March came marching in this morning, roaring like a lion. We have about three inches of snow on the ground. Schools have announced a two-hour delay. The temperature is 29°. Winter is still with us, but spring is on the way. “March comes in like a lion,” we say, “and goes out like a lamb.” I’m hoping the idiom holds true this year as it has in years past. I see signs of the lamb—tender green shoots break through the cold and snow—and within a few weeks will produce hyacinths and daffodils. But the lion dominates today and will probably continue to dominate for a few more weeks.
Spring is on its way. The lamb is coming. The spring equinox is Wednesday, March 20, 2019 at 5:58 P.M. EDT—marking the first day of spring here in the Northern Hemisphere. The first 20-days or so of March belong to the lion; but the last week or so will be dominated by the lamb.
“March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb” is not a verse in the Bible as a parishioner once insisted. It is an idiom or a proverb. It is what people experienced during the month of March through the centuries—an experience they tried to express in words. What is interesting is that they used biblical images, biblical figures of speech—the lion and the lamb—to express their experiences.
When we think of the “lion and the lamb,” we generally recall the passage in Isaiah 11:6: “Then the wolf shall live with the sheep, and the leopard lie down with the kid; the calf and young lion shall grow up together….” There is also a “lion and lamb” passage found in Revelation 5:5-6, followed by these words: “Myriads upon myriads there were, thousands upon thousands, and they cried aloud: ‘Worthy is the Lamb, the Lamb that was slain, to receive all power and wealth, wisdom and might, honor and glory and praise!’ Then I heard every created thing in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, all that is in them crying: ‘Praise and honor, glory and might, to him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb for ever and ever!’”
March provides us an apocalyptic time. A time when the hopes and faith of peoples are being oppressed (whether by “the beast” or “winter”). “As apocalypse views the world, it is out of control; conditions are bad and are getting worse and worse, and the people of faith are powerless to do anything. The images of apocalypse are images of fearsome beasts devouring the people of God”…monsters looking like lions…(The Power of the Lamb, Ward Ewing). The Book of Revelation is the New Testament apocalypse. The month of March can help us understand that biblical book.
Winter hangs on and roars like a lion—we feel hemmed-in, oppressed, powerless to do anything in this March apocalypse. Then comes spring, the power of the lamb—which overturns the power of the “beast” or lion. We are liberated not by the presumed overwhelming power of the lion, but by the quiet, ever-unfolding power of the lamb.
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