In Praise of the Lamb

A Reflection on the Second Reading for Sunday, May 11th, 2025:
Fourth Sunday of Easter

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Revelation
7:9, 14b-17

After this I, John, looked, and there was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands.

And one of the elders then said to me, “These are they who have come out of the great ordeal; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. For this reason they are before the throne of God, and worship Him day and night within His temple, and the One who is seated on the throne will shelter them. They will hunger no more, and thirst no more; the sun will not strike them, nor any scorching heat; for the Lamb at the centre of the throne will be their shepherd, and He will guide them to springs of the water of life, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”

Pause. Pray. Reflect.

When I read the Second Reading for this coming Sunday, my first thought was, “Ooh, sheep!” With the exception of vines and vine growers, no other scriptural motif rings bells for me the way the sheep and shepherd image does. It has made a profound impression on my life because the more I understand the relationship between sheep and shepherd, the more I understand my relationship to Jesus, the Good Shepherd. 

(If identifying yourself as a sheep is distasteful to you, I understand. Enter the search term “person as sheep” in your browser, and the results will describe that person as stupid, timid, and easily led. To be fair though, sheep are very social creatures. They learn to recognize and trust the shepherd’s unique voice. They form attachments to the others in the flock so that they stick up for each other in the face of bullying, and they miss their flock mates when they are apart from them.)

Normally, the sheep-shepherd metaphor casts us in the role of sheep and Jesus in the role of shepherd, but this passage from the Book of Revelation is different. Here, the main focus is on Jesus as the Lamb. When I think about that, my heart grows warm. 

Not only has Jesus abandoned His divinity to become a sheep like us, He has become even weaker—a lamb that will be sacrificed to save us, the other sheep. So vast is the outpouring of His blood that “a great multitude that no one could count” can bathe in it and make their robes white. This is the Lamb who sheltered them on their journey through the “great ordeal” (and it seems that the word “shelter” here means to “spread a tent over”—what an image). The Lamb of God suffers the same pains we suffer in the great ordeal. He walks with us through the valleys so that we will learn to listen for the sound of His voice. He pitches a tent for our protection so that we will seek shelter with Him and trust Him. He feeds us and guides us to the “springs of the water of life” so that we will have enough strength to survive the ordeal. And, finally, He spills His blood to wash us clean of the filth we have accumulated along the way.

Praise God for such a Shepherd! Praise God for such a Lamb!



Donna Davis

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