At the center is …

The most surprising thing about [Revelation] is that at the center of the throne, holding together both the throne and the whole cosmos that is ruled by the throne, we find the sacrificed Lamb. At the very heart of “the One who sits on the throne” is the cross. The world to come is ruled by the one who on the cross took violence upon himself in order to conquer and embrace the enemy. The Lamb’s rule is legitimized not by the “sword” but by its “wounds”; the goal of its rule is not to subject but to make people “reign for ever and ever” (22:5). With the Lamb at the center of the throne, the distance between the “throne” and the “subjects” has collapsed in the embrace of the triune God.—Miraslov Volf, Exclusion and Embrace, 300–301, cited in Fleming Rutledge, The Crucifixion, 382–83 (emphasis original with Volf)