The Joy of the Revelation of John II

II. A First Look – Visions of Jesus

When one begins to read this book carefully, it becomes evident that with respect to some of the content, you are reading about the same thing from different perspectives, or vantage points if you will. We must realize that this book is not written as something to be understood in linear or chronological fashion. Apocalyptic writers were not primarily concerned with that. We do well also to keep in mind, that these are visions given from God. God is beyond space and time, so what is told is not bound by those limitations. Remembering that, we can ate least begin our study by looking at these visions and group them according to subject.

The first vision is of Jesus. There are numerous references to Jesus in the book but they generally fall into three images. The first is right in chapter 1 verse 12 where he is described as one ‘like a Son of Man.’ Now, this was a title used in the writings of the intertestamental years and earlier to refer to The Messiah, whom all Israel longed for.  Indeed, it was then a title Jesus applied to himself (Matthew 8:20, 98:6 etc.).

The second vision we have of Jesus is of The Lamb (Rev. 5:6, and two dozen more references, ending in 22:3). He is the one who, because of his obedience to death, rewarded by resurrection to a seat at God’s right hand, is the one worthy of opening the seven seals on a scroll God gave an angel to open to reveal what must come hereafter (5:1-7). We can see the Lamb begin to be seen differently than just this meek and mild obedient sacrificial animal though. Beginning in 6:15-16 we read of “the kings of the earth and the magnates and the generals and the rich and powerful” being so afraid that they are “hiding in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains,” crying for “the mountains and rocks [to] ‘fall on us and hide us from the face of the… wrath of the Lamb.” The Lamb is moving from the way Christ generally presented himself on earth to show another side of the Son of Man. 

The third vision is then one of Jesus whom I call The Victor. Indeed, the first victorious battle was won with Jesus’ death, wherein Jesus defeated death and the power of evil. However, in common parlance, we could say there was still considerable “mopping up” to do. The first reference to some of this is in 17:12-14, where it states the ten kings there described will unite with “the beast” to make war on the Lamb [but] the Lamb will conquer them, for he is Lord of lords and King of kings. The most vivid description of Jesus seen in this light is in 19:1-16, where he appears in heaven, riding a white steed, armed with a sword, “with which to strike down the nations, and… rule them with a rod of iron; he will tread the wine press of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has a name inscribed, ‘King of kings and Lord of lords.’” 

Now, we can immediately say two things about this. First, whatever else might catch our attention, and too many are distracted by the details, this is a book about Jesus Christ, who is at once the Son of Man, the Lamb and Lord of lords and King of kings. He is the beginning and the end of the book, let alone of all existence, as he says of himself right at the start: “I am the alpha and the omega.” Those are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet, in which Revelation is written, and simply mean the beginning and the end, and everything in between. As we say nowadays, “From A to Z.”

Second, there is a wonderful and meaningful progression in these images of our Lord and Saviour. He is first of all The Messiah (Hebrew), the Christ (Greek), the ‘anointed one.’ He is the one Israel, and indeed all mankind, were waiting for. He is the one written about all through the Old Testament from Genesis, the first book, to Malachi, the last. He is the embodiment and fulfilment of the covenant first spoken of with Adam and Eve. He is the one who had come to earth as the Son of Man, fully human, but still fully God, mere decades before Revelation was written, and who had given new life to many. 

This brings us to the second image. Jesus accomplished his initial purposes as The Messiah by dying for us. In some mysterious way, his death erased the consequences of man’s straying from his Maker and God’s purposes for us. He was the ultimate sacrificial Lamb. No more need daily and yearly sacrifices be made for sins, for atonement. No more do we need human and imperfect prophets and priests to mediate between us and God. Jesus is now our fully effective divine mediator prophet and priest. In the ensuing resurrection, he completed the defeat of the forces of evil that had been unleashed by mankind’s self-centred choices. However, as we know, we still live in an era where evil is present and active. As Jesus himself taught, The Kingdom of Heaven is ‘at hand,’ but it is not yet totally here, we are not yet entirely within it. We live in what sometimes is called the age of grace, but in apocalyptic terms can also be called the end times. This is because, in apocalyptic understanding, this entire period of time between Jesus’ ascension to heaven and his promised return, was understood by The Early Church as simply a period of time which must pass before Christ returns. The focus was Christ’s return, not this present age. 

In the third image then, Jesus is seen as making his defeat of Satan, the forces of evil, final. In apocalyptic terms, he defeats Satan and casts him and those who, by their failure to chose Life, into ‘hell’ forever. Here the Messiah, come to earth as a mere human Son of Man, to die as a weak Lamb, becomes The Victor his followers, all those who have put their hope in him, have been waiting for. Here we can see emerging the picture that gives Jesus' suffering followers, those under persecution and restraint, living in hard times, hope; a hope that can lead to joy in the confidence that our Lord is indeed Lord of lords and King of kings and all those persecuting powers' day is doomed.

The Story of Mary IV: Death and Beyond - Chapter 30 – Reunion in Galilee

Mary was glad to be home, away from those terrible scenes in Jerusalem. It seemed so peaceful in Nazareth in comparison. Now, she just hoped her son would join her again. He had told his disciples he would meet them in Galilee, but had not really said where. All she could really do was wait and hope. Well, she did pray that her son would come home to visit. She had also made John promise that when they met Jesus – if they saw him first – they would tell him his mother really wanted to see him at home. It was actually a little lonely here now, with her other children grown and gone, although they were all nearby.   

She was just stopping tidying up and looking at what she needed in terms of food and supplies to take a break for lunch when there he was – across the table like in old times. Of course, she was startled and for a brief moment a fear gripped her. But then she remembered the disciples telling her how he had been appearing to them, just like a ghost out of thin air.

“Oh, Jesus,” she cried. Jesus caught her in his arms and stroked her hair as she sobbed in his strong embrace, “I didn’t know when or where I would see you again, or even if.”

“Mother,” Jesus said comfortingly, “Where would I go first but home? I know I did not come home as often as you would have liked, but you know I had a task to do. Now, my work on earth is almost done, and I must return to our heavenly Father.”  

“You know, Jesus,” Mary said, “I still am not sure what ‘your work,’ as you say, on earth really was.”

“Mother,” said Jesus gently, “Let me explain it to you now, and I know you will see how everything that happened was planned by my heavenly Father.”

So, beginning with Genesis and The Law, working through the Psalms and The Prophets, Jesus showed how his coming had been predicted so exactly. He told here why they had to go to Egypt, to fulfil prophecy. She had often wondered about that. It had been such a disruption in their lives at the time. There had also been so much fear, running from that terrible Herod’s soldiers. Jesus explained how, as the new Moses, a giver of a new law, of love, he came from Egypt to deliver his people, just as Moses had done. 

He spoke of how God planned things versus what the Jews had erroneously come to expect of their long-awaited Messiah. He told his mother how God worked, so often just the opposite of what people expected. That was why his people had not seen who he was and had killed him. they had just not understood. Even that , as Jesus pointed out, was a fulfilment of Prophet Isaiah’s words about people seeing and hearing, but not really. Mary had certainly wondered about why Jesus had to die that way. But then Jesus told her the most wonderful story of all.

Jesus told her how he could have easily avoided that death, simply by calling on angels. After all, he was God’s Son. Mary could see that. She had seen him do enough miracles to have some idea of what that meant. However, Jesus said, he had to die as the prefect God-man to show that only in total surrender, giving even one’s life, is the way to new and eternal life. Ever since Adam and Eve, people had clung to their own abilities, trying vainly to hang on to the life they had, never totally letting go experience the fullness of the blessings His Heavenly Father wanted to give them. No one was sinless in that regard. Mary certainly grasped that. As the sinless one though, Jesus’ death, because he was also God, took away our sin, our pride, our punishment, our sentence of death for that, and made it possible for us to be reconciled to God again in a way no animal or other sacrifice could ever do. 

Mary’s eyes were indeed opened as she realized how contrary much of what she had come to expect was compared to what Jehovah had actually accomplished through her son. Remaining at home most of the time in Nazareth, she had not heard all that Jesus had said in his three short years of ministry, but Jesus put it all together for her. Jesus also told her some of what was to come in the near future and even how she could be part of that. 

When Jesus had completed his discourse, Mary took a deep breath and responded, “It is still so new, much of it, but it makes so much sense. It is beautiful, what the father has done. It is still hard to accept though, what you had to go through to accomplish this. I will never fully understand your love and commitment, your obedience. You have certainly shown us the face and the mind of the Father in a new way, which we will never forget.”

“And I know, mother,” Jesus said as he stood and moved toward her, “You will be an important part of what happens from now on. But I still have work to do here. I must go and tell my brothers what I have told you. I have to trust them – and you – to continue to carry on my work. I must return to my Father. My work on earth will be done soon. However, as I told my friends at Passover, after I have returned to my Father, we will send our Spirit to live in each one of you who believe. The Spirit will help you remember all that I have lived and taught so you can carry on your mission of being the face of the Father in the world we created for you to enjoy. The Spirit will give you power such as I showed so you can teach and preach in the same way I did, so you can heal and cast out demons as I did. You can do all this now because I, in my death and resurrection, have overcome the evil of the world. 

The Father and I have defeated Satan. You no longer need to fear him. The time is not here yet for the final punishment for the evil one, but once our mission on earth is complete, he will receive the punishment he deserves for what he has done to so spoil what we have created. You have no idea what a beautiful world it was in the beginning and will be again. Someday I will return – yes, I will come back! - to make that final conquest of evil. Then you will see me as the all-powerful King and Deliverer that everyone thought I was going to be now.  Then we will re-establish the order my Father intended when he first created everything. Indeed, it will be like a totally new earth and heaven when we are done with the renewal. It will be the best reward imaginable for all that you have had to suffer in your lives on this current earth.”

“Mother, thank you for everything you have been for me. I could not have wished for a better mother. You have no idea how much I really love you. God knew what he was doing when he chose you. I know we will miss each other dearly, but this is the way it has to be. I must return to The Father, and soon, but, as I said, I will send my Spirit to be with you all and comfort and strengthen you as you carry on what I have only begun. And, mother, remember, as I said, I will come again and this time I you will be with me – forever. It might not happen in your lifetime, but even if you die before the appointed time for my return, and only The Father knows when that will be, I will be with you once again – forever.”

Before Mary had a chance to respond to all of that, Jesus wrapped his big loving arms around his mother and held her in a tight embrace before he was gone as suddenly and mysteriously as he had appeared.

Mary’s story - Chapter 13 Home Again

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Mary had enjoyed and been blessed by the visit with her aunt in Judea. However, she was glad to be home in Nazareth again with Joseph and his parents. She realized how it had barely begun to sink in to her before she had taken off for Judea that now she was actually a married woman, living with her husband in the home of his parents. She was learning how she fit into the family and how she could work together with her new mother-in-law. Of course, it was wonderful to see Joseph after work every day and to be able to send him off again in the morning with a lovingly prepared lunch for the day.

She had barely been home too though when she had gone to visit her parents and tell them all about the trip. They were pleased for their kinfolk in Judea, although they too felt sorry for what had happened to Zechariah.

However, what still awed them was the story Mary repeated about how Elizabeth’s pregnancy had come about and what the angel who had spoken to Zechariah had told him about the future of their own son. They had heard some of this from the messenger they had sent to Judea earlier but to hear it from their own daughter, with more conviction and detail continued to deepen their puzzlement at what was occurring. Hearing all this news from Judea anew only added to their increasing concern. Sometimes they were even fearful about what was going on with their families. 

Mary told them again, but in more detail, how angel had told Zechariah that he was to name his son John (Luke 1:13). This sounded strange as it was not the name of anyone in the family.The angel had also told Zechariahthat “joy and gladness” would come to them, and “many would rejoice at his birth, for he was going to be great in the sight of the Lord (Luke 1:14-15).” Zechariah had been told that John “must never drink wine or strong drink, and that he would be filled with the Holy Spirit, even before his birth! (Luke 1:15)” Then there was the message about what would become of this son. Evidently, the best way they could understand it, was that he would become something of a prophet. He was going to “turn many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God (Luke 1:16).” And he was to go as “a forerunner before the Lord in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers back to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared for him (Luke 1:17).” They had heard some of this before but the full import of it had not really begun to sink in as it began to now on hearing things again. 

This was most astounding! All faithful Jews knew that prophet Elijah was to return and prepare the way for the Messiah. This sounded just like what the prophet Malachi had said years before: “Look, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and terrible day of the Lordarrives. He will encourage fathers and their children to return to me. (Malachi 4:5-6a)” Was this saying that John was the resurrected Elijah? Mind you, the words were “in the spirit of,” not that he was Elijah. 

There was particularly the phrase, “A forerunner before the Lord (Luke 1:17).” That certainly sounded like Messianic predictions they were familiar with. Did it really mean? Could it really be true? That this child in Mary’s womb was the Messiah? The only qualification they could think of was that they were descendants of David. But beyond that, they could not imagine how they could be part of something so magnificent.

As these developments continued to occupy their minds, Joachim and Jacob’s conversations frequently turned to what all of this meant for Israel and especially for their families. Naomi and Anna had their thoughts and questions too. This should be something to rejoice about, a story too great to hold back. However, there were also too many reasons to keep quiet. There was the concern about the young couple, although they were now married, so that was less of an issue. However, the greater concern was what might come their way from their neighbours, their leaders, if they really learned that these two families believed that from them would come the Messiah. Who would believe it? And that was not even considering what the court of that murderous Herod, let alone the cruel Romans, would do with those who told such stories. Sometimes their hearts were heavy with the seeming responsibility of all this.

Joseph and Mary mostly just listened, trying to take it all in, wondering what it all meant. They heard their parents’ concerns and knew of their vailidity.  Yet, they both felt strangely at peace and often shared with each other how they felt this way. This mutual sense of the story they found themselves in only strengthened their belief that they were becoming an important part of God’s incomprehensible plans for his people. 

A Rock to Build on or Stumble on - A reflection on Matthew 16:13-23

This is the season of Lent and we are 4 weeks away from Easter. A week ago I took a partial fast and spent time beginning to review Jesus' final journey to his death in Jerusalem. These last events in his life are so momentous that they take up almost half of some of the Gospels.

The way I see it, this journey begins after Jesus has taken his disciples as far north in Palestine as he probably ever did, to the region of Ceasarea-Philippi, and then Mount Hermon, which I believe is Israel's tallest mountain. Commentators note how significant this was because of what happened here in  this area of great Greek influence. There were shrines to the Greek shepherd god Pan in caves in the hillsides here, along with many large Greek buildings in the cities in this area of northern Galilee, including temples King Herod had built and dedicated to the Roman god Roma and the Emperor Augustus. In other words, in some ways, he was moving away from the safety (?) of God-fearing Galilee into heathen “enemy” territory.

It is here that Jesus asks his disciples, "Who do people say that the Son of Man (meaning himself) is?" They give him some answers but then he asks them, "But who do you say that I am?" Simon Peter is the one to give the famous answer, "You are the Messiah, the son of the living God."

Jesus, knowing his time was coming, doubtless also knew he needed his disciples to know who he was if they were going to be able to carry on his mission. In the Gospel according to Luke, this exchange is placed after comments on King Herod's wondering who Jesus was. In the Gospel according to John it is placed in the context of a number of his followers abandoning him because they could no longer accept everything he was saying. He then asks the 12 disciples if they too will leave and Peter says they have nowhere else to go because they “have come to know and believe that [he has] the words of eternal life and [is] the holy one of God, the Messiah."

Then Jesus, knowing that the majority do not recognize him for whom he is and the potential for misunderstanding if he allows himself to be identified as the Messiah, sternly warns the disciples not to tell others that he is the Messiah.

Only in the gospel according to Matthew is Peter's confession followed by his receiving a blessing from Jesus. He changes his name from Simon to Peter, which in Greek means "rock." He then also says he will build the church on this rock and adds 3 statements about it: 1) the gates of Hades (hell) will not prevail against it, 2) they would be given the keys to the kingdom of heaven and 3) whatever they loose on earth will be loosed in heaven whatever they bind on earth would be bound in heaven. Over time, The Church, especially what would become the Roman Catholic Church after the 4th century, has used this passage to undergird its authority and power. Some link this talk of loosing and binding to forgiveness and church membership and even practices such as banning, sunning and excommunication.

Then Jesus begins to tell his disciples about how he must go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering at the hands of the elders, chief priests and scribes and be killed and raised again on the 3rd day. Peter, perhaps flush with having come up with such a great answer just before this, and feeling even closer and more loyal to Jesus as a result of what he might have perceived as his new standing in Jesus eyes, rebuked him, saying, "God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you." Jesus in turn, says to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me, for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things." Whereas Jesus had just called Peter a rock in a positive foundational sense, he now calls him a stumbling block for seeing things through a human lens. Knowing what he was going to go through, Jesus did not need to be tempted by his own followers to the contrary. How difficult it must have been to move from that wonderful mutual acknowledgment of his identity to now being challenged with respect turning aside from future activities that Jesus knew would come about precisely because of who he is, and which actually included the fulfillment of his mission on earth.

Indeed, this has been the weakness of The Church ever since. As a human organization, we naturally strive for self-preservation. This self-centeredness, sometimes overt maintenance of power and control, taking Matthew 16:19 too far is indeed a stumbling block to many, who reject Christianity precisely because the church falls into that trap, the temptation of Satan to usurp power for ourselves. The divine way, as Jesus was about to gloriously demonstrate, is to trust fully in the power of God, be totally obedient to his plan, even if that means giving up everything including our earthly lives. Indeed, this is precisely what Jesus then expands on and clarifies in the subsequent passage (Matthew 16:24-26).

The ultimate understanding of what Jesus is saying in this passage is what too much of Christendom has failed to grasp after the bloom of the first 3 centuries of the church wore off. Instead of the purity, poverty and humility that were seen as virtues then, the church no longer remained the pure bride for Jesus but has too often become the harlot of politics, power and money. As the Dark Ages moved into the Middle Ages and the Period Of (so-called by Eurocentric whites) Discovery, the church abandoned its hope of a place in God's future redeemed earth for its support of imperialism and colonialism which placed the church, not Jesus, as even the many indigenous believers who suffered at the hands of the colonialists will attest, in a bad place in the minds of non-Europeans around the world, including our own First Nations neighbors in Canada.

Indeed, the church has too often focused on the rock as a place, which quickly leads to ideas of edifices, organization and land. This is where the church loses The Way. A rock sitting in a place will definitely be something that can be stumbled over. But Jesus had spoken about the rock as a person, a person who knew who Jesus is. The true Church is the body of persons who knows who Jesus is, a body of persons on The Way. If we know whom we are following our rock-like faith will carry us through. If we stop moving forward, not really following, we again become stumbling blocks. To modify an old proverb, we need to be “the rolling stones that gather no moss.”