Apologies in advance – this is just something I have to get off my chest. I’ll probably delete it soon.
The pastor at the church we’ve been leading has been stuck for a few months on the concept that we should view Jesus as the lamb that was slain, not as the lion of Judah. And that as Christians following Jesus’ example, we should avoid any conflict, always serving and laying our lives down for others.
I agree with that last part; we should serve and lay our lives down for others. However, I think that by ignoring the aspect of Jesus’s character that is bold and fearless, he is preaching a powerless religion. We are called to take part in a war, but it’s a spiritual war. When our enemies persecute us, we are told to pray for them and treat them well; at the same time, we should be praying against the evil one in his efforts to distract us from the faith. See Ephesians 6 for a description of how we are to fight this war.
So yeah. Jesus is both the lamb and the lion. You can’t have one without the other.