ABOVE: Most of the searches seem to say that early church persecution was an urban legend.
“March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb.”
Those who live in warmer climates don’t get the full sentiment of this saying. For northern-climate residents, we understand it all too well.
For one, there’s usually a short-lived break in the weather sometime in late February or early March. Secondly, the days are getting a little longer and so March gives you this false sense that you can go out without a warm coat. This invariably backfires. The March winds rip right through you and all of a sudden Spring seems far away again.
The Lenten season is like that. Many fast during this time of year as a spiritual preparation for Passion Week. The nickname for a fast is “Slow” because fasts seem to last forever when you are in the middle of one. But Lent does eventually end and the fast transitions into an Easter celebration.
This portends the Second Coming of Christ. We seem to be in a “Slow” when it comes to the return of Jesus. Though we fast and pray and serve, it feels like Christians are being culturally and spiritually torn apart by lions as in the day of Rome. In fact, a Google search like the one in the photo reveals that the top searches assert that the persecution of Christians in Rome is a myth.
The wait for a Messiah was also long for the Jews. But Jesus came like a lion and devoured Satan’s stronghold and Christianity was born.
But not before He went out like a lamb.
PORTAL TO HEAVEN: The juxtaposition of Jesus’ titles of “Lion” and “Lamb” are exactly the two counterpoints of our lives as Christians and both can be wonderful portals to heaven for the onlooker (like the Centurion at the cross). For who would have known that a lamb would be the lion that devoured the enemy? Our fierceness and innocence both carry the courage of Christ.
And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross…and one of the elders said to me, ‘Stop weeping; behold, the Lion that is from the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has overcome so as to open the book and its seven seals.’…Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready’…’Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.’
Colossians 2:15 NIV, Revelation 5:5 NASB, Revelation 19:7,9 ESV
P.S.Passover falls on Good Friday in 2018 - a calendar representation of the Jewish-Christian grafting.