The Fierce Lion of the Tribe of Judah

John the Baptist described Our Lord as a lamb. Jesus called Himself a Shepherd. St. Paul referred to Him as a bridegroom. But all of these wonderful images are partial. They characterize in a very beautiful fashion the essence of His merciful Heart.

In a sense, we need Him to be a lamb, a meek animal that no one could possibly be frightened of and one that would offer Himself as a sacrificial victim the way the lambs were offered on the altar of the Temple as atonement for sin. He draws all men into His kingdom by love and sacrifice rather than by fear.

King of Beasts

But we also need Him to be a lion, a ferocious beast that has no natural predator. A lion is the king of the jungle and the master of all animals. He is a symbol of power, dominance, and authority.

He is a protector and a standard of unchangeable truth who has no rival and cannot be conquered by any other beast or force in the universe.

And he has a voice. Boy, does he have a voice. Did you know that a lion’s roar can be heard a full five miles away? Wow! If you have any doubt about that, take a look at this monster, and you’ll understand the force of his roar.

I recently read a response by a scientist on a Question and Answer forum who put some numbers and images on the sheer power of a lion (I am paraphrasing a longer response):

• Lions are about 60% pure muscle by weight, compared to even the fittest humans who are only 35–45% muscle.

• A 500-lb. lion will have about 300 lbs. of muscle mass, which is made up of super-powered cat muscle fibers that are 3x as powerful as ours, with about 3x as many fibers per volume as ours.

• Muscle mass combined with overwhelmingly fast twitch fibers (reaction time / speed) means that lions have more than 30x greater capacity to generate force than humans do and would instantly catch and toss around like a rag doll even the strongest human being.

• A single lion can wrestle down and control a raging 1500-lb. Cape buffalo for several minutes until it suffocates it.

That’s what you call a king of beasts.

Lions in the Bible

Despite the lion’s power—or maybe because of it—the Bible exhibits a certain ambiguity about lions. On the one hand, the prophet Hosea uses that image of a lion’s roar to show how God calls his children to Himself:

They shall follow the LORD, / who roars like a lion; / When he roars, / his children shall come frightened from the west. (Hos 11:10)

But notice that the children are frightened when they come—who wouldn’t be!

On the other hand, the Bible doesn’t underestimate the destructive power of this beast either.

The prophet Daniel is almost devoured by a pack of hungry lions (Dan 6); at least a dozen other books of the Bible reference lions as ferocious animals; and St. Peter makes the lion a reference point for the devil (1 Pet 5:8). Ugh.

This ambiguity carries through to the last book of the Bible which describes certain holy angels with leonine imagery (Rev 4:7 and 10:3) but also gives demons the violent and unruly features of a lion (Rev 9:8, 9:17; 13:2). Interesting.

The one reference that resolves and surpasses them all, however, is the most magnificent title given to Jesus in the Book of Revelation. In that scene, a heavenly servant is explaining to John that he needs to maintain hope against all the wickedness of the world, and the way to do it is to focus on the lion:

One of the elders said to me, “Do not weep. The lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has triumphed, enabling him to open the scroll with its seven seals” (Rev 5:5).

When you see how the King deals with His enemies at the battle of Armageddon (Rev 19:11-21), you have no doubt that a fierce lion has finally entered the scene and put an end to the wicked of the earth. That’s why we need Our Lord to be a lion.

In fact, Rev 5:5 is the only place where Jesus is referred to as a lion, and fittingly, it comes at the very end of the Bible.

The Prophecy

That’s because the image has its origin at the very beginning of the Bible and thus forms a kind of inclusion, a set of spiritual bookends, just to make the point clear.

The original reference is Jacob’s final blessing on each of his twelve sons. To his son Judah, he had this to say:

You, Judah, shall your brothers praise—your hand on the neck of your enemies; the sons of your father shall bow down to you. Judah is a lion’s cub, you have grown up on prey, my son. He crouches, lies down like a lion—who would dare rouse him?

Then Jacob adds:

…The scepter shall never depart from Judah, or the mace from between his feet, until tribute comes to him, and he receives the people’s obedience. (Gen 49:8-10)

We, who have been so blessed to inherit the promises of old concerning our salvation have no problem in noting the messianic prophecies contained in these three verses:

• Our Lord is powerful like a lion (who would dare rouse him?!) [Editor’s note: Not me.]

• His brothers will praise him and bow down to him.

• He will be victorious over his enemies.

• He will rule forever.

• And His reign will be universal: not only his brothers, but all nations will come to Him bringing tribute and obedience.

When the Angel Gabriel appeared to Mary in the Gospel of Luke, he told her, in so many words, that this prophecy would be fulfilled in her Son:

He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father, and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end. (Lk 1:32-33)

Perhaps Gabriel didn’t use the image of a lion in describing Jesus because he didn’t want to frighten Mary away!

But Our Lady, even as a young maiden, knew the scriptures well and would have understood the angel’s words as the fulfillment of a long-awaited prophecy.

His Majesty

Many animals are beautiful and impressive, but there is a majesty to the lion that is not found in any other creature.

It’s a combination of his immense power, his majestic look (that golden mane!), his voice, and his eyes. I love this image of the Lion of Judah that I found on the internet recently. It is simply marvelous:

Let us praise our mighty Lord on this holy feast, the Solemnity of Christ the King. A lion in the wild is indeed the undisputed king of the jungle.

But the Lion of the Tribe of Judah is King of Kings and Lord of Lords—Amen!

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Photo Credits: Lion looking through Cross (artist unknown); Roar (Winfried Bruenken); Pride by water (Michelle Callahan); Lion sitting (Charles J. Sharp).