“And I looked, and behold, in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures and
in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as though it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent out into all the earth” (Revelation 5:6)
A sublime moment in the vision given to the apostle John that Sunday morning on Patmos Island—the appearance of a wounded Lamb in the middle of the throne area. He’s at the very center of the whole scene of the throne surrounded by four living creatures and an outer ring of twenty-four elders.
We know that Lamb. He is the One that St. John the Baptist pointed out as the long-awaited Messiah (John 1:26,29). Not only in the Johannine gospel and Revelation, but elsewhere in the Bible we find Jesus Christ referred to as the Lamb. Isaiah [53:7] in anticipation of His coming explained what we should look for:
“He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth;
He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
So He opened not His mouth: In His humiliation His judgment was taken away,
For who shall speak of His offspring? For His life was taken from earth”
Every priest soon learns these precious words by heart, for they are uttered at the time of the preparation of the sacred Host, which is called the Lamb. St. Peter [1:19] also reminds us that we are redeemed “with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without spot or blemish.” The word he and the others use is the term most often employed: amnos. But the word used 29 times in Revelation is the tender arnion. It lends a gentle flavor to the meaning.
An interesting irony is that western Christians who challenge and even reject our use of icons will often have as a symbol a lamb with one foreleg holding a banner, while the other is lifted up to show that it is wounded. Orthodox Church rules forbid representation of Jesus Christ as an animal, or indeed in any form other than as He is presented on our icons. Long ago, in a council held in Constantinople in 692 on the eve of the great controversies surrounding iconography and its detractors, the iconoclasts, several canons or rules regarding icons were affirmed. The most important was the “Christ our God must be represented in His human form instead of the ancient lamb.” Almost a century passed before the Roman Catholic Pope accepted this rule, and only then rather reluctantly; however, later the bishops of Rome did defend the Orthodox stance on icons and their proper use in churches and homes.
The paradox of a slain Lamb who stands in triumph in the center of heaven reveals the blessed enigma of the Cross. Only by the Cross did Christ win our salvation. By enduring the agony and death was the glory of God revealed to the universe. Nothing can ever match that manifestation of God’s love for us.
The Lamb wore seven horns, a rather strange image—but seven is the perfect number, and horns imply supreme power. We know what horns mean to the unfortunate bulls made to perform in the Spanish arena. They have no other weapons against the swords of the matadors. In Bible imagery, horns are frequently used to represent the forces of various nations and their kings. In Psalms, horns manifest the honor God gives to mankind: “In Your favor our horn is exalted” (89:17), “He has exalted the horn of His people” (148:14).
We recall from Zechariah 4:10: “They are the eyes of the Lord, which scan to and fro throughout the whole earth.” This is the way that the Lord can see everything in creation. Nothing can escape from detection from God.