Jesus: The Lion of Judah

Hosea 5: 4, “For I will be unto Ephraim as a lion, and as a young lion to the house of Judah: I, even I, will tear and go away; I will take away and none shall rescue him.”

Jesus isn’t just the “meek and mild” Savior that many imagine Him to be.

He is the Lion of Judah, and, as such, He shares some of the lions traits:

He powerful and strong; unrelenting and uncontrollable. He is harsh and outspoken when it comes to God’s Truth. He is prone to righteous anger when God’s interests are at stake. He is severe with those who would play at Christianity.

Jesus expects, no, demands, that He be absolutely first in your life. It is necessary, in the end, that He be the ONLY thing that matters to you. If you had to choose between Jesus and your very life, Jesus and your family, Jesus and your personal happiness and comfort, Jesus and your reputation, Jesus and your job, Jesus and your freedom…you must choose Him.

The same gentle Jesus Who said,
“Come unto Me all ye who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest”

also severely stated in Matthew 10: 37,
“He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.”

Luke 14: 26, adds that the follower must hate,
“his own life, also….”

In Luke 6: 22, Jesus said,
“Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man’s sake.”

In Matthew 10: 38, He said,
“And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me.”

And, in Matthew 16: 24,
“Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.”

Jesus is, as always, exclusionary and demanding. Don’t fool yourself. He will not be walked on nor will He allow Himself to be used by anyone. The cross didn’t just happen to Him. He came to earth to die on it. Nothing “just happens” to Jesus. No one ever takes Him by surprise. He is no one to be trifled with.

He died for us…that we may live. We must die for Him…that we may live.

If our following Him makes people angry…let it. If our friends forsake us for our “radical” beliefs…let them walk away. If our family thinks us crazy…take comfort for Jesus’ family also thought Him crazy.

It never matters what men think of us. It only matters what God thinks of us.

In the end what God thinks of us is absolutely the only thing that matters.

Remember, Jesus is God. We try very hard sometimes to bring Him down to our level. We can’t. There is no way. Understand this please: He isn’t just Jesus, meek and mild. He is Jesus: Lord of lords, King of kings, the First and the Last, the One and Only, God the Son, Creator and Savior, Lion of Judah.

He is God: uncontrollable, demanding, unrelenting and powerful beyond belief.

To truly know Him…to understand Him at all… is to bow before Him in meekness, love, reverent fear and absolute unfailing obedience. To know Him is to be willing to walk away from all that you know and follow Him through anything that He would have you to go through, on the path to anywhere that He would have you to go.

We must be willing to pray, as David Livingston did, “Lord, take away anything from me except Thyself. Lord, send me anywhere only go with me.”

Among most soft, me-centered, “Jesus just wants me to be happy” professing Christians, that kind of prayer would be considered radical and dangerous. It’s not. Here in America, we have redefined “normal” Christianity to mean what we have in the majority of our churches: fun, exciting, relevant, felt-needs-focused worldly entertainment. That’s wrong…so, so very wrong. “Normal” Christianity must be defined according to God’s Word and according to Scripture, to be willing to pray this kind of prayer shows the kind of love, the kind of obedience, that God expects of those who would truly follow Him.

Matthew 10: 38,
“And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me.”


Jesus makes many demands of His followers. He didn’t live an easy life and He doesn’t offer you a rosy life on a silver platter. When you belong to Jesus, you have to die.
Luke 9: 23 states,
“And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.”

Luke 14: 27 takes it even further,
“And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple.”

“Take up your cross…bear your cross”? Whatever could He mean? Surely, He couldn’t be saying…that He has to be first in our lives? That He expects us to…to die…for Him?

This wasn’t some gentle, easy teaching. His audience would have been utterly shocked at Jesus’ words. They would have understood that He was talking about death. They saw crucifixions regularly. These people knew that a cross was meant to be an object of execution: an object of execution is of no use if it doesn’t execute it’s intended victim.

He would be no more gentle with us than He was with them. Why do we dare to think that He would?

“Take up your cross….”

Your cross isn’t your bad back, your difficult relationship or your annoying boss. Those things are not crosses. They are problems that everybody on this earth has to deal with in one form or another.

Your cross is something that is unique to you that you have to give up, endure or live with that is related to your calling as Christ’s disciple. It is instrumental in the death of your old man and, thus, your death to this world. It is something that, by it’s very presence, makes you completely dependent upon Christ and that God uses to grow us in Christ-likeness.

Jesus died for us on the cross of Calvary. We, too, must die for Him. As Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, “When Jesus bids a man come, He bids him come and die.”

Jesus is the Lion of Judah…lions are dangerous to anyone who is around them. Jesus, too, is dangerous.

C. S. Lewis so succinctly stated, “Jesus isn’t safe but He is good.”

Jesus is not safe: not to our desires, not to our flesh, not to our “old man”…but He is good…He died for us. He took my place on the cross that I deserved to die on…now, to obey Him, I must take up my cross and follow Him…wherever He wants me to go.

Jesus…the Lion of Judah…will never lead me wrong.