Several years ago I was struck by something about Jesus. I was struck by the fact that He is described as both a lion and a lamb. We would have very different feelings in the presence of each of these animals. One would elicit fear and the other something closer to, “Awwwwwwwwww!”

But, yet, He is both. And as we approach Easter, my thoughts turn to the cross. And, there, He is still lion and lamb.

We have to understand that Jesus was meek – which does not necessarily mean weak. It’s something more like strength which is kept under control. It’s power wrapped in humility.

Jesus isn’t some kind of hippie prophet, like from that crazy Saturday Night Live movie, “Superstar.”

Sorry, Will Ferrell. Not hardly.

On the cross –

He was everything, but made Himself nothing.

He was king and servant, ushering in a new kingdom, while reaching for the lowest people.

He was truth and grace.

He was strong and meek.

He was lion and lamb.

Power wrapped in the weakness of humility.

Those things cannot be separated when we think of who Jesus is and what His heart is toward us.

The prophet Isaiah speaks of a future time in which wolves and lambs dwell together, leopards and goats and lions and fattened calves lie down together and they can be led by a little child. The lion will eat straw like the ox.

The times, they will have changed.

I think the cross is a looking ahead to that time. The lion and the lamb met together there, truth and grace, and together they laid down their lives for their friends.

May truth never be parted from grace – never again. What God has joined together let no one separate.