“Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels surrounding the throne and the living creatures and the elders; they numbered myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, singing with full voice, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slaughtered to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!” (Revelation 5:11-12)
Jesus was not the only person to die for our sins (literally speaking)!
That struck home to me for the first time this week. I’d been reading the latest book from Chris Hedges about the war on Gaza, and he made the point that Aaron Bushnell, in a very real sense, also died for our sins. If you don’t recognise the name, Bushnell was the US Airman who set himself on fire in front of the Israeli embassy in Washington. It was an extreme act of protest against the Gaza genocide and, in a real sense, he did suffer and die for our sins!
Of course, the suffering and death of Jesus, the Christ, was unique. I’m not trying to equate the two. Jesus’ suffering and death was exceptional because of who Jesus was, but, understood as a model of self-immolation – of publicly destroying yourself for the sake of others – Jesus’ death has been emulated by a disturbingly large number of people. For example:
- Thích Quảng Đức was a Vietnamese monk who destroyed himself by fire in 1963, protesting the persecution of Buddhists by the South Vietnamese government.
- Jan Palach, a Czech student, similarly set himself on fire in 1969 as a protest against the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia.
- Mohamed Bouazizi, the Tunisian street vendor whose self-immolation in 2010 is credited with sparking the Arab Spring uprisings across the Middle East.
- Malachi Ritscher, the American musician who, similarly, set himself on fire in 2006 to protest the Iraq War.
I don’t believe that public suicide should ever be considered an acceptable form of protest. Even so, the worthiness of the lamb, which is the focus of our Scripture passage, is indeed tied to Jesus’ perceived act of self-sacrifice.
Revelation, chapter 5, opens with a search going on in the Heavenly throne room, looking for someone who has earned the right to ‘open the scroll’ that unlocks the future. Eventually, we’re told that “the lion if Judah” has triumphed (Revelation 5:5) and will open the scroll, yet the candidate who then appears is not a lion but “a lamb, looking as if it had been slain!” (Revelation 5:6)
So much of the imagery in Revelation is obscure, but this seems particularly bizarre. It’s not clear what makes the lamb look as if it had been slain. Was it bleeding? Was it disfigured in some way? However, the connection between the lambs suffering and the lamb’s worthiness is unambiguous, and is chorused by the Heavenly choir:
“You are worthy to take the scroll
and to open its seals,
because you were slain,” (Revelation 5:9)
Frankly, this all seems very dark to me, and I recoil at the thought that blood and suffering are necessary if we are all to live together in peace. Having said that, I recognise that even Aaron Bushnell’s terrible death did itself achieve something in the way of reconciliation.
From what I have read and heard, Arab and Muslim people around the world see in Bushnell a sobering reminder that it’s not the American people who are their enemies. Indeed, it’s not even the US military that are to blame, as Bushnell himself was a part of that military. Bushnell helped to redirect the focus of those who decry the violence from the American people to specific members of the ruling class.
I’m going to stop here because I find this whole line of thought really disturbing, and yet I think it is something we do need to discuss and think through. The Christian Scriptures themselves repeatedly link suffering and redemption in ways I find very unsettling, and yet there is no denying that, scripturally speaking, the ‘via dolorosa’ (the ‘way of sorrows’) is also the path to abundant life.
There is a mystery in suffering. We have no idea why so much suffering goes on, and we find it very difficult to understand why God allows it all to happen. Even so, today’s Scripture from the book of Revelation is a reminder that God’s response to suffering is not simply to try and stop it, but also to generate life and health and peace through it (Colossians 1:24)! No cry of anguish goes unheard. No tear falls to the ground that cannot ultimately become a part of the river of life.
As broadcast on The Sunday Eucharist – May 4th, 2025
