The Book of Revelation as Good News
In case you haven’t heard, I am going to spend the
Easter season preaching on Revelation.
However, I want to frame the preaching series on two verses that we read
in John’s Gospel. These two verses, I
believe, are probably some of the most essential verses in the Bible when it
comes to understanding the purpose of scripture.
The closing lines of today’s Gospel say, “Jesus did
many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in
this book. But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is
the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in
his name.” (Gospel Lesson)
So more than telling us about the history of God’s people, more than telling us stories that teach a
lesson, more than giving us words of inspiration, scripture is meant to point
to Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God.
Above all else, scripture communicates how God is saving the world from
sin and death through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
I find these words from John’s Gospel to be the perfect foundation as we start wade into the
wonderful, mysterious, and sometimes scary world that Revelation paints for us. I find these the perfect verses to keep in
the back of our mind because if we don’t we will get too bogged down in the
symbols. If we don’t remember that the primary
purpose of scripture is to point to the Messiah, the Christ, then it will be
very easy to use Revelation like so many have before and twist the images and
use them in ways never intended.
Simply put, the Book of Revelation has been used too
often to predict the apocalypse.
Countless number of people have tried and failed to devise formulas
based on this book to strike fear into the hearts of many by saying the world
is coming to an end on a particular date.
They forget that we are already living in the end-times
and that Jesus is and was and is breaking into the world revealing his kingdom
on earth. They forget that the whole
point of Revelation and all of scripture is meant to reveal and point to the
active presence of God in the world today through the risen Christ. This book is not a prediction machine.
This book isn’t supposed to lead us to say, “Well, the
rapture is almost here. We don’t have to
worry about sin and death too much longer.
Jesus is going to beam us good Christians up.” No, the kingdom of God is here—Jesus has said
as much. And the kingdom is yet to come.
The purpose of Revelation is to point to the truth of God’s eternal
presence—now and forever. John of Patmos
speaks in the name of the God who is and who was and who is to come.
I believe one of the reasons many get lost in the book
of Revelation is because we as humans sometimes act like dogs. We are like that dog who doesn’t see the master toss the ball into the field. And when our master tries to point to the
bright yellow ball that is in plain sight, we stand wagging our tail trying to
figure out why the master is yelling and waving his hand around in the
air. And we miss the point. We look at the finger and not at what the
finger points to. We dwell for too long
in the imagery.
How do we find
the grace and wisdom and humility to see what the finger is pointing to, to
look beyond the imagery? How do we find
the grace and wisdom and humility to chase after the truth that God tosses out
before us with his word given in Revelation?
Yes, a part of that challenge is to understand and
hear the words in a way that would have made sense to the original readers—to
those well versed in the scriptures—to those who lived during a time of
persecution—to those who were members of the seven churches that John of Patmos
writes to.
But even more important than the knowledge of the
scriptures, knowledge of cultural history, knowledge of these symbols is an
encounter with the living word of God.
As one theologian implied, we are more than students who possess
knowledge about the Bible; we are people who are given a faith that believes
God’s word is meant to possess us and make us the people
of God.
In the verses that follow today’s lesson from Revelation (Revelation Chapter 1), John of Patmos encounters the living word of
God, he falls to his knees. How could he
not fall to his knees? If you read on,
Jesus is not described as the Jesus you imagine when he says, “let the little
children come to me.” This Jesus has
hair that is as white as snow and whose eyes are like flames of fire. His voice is like the sound of many waters
and his face shines like the sun.
Remember don’t dwell in
the imagery too long. Remember what the
finger is pointing to. How is this image
of Jesus pointing to the Messiah?
His white hair is a reminder of Jesus’ wisdom and his purity.
The eyes of fire remind us that when Jesus looks at us, he purifies us
with his great love, a love that both judges us and saves us. The sound of many waters draws from numerous
scriptures and reminds us that God uses water to give way to salvation. And of course, his face shines like the sun
because Jesus is the light that is coming into a world of darkness.
This encounter with the living Christ takes ahold of
John of Patmos. Jesus’ word possesses
John of Patmos with his encounter. This
revelation of Christ consumes John to the point where he is compelled to give
this vision to the Church—not just to the seven churches in Asia Minor in the 1st
and 2nd centuries but also to the Church in all times and places.
We know this because seven symbolizes completeness as
God rested on the seventh day after the completion of creation. As we move along in the Book of Revelation,
you will find that certain symbols can contain multiple meanings on a literal,
metaphorical, and eschatological level.
On a historical and literal level, John of Patmos
writes to churches that are being persecuted or at least controlled by
Rome. As the letter continues, the
revelation of John will respond specifically to the issues of each church. However, the prevailing theme asks, to whom
does our worship belong? Does worship
belong to Cesar or to God Almighty? And
as we read, we also find the issues faced by the churches in Asia Minor aren’t
too different than the issues that the church faces today.
During these times of great persecution and Roman
occupation, the Christian faithful are tempted to surrender to the allegiances
that the world demands of them. The
faith of many of these communities is growing dim.
Amid all the suffering and oppression, should these
churches still believe that Christ will come again to judge the living and the
dead? If he isn’t coming back, then life would be much easier to simply go with the
flow of the Roman culture.
While we do not, here in the United States, experience
religious persecution, we do understand what it means to be a part of a culture
that demands that we worship its lifestyle, its way of life. We do know what it means to say one thing but
do another.
We do know what it is like to grow complacent and live
according to a reputation that is no longer true. You better than I know what it is like to
live in a city that once seem so alive look dead.
We do know what it is like to lose hope in something
we were once so sure of. We understand
what it is like to wonder how God can still be alive amid all the suffering and
chaos in the world.
But the good news says that our encounter with the
living Christ will not leave us in a place of despair and hopelessness. We, who sit in darkness and John of Patmos
who writes from a place of dark exile, are given a vision that sheds light on a
different way, on a better way to live—a way that follows Jesus Christ.
We have a choice.
We don’t have to concede to the ways of the
world. We don’t have to concede to ways that look tempting on the front end but ways
that leave us empty in the end. Instead,
like John of Patmos, we can fall at the Lord’s feet as though we are dead, dead to a world that fills us with lies
and half-truths and alive in a God who fills us with the knowledge of the hope
that is and was and is to come.
For when we fall at the feet of Jesus, we look upon
the One who made the way of victory through suffering on the cross. When we look at the risen Christ, we look
upon the One who reveals all truth, the One who says that the ways of the world
will one day kill you but the way of the suffering servant will grant you life
and immortality. When we come before the
risen Lord in worship, we are in essence saying, “Let your Word and Holy Spirit
take ahold of me, possess me, and guide me into all truth.”
As you leave church, I invite you consider how your
encounter with the risen Lord this day is shedding a hopeful light in a world
full of darkness. How does your
encounter with the Suffering Servant call you to be alive and attentive to the
needs of a world that knows too much suffering?
Ask yourself, “How is my life reflective of the fact
that I worship the risen Lord, the one who comes to take away the sin of the
world, the one who gives hope where there was once despair, the one who gives
life where there was once death?” How is
my life reflective of the fact that God’s word has taken ahold of me?
And finally, how might you order your life in a way
where everything you do, everything you say points to the risen Christ, to the
Messiah who is ushering in a new kingdom?
Beloved, God has tossed the bright yellow ball of
truth in front of you. May you have the grace to let God’s word take ahold of
you and use you to point to Jesus the Messiah. May you have the grace to chase after the
eternal truth given in the risen Christ and discover the richness of life in
God. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment