Reading: Revelation 4-6, Psalm 41

So, imagine you are a Christian in the Roman empire. You have believed a message that a guy named Jesus rose from the dead and is going to return as the King of a Kingdom in which there will be no sick, hungry, deformed, or dead people. You have started looking into the Hebrew Scriptures and found out about the human problem, about Servant of the Lord who will tell all the people of the earth who they really are. You have figured out that God cares about the state of your heart, so keeping up appearances is really a bit of a fools errand if your heart isn’t being transformed. You are caught up in the excitement that the appearance of Jesus is the moment when God makes all things new. Everything you have believed points you to this radical anticipation. The King will come and set all to right as both righteous Judge and Redeemer of those who swear allegiance to him.

But there is this other King, the Roman emperor. And he demands allegiance as well. In fact, you have to swear it at basically every social event worthy of the name. When you refuse or avoid doing this, people start looking at you askance. Then they stop doing business with you. Then they start making your life hard in other ways. Eventually the government comes after you. After all, if you won’t swear allegiance to the emperor, you must be some kind of danger to the empire. Your resolve starts to crack.

Then John sends you a letter encouraging you to hold on. To remain faithful. In fact, redouble your efforts to be obedient to your King, Jesus. He was persecuted to the point of death, but he is alive forever. All very nice, but if you are like most humans, you might start to wonder, what is taking so darn long? Where is Jesus and why isn’t it here? Fortunately for you, John had a vision after his dictated letter. One that reveals what is and what will be.

The vision revealed in today’s reading is a tour de force of the Hebrew Scriptures. It is a vision of God’s throne room, calling on visions from Isaiah 6, Ezekiel 3, Daniel 9 and 12. Of course it also evokes Temple images as the place where God proclaims judgment. A scroll shows up in the hand of God, which we last saw sealed up in heaven at the end of Daniel 12. The hope of Israel is inscribed on the scroll, but no one is found worthy to open it. John hears a description of the one who will be found worthy to open it, and it is basically a litany of the qualities of the Servant of the Lord from the book of Isaiah. The awaited Messiah that the whole story of Israel was bound up in. Every king and priest in the whole Story has been pointing to this guy, and he steps onto the scene. When John sees him, though, he is not a mighty warrior as one might expect, but a slain lamb. He is proclaimed worthy to open the scroll and reveal God’s age-long plan of salvation. He walks up to the throne, and all the impressive people who have been worshiping God continue to worship God and the lamb together as he begins to open the seals on the scroll. All very helpful, yes?

Actually, it probably was more obviously helpful to a first century believer than it is to us. They were used to metaphor and imagery that we have lost touch with. This throne room scene reveals some pretty important things. The plan of God is sealed up, but now the lamb, obviously Jesus, has been found worthy to reveal it. The plan is not new. What John is revealing is not the next step. It is the only step. It has always been there. But the human problem got in the way of humans seeing and understanding it. Then Jesus comes along, who by virtue of being wholly obedient has proven that he will pass the test of Adam and not take the knowledge of good and bad for himself. He is declared worthy. On top of this, he is placed on the throne with God and worshiped as God, creating an odd paradox. Jesus is the human without a problem, but he is also God. He both reveals and enacts the plan of God for salvation. In addition to that, he is a slain lamb, which is the atoning sacrifice for sin. This throne room scene is all about pulling together the qualities and characteristics of King Jesus. The new kind of human. The God-Man. The atonement.

These chapters also begin a rather wild series of sevens and threes, which John is using to indicate a whole bunch of things, but which I think is primarily a Genesis 1 reference. This will run through the next several chapters and indicates the process of a new creation, through six days of cleansing until the completion of the work on the seventh day. We get the first view of this in the six seals on the scroll, which reveal the traditional four horseman of the apocalypse- war, famine, pestilence, and death. Which would be really dramatic if they weren’t things that happen all over the world every day and have been since the beginning of history. It always amazes me that this should herald the “end of days” in so many imagination. Apparently the days have been ending for a very long time. While it is not a nice picture, the first four seals are just the revealing of the world as it exists right now. The fifth seal reveals the cry of the people of God that has echoed across time: How long, oh Lord?! How long before you will judge and avenge our blood? The sixth seal unveils God’s justice, which crushes all creation, prompting the question, “If this is what judgment looks like, who can stand before it?” Tomorrow, we get to read the answer.