, common nationality, and common race. The “saints” include all inhabitants of the earth.

See, the way of the world, the Empire, the Dragon is to protect and save one’s own tribe and nation. It’s “us versus them.” Our nation is first. Our people should be on top. And that makes us unworthy to fulfill God’s plans.

Jesus, however, is worthy because he redeems all people and grants them dignity.

Takeaways

So, what does John’s vision have to say to us today?

We can choose to follow the Lamb or the Dragon/Beasts.

If the Church operates like the Empire, then it ceases to be the Church.

For true followers of the Lamb, the end does not justify the means.

Both the means and the end must be justifiable.

If we use violence to bring about peace, then we’ll only perpetuate violence.

Doing evil will never bring about good.

Doing evil begets more evil.

Doing good begets good.

So, following the Lamb means laying our lives down for the sake of others, rather than laying other lives down for our sake.

Lion-Christians

There have been, down the years, plenty of lion-Christians. Yes, they think, Jesus died for us; but now God’s will is to be done in the lion-like fashion, through brute force and violence, to make the world come into line, to enforce God’s will. To them, John says, “No; think of the lion, yes, but gaze at the lamb.”

God does wage war with the ferocity of a mighty lion, but he does so by means of being a slaughtered lamb—that is, by means of his sacrificial death.

Lamb-Christians

And there have been plenty of lamb-Christians. Yes, they think, Jesus may have been ‘the lion of Judah’, but that’s a political idea which we should reject because salvation consists in having our sins spiritually wiped away so that we can get out of this compromised world and go to a far-off heaven instead. To them, John says, “No; gaze at the lamb, but remember that it is the lion’s victory that he has won.

Apparent Defeat

God willingly lays his life down for others. But that does not mean that God is losing. This is precisely the way God conquers for good.

Yes, the Lion of the tribe of Judah valiantly fights his enemies, but he does not violently fight them (Greg Boyd).

Rather, he wages war and overcomes his foes through the self-sacrificial love that was revealed on Calvary. The Cross is how God governs the world and overcomes evil.

Living Like the Lamb Everyday

This vision in Revelation challenges us to live like the Lamb in every area of our lives.

In our family and relationships, can we choose to serve rather than dominate, to listen rather than control?

That means seeking your spouse’s flourishing before your own.
That means apologizing to your child when you are wrong.
That means being a giver, and not just a taker, to your friends.

In the workplace, can we choose service rather than status?

That means treating your coworkers and employees with dignity, even though the system usually rewards self-promotion and competition.
It also means resisting injustice, like advocating for fair treatment, equal pay, and demanding that leaders have integrity.

In the public arena, can we use our privileges to stand with the marginalized?

That means speaking out against all forms of prejudice: racism, sexism, classism, etc.
That means caring for the unhoused and the incarcerated.
That means embracing diversity and showing hospitality to immigrants and foreigners.

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