Becoming Man

Jesus appears as glorified Man in the opening chapter of Revelation, and as glorified Man He sends messages to the seven churches.

But when the next vision opens in Revelation 4-5, Jesus the man is absent. He is not present in heaven at all at the beginning of chapter 5, since no one is found to open the book. When He does appear, He appears as Lamb and Lion, which suggests associations with the cherubim/living creatures surrounding the throne, which include a lion and bull. In his profound and provocative essay on orientation in Revelation (available from Biblical Horizons), Jordan links Jesus’ Lambness with the fact that there is no table of showbread or twelve loaves of man-bread in the heavenly sanctuary. Mankind is not yet exalted to God’s presence at the beginning of Revelation; by the end, the martyrs are there.

As Jordan says, “the Lamb is the representative Man, but He is not yet the full twelve baked loaves of humanity.” Jordan suggests that the loaves are parallel to the Bride who appears at the end of the book. Thus, the book of Revelation depicts Jesus becoming “fully man.” He advances from Lamb to Man, and does so when His full Bride is formed. Like Adam, like the royal Lover of the Song, Jesus is fulfilled as Man only by union with a Bride.