“For the Lamb at the center of the throne
will be their shepherd,
and he will guide them
to springs of the water of life.”
That’s our tie in
on this Fourth Sunday of Easter,
Good Shepherd
or as Raymond Brown likes to say
Model Shepherd
Sunday.
That’s the end
of the Revelation passage today,
and we miss a lot!
As I put in my Bible study notes for this week,
reading the church triumphant during Easter –
as we proclaim Christ’s victory
over death and the grave –
makes sense,
this scene the lectionary appoints
is relatively straightforward
when viewed on its own.
It takes on much deeper significance
when viewed in context.
This passage
is about the church triumphant
and the immediately preceding passage
is about the church
in the midst of persecution.
When the elder tells John
“These are they
who have come out of the great ordeal,”
they’ve just seen those
about to live through
that same great ordeal.
They’ve been marked
as we are in baptism
as Christ’s own forever.
Whatever troubles
they are about to face,
they will make it through
(even if they die)
because the Lamb is on the throne.
Both of these visions
the church triumphant that we hear today
and the church about to face tribulation
happen in an even broader context.
There are at least two troubles
with the popular imaginings
of Revelation.
The first
is who it’s directed to.
Despite all 16 Left Behind books
that I read in middle school and college
Revelation isn’t a
“Better watch out
or this is going to happen to you!”
It’s written to a tiny church
about to face devastating persecution.
It’s full of insider speak,
as it were,
not unlike the historic practice
of mystagogy
where the newly baptized
are taught
what the church believes.
The second big challenge
is that if we read it straight through
but without a critical eye or lens
we miss that John’s three rounds of punishment
aren’t cumulative.
The seals, the trumpets, and the bowls,
don’t keep stacking up,
adding more and more death and destruction.
They’re retellings
of the same kinds
judgments from God.
As Eugene Boring says,
“The stream of biblical theology
represented by these texts
does not picture a petty deity
overcome by emotional outbursts;
rather it pictures the relentless,
inexorable punishment of sin
by a God of justice…” and
“None of the violence
in the scenes of chapters 6–16
is literal violence against the real world;
it is violence in a visionary scene of the future,
expressed in metaphorical language (9:7!).”
The visions of the church –
facing persecution
and having come through the great ordeal –
are situated in this context.
From the beginning of the text,
John is calling the church
to repentance, too.
There is an us/them dichotomy,
but it’s not self-satisfied.
Six seals have been broken
when John takes a break.
There’s a cliffhanger.
Before the seventh seal,
we get the church.
The whole of the church,
which John phrases
as 144,000,
is sealed to make it to the end.
Then we seen after the end.
John doesn’t tell us
how, when, or where
this crowd in today’s passage
is martyred.
There’s a great crowd
that no one could number –
not even with metaphorical
illustrative language.
Their robes are white
and they carry palms of victory.
Acknowledging their own shortcomings
as we all sin
and fall short of the glory of God
the church cries out.
“God please do something.”
John has a vision
and tells them that God will.
It will get worse for them
but God is in control.
The only way out
is through,
but palms of victory
are on the other side.
Through the judgments
that John dramatically presents
the world is delivered
from the power of Satan.
Everything in Revelation
has to be seen and interpreted through the lens
that Christ is risen from the dead,
trampling down death by death,
and upon those in the tombs
bestowing life.
I don’t have answers for today,
easy or complicated
except to look on the wood of the cross
on which was raised the savior of the world.
“For the Lamb at the center of the throne
will be their shepherd,
and he will guide them
to springs of the water of life.”
God on the throne
has revealed Godself to us
in the person of Jesus
the crucified and resurrected Christ.
As the Lamb sits on the throne
we’re reminded that God is in control
and that God didn’t choose a military parade
to announce God’s arrival
in our human world.
Jesus the Model Shepherd
guides us to springs of the water of life,
where we are joined to his death and resurrection
and marked as Jesus’ own forever…
like the church just before
today’s Revelation passage.
When I feel like
there’s just too much awful
I remember
that salvation – victory –
belongs to our God
who is seated on the throne.
It’s hard to feel helpless
even feeling pressed down
because our helps is in the name of the Lord
the maker of heaven and earth.
Even feeling pressed down
we’re not alone.
Jesus joined in solidarity with us
by living among us
and facing death.
I look at you
and see how you’re pushing us
to be in solidarity
with our immigrant neighbors.
I see the work of historic organizations
like the NAACP
and newer ones
like Indivisible and the Women’s March
and unexpected ones
like the supporter section
of the Nashville SC
flying a banner last night
and holding up signs
drawing attention to ICE activity
that thinned their ranks.
Having been marked as Christ’s own forever
and given work to do in our baptisms,
we get strength for the journey
with this holy meal.
As I look around at you,
and look around at the work that is happening,
I se the fulfillment of John’s vision:
“There was a great multitude
that no one could count,
from every nation,
from all tribes and peoples and languages,
standing before the throne and before the Lamb,
robed in white, with palm branches in their hands.
They cried out in a loud voice, saying,
“Victory belongs to our God
who is seated on the throne,
and to the Lamb!”