par·a·dox
–noun
1. a statement or proposition that seems self-contradictory or absurd but in reality expresses a possible truth.
Majesty and meekness. The Lion and the Lamb. The swordsman and the victim.
These poetic paradoxes provide pictures of wholeness.
A powerful dialogue emerges in Mark 8:27-38 where Jesus asks his disciples “Who do people say that I am?” They told him “John the Baptist; and others say, Elijah; and others, one of the prophets.” Jesus asked them “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered him, “You are the Christ.”
The Christ. That’s very familiar to us today because we grew up hearing Jesus was the Christ. It’s a much different statement when Peter says it – it’s revelation, revolutionary, and it flies in the face of the Jewish culture of that day. Peter answered in plain language. The word for “Christ” literally means the Messiah, Son of God, the anointed one. The ‘anointed one,’ as in a king, is interesting because that’s exactly what God’s followers were waiting for. Peter and the rest of them were waiting for a Messiah, a king, to deliver them from the hands of their oppressors, establishing a kingdom and consecrating the kingdom from the pagans.
Now Jesus is continually saying that the Kingdom of Heaven, or Kingdom of God, is at hand. It’s in the present, not future, so whatever Jesus is saying and doing as he says this is actually in service of this kingdom. That’s quite different from what much of the Jewish culture believed.
According to generations of history and expectation, most people believed that the Messiah would display his power by forcing the evildoers off their thrones and establishing himself as the king. Jesus knew his power must be displayed in a much different way though. He spoke plainly when he taught his disciples “the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again.” That’s a powerfully lucid prophecy. It’s also very different from what Jesus’s disciples were hoping for. Perhaps Peter was hopeful for the day when he would lord his power over his enemies alongside Jesus, but now Jesus was telling him there would be suffering, even at the hands of the religious. Peter was upset and he pulled Jesus aside to confront him. But turning and seeing the disciples, Jesus rebuked Peter and said “Get behind me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”
Let’s sit here for awhile. Jesus shatters the notions of how the Messiah will come into power. He’s the Lion of Judah (what everyone hoped for) but he is also the Lamb of God (what no one expected). What seems paradoxical is actually a picture of wholeness. When Jesus was expected to overthrow the regimes in control, he instead laid down his life, and in so doing he triumphed. Jesus showed his supreme power by laying his life down for us. The power in the cross exposes how desperately we need Jesus. Jesus uses his sacrifice on the cross to show how true power serves instead of exploits people. That’s not a paradox – it’s the original and eternally intended design of God.
Later on Jesus makes it clear again that power and leadership is evident through service and not position. While James and John ask for seats alongside his thrown in Heaven, Jesus said this to his disciples: “But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” [Mark 10:43-45]
Jesus’s followers saw him as a lion whose voice would thunder and crush the enemy. Jesus was that lion, but he was also the lamb because the enemy was not who we originally thought. The enemy was not just the men who misused their power to oppress the vulnerable – the enemy was us also. Jesus became the sacrificial lamb to save us from our own enmity with God. While we were still sinners, Jesus Christ died for us. While we were enemies of God and we mocked Him and we claimed to be wise, profaning the good things of God, God himself took our punishment out of His unfathomable love.
It’s a much more gracious thing, through sacrificial love, to deliver us from depravity and death to life than it is to whisk us into seats of pride and power where our own depravity may be perpetuated instead of confronted. Jesus is gracious to us. He is not a paradox – he is the excellent wholeness of God, image of the invisible.
Majesty and Meekness
Jesus, high King of Heaven, displayed majesty and meekness when he humbled himself as a servant, a man, being obedient even to death on a cross, making known to us the path to life through him. He is exalted in the highest place. [Philippians 2:5-11]
The Swordsman and the Victim
Jesus gave his life as a ransom for many. He did not run from the will of the Father, but instead he was obedient. He cared for his disciples and gave clear example of how to follow him and follow the Father, losing none of them. We crucified him but he took upon himself the ‘cup of judgment.’ [Isaiah 53, Mark 10:38, John 17:12, Mark 14:42]
The Lion and the Lamb
Jesus alone is able to deliver us into the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus is the Word of God, our High Priest, the Lion of Judah, the Lamb of God – everything. I see a picture of heaven with God on a throne, Jesus at his side, and their Spirit ever present in and amongst us. Our attention is on them. [Revelation 5:5-7]
