Revelation 7: 9-17
May 6, 2001
I remember from my childhood the Saturday morning television show “The
Lone Ranger.” My brother and I would go across the street to an elderly
church member who had a television. She
would be gracious enough to let us watch a couple of shows since we didn’t
have a television at home. One of
the lines from the opening of “The Lone Ranger” was the phrase “and his
faithful companion, Tonto.” Faithful
companion. The two of them had
common values and trust; they could depend on each other.
I attended a 50th wedding anniversary of a couple I had known
for a few of those years. In the
midst of the celebration and the positive words that were said, I recalled that
their arrival at this point was not without difficulty.
There had been trying times; there had been moments when the marriage
just about didn’t make it. There
were scars, yet, they had hung in there, working things through.
Their love for each other was greater than their weaknesses and faults.
Soldiers are trained to follow the command of their officer, trusting in
his/her leadership and knowledge. It
takes a lot of trust to put your life in the hands of another.
When you sign on as an employee of a company, the company is wanting and
expecting you to be a good employee – to be faithful, dependable, to support
the decisions of the leadership. Yet,
sometimes we encounter ethical dilemmas that demand difficult decisions. What if a policy or directive goes against your ethics and
morals? Do you support the company
policy or take a stand on what you consider to be ethical?
How do you respond? Are you
willing to risk losing your job? Blowing
the whistle on a cover-up knowing you may put your life at risk?
Lose friends? A politician
is called to make decisions as to what is best for the community or state or
nation from their perspective, knowing that many will not agree.
Do they vote as to what is best for the good of the whole or do they vote
to get the support to get elected again?
We are in the Easter season when the resurrection of Jesus Christ is
still fresh in our memories. If we
would recall the life of Jesus, we would discover that the teachings and
ministry of Jesus was a threat to the established religious authorities.
Jesus’ teachings seemed to have made him popular with the people.
The religious system had become rigid and was missing what was truly
essential in worship of God. Jesus
was trying to bring it back to life. But
Jesus was too much of a threat to the powerful; his theology and values differed
too much from theirs. The death of
Jesus was a move on the part of the religious authorities to remove a threat; to
Jesus it was a choice to remain faithful to his understanding of God’s will,
even if it cost him his life. He
sweat it out in the Garden of Gethsemane, “Lord, if it is possible, let this
cup pass from me; nevertheless, not my will but yours be done.”
The resurrection of Jesus is the celebration of the fact that though
truth and right may not win out on this earth, the Will of God is stronger.
Jesus Christ was faithful to God; he was killed because of it, yet
God’s love and grace is stronger than the fear and hatred of human beings.
Even death cannot stop the movement of God’s eternal will.
The letter we call “The Revelation of Jesus Christ to John” was
written to the struggling churches in Asia Minor during the reign of Domitian,
emperor of Rome around 95 A.D. Domitian
pushed the emperor cult to its highest by claiming himself as god and demanding
that he be addressed as god. All
government proclamations had to begin with “Our Lord and God Domitian
commands….” It is reported that he had many people executed for
“atheism,” failure to worship the gods of Rome, of whom he was one.
An image of him was placed in the market place of communities in outlying
areas on occasion and people were expected to face the image and proclaim,
“Caesar is Lord.” If they did
not, they were interrogated with possible imprisonment and even persecution and
death.
It placed Christians in a dilemma; do you stop being a Christian?
Do you lie and say “Caesar is Lord” yet knowing you have been
baptized and have pledged “Jesus is Lord?”
Do you adjust and try to combine Christian beliefs in with Roman gods?
Or do you stand up for your faith and take whatever comes?
This was a time in which mothers saw their babies killed because they
were circumcised (still practiced by early Christians); children saw their
parents imprisoned or killed because of their faithfulness to their confession
of Jesus as the only Lord. The
threat of persecution was not every day, but there were waves of it over the
years. We have a second century Roman document that shows that the
persecution of Christians did cause many of them to recant their Christian faith
and return to the worship of the Roman gods. This was the context in which “The Revelation of Jesus
Christ to John” was read to the small congregations of believers in Asia
Minor.
The letter John wrote to the seven churches was an unveiling, a
revealing, through vivid imagery and symbols, the future from the point of God
and heaven, the future. The scene in Revelation 7 is the throne of God around which
stands a multitude of people from every nation, race and language.
They are dressed in white, the symbol of purity, waving palm branches
(harking back to the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, a symbol of
victory). Praise of God is all that
is taking place in heaven. The
question is raised about all these people dressed in white.
The answer is that they are those who “have come out of the great
ordeal.” This is language
describing people who have died on earth because of their faithfulness to God in
Jesus Christ - martyrs. Their
clothes, stained by their own martyr blood have been washed clean and white by
the shed blood of Jesus Christ – the unblemished lamb who was sacrificed for
us.
This type of language is foreign to us yet it was understood by the
people of that day very clearly. The
point of the entire revelation was to encourage the Christians living in Asia
Minor to remain faithful to their commitment and baptism into Jesus Christ even
if it cost them their lives in persecution.
The picture before us is heaven’s perspective.
The faithful who faced persecution and died are the “winners” in
heaven. From an earthly perspective
they die and appear to be the weak and loosers; but in heaven, they have the
highest honor. Christ will be their
shepherd; they will not lack for anything and even God will comfort them and
bless them by wiping away the tears of martyrdom.
We do not live in that culture or that situation. Yet, there are
Christians today in other countries that do.
We should pray for them. We
also learn from this that evil is a powerful force on this earth and that
God’s ways of peace, understanding, love, compassion and justice do not always
prevail. Long held prejudices and
fears are difficult to overcome; injustice can become a part of the laws of the
land (slavery and racism). Power
can corrupt and cause people to forget about the little people, the powerless.
How far are we willing to go to stand up for God’s way realizing that
we may lose friends, lose our job, get threatening phone calls?
I am reminded of the fact that Martin Luther King, Jr’s own house was
bombed while he was leading civil rights demonstrations; he received countless
threats on his life. Standing up
for the truth can be costly. Are we
willing to count the cost?
James Russell Lowell, an American poet, wrote some words that were put to
music. That hymn is not in our
current hymnal but is a powerful piece. He
lived around the Civil War times; it may have been written in that context.
Let me share the words to that hymn.
1.
Once to every man and nation
Comes
the moment to decide,
In
the strife of truth with falsehood,
For
the good or evil side;
Some
great cause, God’s new messiah,
Offering
each the bloom or blight,
And
the choice goes by forever
“Twixt
that darkness and that light.
2.
By the light of burning martyrs,
Jesus’
bleeding feed I track,
Toiling
up new Calvaries ever
With
the cross that turns not back;
New
occasions teach new duties,
Time
makes ancient good uncouth;
They
must upward still and onward,
Who
would keep abreast of truth.
3.
Though the cause of evil prosper,
Yet
‘tis truth alone is strong,
Truth
forever on the scaffold,
Wrong
forever on the throne.
Yet
that scaffold sways the future,
And
behind the dim unknown,
Standeth
God within the shadow
Keeping
watch above his own.
There may come a time in your life when you may be called to take a stand
because of your faith in Jesus Christ as Lord.
What will you do? What will
the church do?