Looking Back, Going Forward

 June 17 2022

Revelation 1

For Father’s Day this year my daughter Elizabeth invited me to go with her to see the latest Jurassic movie, Jurassic World: Dominion. Now, she had throughly prepared herself for this event having watched all of the previous six movies in the Jurassic realm. The whole Jurassic franchise began in 1993, so its about as old as Elizabeth, and its all about mad scientists who find a way to bring dinosaurs back to life; I mean, what possibly could go wrong? Well, in the first three movies the dinosaurs are kept in a park and in the last three movies we see how the dinosaurs are at last set free to roam the earth; again, what could possibly go wrong? Now, the movies Elizabeth and I went to see, Jurassic World: Dominion, brought back the cast from the original Jurassic movie which was pretty cool and knowing this, then everybody assumed that this latest installment would be loaded with what are called, “Easter eggs”. These are little subtle nods in one movie which pay homage to a movie which had came before. This is partially why Elizabeth watched all of the other six movies in the Jurassic franchise because she wanted to be able to point out all the Easter eggs, those subtle, or not so subtle, parts of the movie which were a tip of the hat to the movies which had gone before. Since I have trouble even remembering what I had for breakfast, I ,needless to say, missed most of the Easter eggs in the movie!

This idea of Easter eggs, those hidden little gems that are snuck into a movie which, if you are aware of them, point back to an older movie, this idea is perhaps a way for us to understand this strange vision of Jesus that we read about in this first chapter of Revelation. You see, all of the various ways that John, the writer of the book of Revelation, describes Jesus in his vision are Easter eggs pointing us back to the Old Testament, what we might call the prequel to what we call the New Testament. You see, only as we understand that what John is describing here is really the promises that are fulfilled in Jesus will we begin to wrap our minds around what can only be considered a mind-blowing experience that John has had one Sunday morning while worshipping God.

John has found himself far from his home, and his church family. He has been ripped out of the comfort and peace of his old familiar way of life, hauled off to live on a small island where he no longer could personally call on the members of his church to remain loyal to only Jesus Christ, the one, John refers to as being the ruler of kings on earth. John, in his letter, refuses to give any credit to Caesar  for his being banished to this small island but instead would witness that he was where he found himself only on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. It may have been Roman soldiers who had forcibly removed him from his home but his circumstances had not caught God unaware but they were rather just another moment when the will of God would be worked out even if it wasn’t possible to see how it could be so at the time.

So, John finds himself in a strange place, unsettled, trying desperately to adjust to this new reality that he has found himself in. The anchor that remains his constant is the structure of time, because every seven days, the Lord’s Day comes around even if one is far removed from all that used to be part of their world. What we know about the worship of these early followers of Jesus is that their worship was centered around the reading of the Word of God and the breaking of the bread and the drinking of the cup in celebration of the Lord’s supper. 

What is to happen when the Lord’s supper is participated in, is that the one who has revealed himself to us through his opening of the scriptures to us is now known to be present with us as the bread is broken and the cup is taken. This is all made possible for those in worship because of the presence of the Holy Spirit who speaks the words of Jesus to us and who gives us a foretaste of the heavenly banquet in the earthly elements of communion. So, it is no surprise that we are told that John is in the Spirit on the Lord’s day because when we worship Jesus we do so only in and through the Holy Spirit. Yet John’s ordinary day of worship was soon interrupted when on this Sunday, John hears a voice which sounds like a trumpet. What does it mean that this voice sounds like a trumpet? Certainly this must mean that the voice is loud but why, we must ask, is this mention of a trumpet even included here? Well, here is one of the many Easter eggs that John has placed here which points us back to the first covenant, the covenant God made with the people of Israel at Mount Sinai. God brought these former slaves up out of Egypt and he brought them to his holy mountain to enter into a covenant relationship with them. As we read in the nineteenth chapter of Exodus, he first gathers his people together and tells them that now they are God’s treasured possession and they would be for him a holy nation and a kingdom of priests. When we hear this then we know why John has already in the first chapter of this book of Revelation stated that Christ loves us and has set us free from our sins by his blood and he has made us a kingdom of priests. Just as the people of Israel were set free from their slavery so also have we have been set free from our slavery to sin. In both cases the reason for our freedom is that we are to be a kingdom where each member is a priest to God.

Well, as we read further in the nineteenth chapter of Exodus, we find that God instructs the people to consecrate themselves and when they heard the sound of the trumpet they were to come to the foot of Mount Sinai because it was there that God would speak to his people about the covenant that they were about to enter. So, this moment that announced the speaking forth of the terms of the old covenant is found here in this moment where Jesus is speaking to John as if to say here God is going to speak to his people, the people who were the new Israel, his church, about the new covenant. It makes sense that it would happen here, as John has drunk from the cup, the cup which represented the blood of the new covenant. In this moment Jesus blows the trumpet as if to say that he is calling his people to him to speak about what is expected from those who have entered into this new covenant with God.

The book that John is to write is to be sent to seven churches, the church at Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.  When we read that John is writing to seven churches we must remember that the number seven was thought of being a number, throughout the Bible, that conveys the meaning of wholeness and completeness. Thus, I believe that, although what John writes is to these seven churches he does so with the intention that the message he is given is actually for the whole church, every expression of the one body of Christ throughout the world. A right understanding of the number seven also helps us figure out just what John means by telling us that we have grace and peace through the seven spirits. Again, the number seven points to the wholeness or completeness of the Holy Spirit who as Isaiah teaches us in the eleventh chapter of his book is the Spirit of the Lord, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. There is one Spirit but he is experienced by us in different ways so that the Spirit is for us all that is necessary for us to be in a relationship with God through Christ.

So, as he is in the Spirit, John hears a voice while in worship, a voice which is like a trumpet summoning God’s people to him to hear the requirements of the new covenant, and as he turns to see the voice we are told that John sees seven lamp stands. In the midst of those lamp stands, John saw an image of Jesus. Once again, we have to ask just what is with the lamp stand? The answer is, as any good Jew of John’s day would have known is that the lamp stand was part of the inner workings of the Temple in Jerusalem. The lamp stand, or menorah, had one center lamp and off of this center lamp branched off three branches on either side, to resemble a tree. This lamp was a continual light within the inner holy chamber of the temple, the same place where there was an altar for burning incense and a table to hold twelve loaves of bread called the bread of the presence, one for each tribe of Israel. Now, it may be that John here is giving us another Easter egg, because by recalling this inner holy room with his mention of the lamp stand this means that perhaps John also meant that Jesus, representing the people of Israel, is the new bread of the presence, the bread of heaven as John writes in the sixth chapter of his gospel account.

As John gazes upon Jesus this is what he records that he sees, “there was one like a son of man, clothed in a long robe and a gold sash around his chest. The hairs of his head were white, like white wool. His eyes were like flames of fire, his feet were like burnished brass refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters. Now, in this very brief description, John has given us a string of Easter eggs, little subtle nods back to various passages from the Old Testament. In the seventh chapter of Daniel we listen in on the vision God gave to his prophet which states, “behold, there with the clouds of heaven there came one like a Son of Man and he came to the Ancient of Days.” Here was one of us, one out of our humanity who is able to stand unafraid in the very awe inspiring and terrifying presence of Almighty God. Now, what may not be also apparent is that this term,”Son of Man”, is itself an Easter egg, a subtle nod pointing us back to the eighth Psalm where the Psalmist asks God, “What is man, that you are mindful of him?What is the son of man, that you care for him? Yet you made him a little lower than the angels and crowned him with glory and majesty! You gave him dominion over the works of your hand. You put all things under their feet…” When we remember this Psalm then we aren’t surprised when Daniel goes on to tell us in the seventh chapter that the Ancient of Days has granted this one like a son of man, dominion and glory and a kingdom because this is what God has desired for us, the people whom he has created, a life where we are able to be crowned with glory. So, what John is saying is that Jesus is the person who lives as God has always intended humanity to live. 

John goes on to say that the one who appeared before him had hair that was white like white wool, and eyes that were like flames of fire which again is yet another Easter egg that is found in the seventh chapter of Daniel. There before Daniel sees the one like a Son of Man, he looked and saw that the Ancient of Days took his seat: his clothing was white as snow, and the hair of his head like white wool; his throne was fiery flames. So, John is telling us that, yes, Jesus is the perfect human as God intended but he is also the one who is the Ancient of Days, the everlasting and Almighty God. In the man, Jesus, the ancient of Days is fully revealed to us in one who is completely like us.

When we understand these two aspects of this vision that John has of Jesus, then when we hear John tell us that Jesus wore a long robe with a sash around his waist we know that this is another Easter Egg, pointing us this time to the eighth chapter of Leviticus where we read of how God instructed Moses to wash his brother Aaron because Aaron was the high priest and then Moses was to put “the coat on Aaron and tie the sash around his waist and clothe him with the robe…” So, John obviously wants us to understand that Jesus now is the High Priest of the new covenant. The theme of Jesus being our High Priest is prominent in the book of Hebrews where in the seventh chapter of this book we read that it is “indeed fitting that we should have such a High Priest as Jesus who is holy, innocent, untainted and separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens, He has no need to daily offer sacrifices for this he did once for all when he offered up himself.” This is what John sees when he sees Jesus in the sash and the robe, the one who is our High Priest, the one who goes before us to demonstrate the work of the priesthood to us. This work of the priest that Jesus lived out is that he took and offered God to the world and he also took the part of the world that God had given to him, his very life, and he offered this life back to God. The God that Jesus revealed to the world is the God which is pointed to by the very feet of the Jesus seen by John. John states that the feet of Jesus were like burnished bronze refined in a furnace and once again, here is another Easter Egg, this time pointing us to the tenth chapter of Daniel where Daniel was deeply distressed because of his being in exile in Babylon. As Daniel fasted and prayed, he had a vision of a “man clothed in linen and wearing a sash around his waist, whose eyes were like flaming torches and whose feet were like burnished brass who stood before him and he told Daniel that “he was greatly loved, a man whose words had been heard by God, and because of this Daniel was to fear not, but instead Daniel was to have the peace of God and be strong and of good courage.” This is who our God is, the God who comes to us in our suffering, the God who is ever present and faithful to us. This faithfulness of God is also heard in the reference John makes to the voice of Jesus which he says is like the sound of many waters. This points us back to the forty-third chapter of Ezekiel where the prophet Ezekiel saw the glory of the Lord returning to his Temple, the sound of which was like that of many waters. You see, God’s glory is returning because now his Temple is made of people, living stones, who have been restored to their proper status of priests through the High Priestly work of Jesus.

John continues with his description of Jesus by telling us that in the right hand of Jesus there were seven stars. The stars represented the heavenly realm which is firmly within the powerful grasp of Jesus. Yet even though Jesus rules over the vastness of the cosmos, John says, that he speaks to us here on earth because we are told that from the mouth of Jesus comes a sharp two-edged sword. This strange image is very similar to the one described in the eleventh chapter of Isaiah where we hear Isaiah tell us that the one on whom the Holy Spirit rests, this is the one who will judge in righteousness for the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth and he will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked. In this context then it is easy to see what John is trying to convey to us, which is that Jesus is not only the one who commands all of the stars in the heavens yet, at the same time, he is the one who stands with the lowly of the earth, the poor and the meek. It is Jesus who is the one whose word will bring those who afflict the poor and meek to judgment. Finally, John records that the face of Jesus is like the sun, shining in full strength. In hearing this, how can we not hear the blessing of Aaron the high priest who when he blessed the people of Israel assured them that the Lord would make his face shine upon them and be gracious to them, that the Lord would rejoice at the sight of them and give them his peace. You see, the God we know, the God we offer to the world as his priests, our God is a God who can hold the whole cosmos in his hand yet he is also a God who seeks righteousness for the poor and meek of earth. The God we witness to is a God who desires that we live in his presence, before his face which shines upon us, to live in his presence where there is much joy and where grace and peace abound. This is the one in whose presence we hear the words, “Fear not”.  We can live victorious over our fear because Jesus is the one who is victorious over death. By his love he has broken the very power of sin and death. Now, because of the blood of Jesus, we have at last been set free from sin and its power so that we can offer God to a world which so desperately needs to know him and we can offer all of ourselves to a God who deserves the giving of all that we are. This is the hope written of in the Old Covenant that is fulfilled in Jesus who calls us to be faithful in our living out the truth of the New Covenant. To God be the glory! Amen.