“Victory
belongs to our God
who
sits on the throne,
and
to the Lamb.” (Revelation 7:10)
So
God's got it all under control. At least we trust that God's got it all under
control. On this fourth Sunday of Easter, which the church calls “Good Shepherd
Sunday,” we want to believe that God's got it all under control. But perhaps,
in our heart of hearts, we want evidence. We want proof. Some want to find that
evidence and proof in the Bible. They want to find the blueprint, the code, the
script, something in this ancient book that isn't just about the past but about
today and about the future. Some want to find evidence in this book that we
know what's coming, that God knows what's coming. Some want to see in the
nightly news the script that is already in the Bible, and the nightly news
events are simply the clues to figuring out that script.
But
on this Good Shepherd Sunday, we hear the only shepherd who counts saying to
us, “My sheep listen to my voice. I know them and they follow me.” He is the
only shepherd we can trust. He walked, and healed, and preach, and argued in
times just as stormy if not more than ours. He did not shield himself against
the storm when he most certainly could have.
Our Good Shepherd is also the Lamb who gave up control, was slaughtered,
yet lives, and victory belongs to him. In his sacrifice is our victory. And he
does not promise us a false shield against the storms of this world. But if we
follow him, we will pass through them as he has passed through them.
The Christians to whom this letter we call Revelation was addressed also lived in
stormy times. Christ's Church lived under the shadow of the Roman Emperor,
Caesar was his title. So powerful was he that he could claim to be a God and
most of the subjects of his empire accepted it. All citizens and subjects of
this empire were required by law to take a pinch of incense and throw it into
the priestly fire as an offering to this “God.”
John,
the author of Revelation, had been
exiled for witnessing about Jesus. He knew that a storm was coming. He also
knew that anything he wrote would have to get off the island of Patmos where he
been exiled. So he knew that anything he wrote would likely be read by the
Roman authorities. So, to communicate his message. He had to use code. He used
a lot of Old Testament images about Babylon, the empire that had once conquered
Jerusalem and exiled the Jews, and he applied that to Rome. Much of Revelation
is about Rome, and the struggle between a Roman Emperor who styled himself a
God and Christians who would have to die in order to deny that.
A
battle was coming. And so John tried to prepare his fellow Christians for that
war with the Old Testament language and applied Babylon to Rome. And much of
that language is, given that we're talking about a “war,” violent. But it was
not the Christians who were to engage in violence or give in to hatred —Then
one of the elders said to me—Who are these people wearing white robes, and
where did they come from?—I said to him—Sir, you know—Then he said to me—These
people have come out of great hardship. They have washed their robes and made
them white in the Lamb’s blood.
Did
you notice that their robes were white precisely because they had been washed
in red? And that red was their blood. It was their blood, shed because they
would not deny that the only God they worshiped was Christ Jesus. They heard
their shepherd’s voice, and they followed him, even to death, because they
trusted that if they followed him they would follow him beyond death.
At
the same time John says that their robes were washed in the Lamb's blood. Their
Good Shepherd became a lamb who would not defend himself, who would not resort
to the weapons of his enemies, who chose forgiveness over hate. And it is to
this lamb that salvation and victory belong! Those Christians to whom John was writing,
steeped in their Old Testament, would know who the lamb was that John was
referring to. It was the Passover lamb, That lamb that all the Israelites
sacrificed on that night in Egypt when the Spirit of God passed throughout
Egypt and took the lives of all the firstborn of Egypt, as their Pharaoh had once
claimed the lives of all firstborn Israelites. But on those doors where the
blood of the lamb had been brushed, the Spirit of life and death passed over.
But
our Paschal lamb did not pass over death. Our Paschal lamb, our Christ, passed
through death. And our paschal lamb, our Christ, came out on the other side.
And so, John was trying to say, with all those whose robes were washed in the
lamb 's blood: who did not give in to their fear of death, their fear of
helplessness, their need for revenge, their need for control, their need for
imperial domination of others.
We
all would like to have the blueprint, the script for our future. But the word
of God that speaks through this book of Revelation gives us something so much
better than a script. The word of God that speaks to us today through this book
of Revelation gives us a promise.
This promise was given to those first Christians who heard this letter. And
this promise is ours today and always—They won’t hunger or thirst anymore. No
sun or scorching heat will beat down on them, because the Lamb who is in the
midst of the throne will shepherd them. He will lead them to the springs of
life- giving water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.
The
Lamb, who is our good Shepherd, speaks to us through all of the news that makes
us afraid. The Lamb, who is our good Shepherd, cuts through all of the fear,
and speaks to us today as he spoke 2000 years ago. He knows his sheep. His
sheep hear his voice, and they follow.
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