Laodicea: Don't Get Spit Out - Revelation 3:14-22

It has found its way into so many forms of media as the slapstick bit of physical humor was made popular by Danny Thomas, on the Danny Thomas Show (in fact, it has been called doing “a Danny Thomas”.)  I would say that there is probably not one of us in here who have not watched a television show or a movie in which it has happened. I’m not sure what makes it funny, other than we may have at times unintentionally done it ourselves, because it is a little (or a lot—depending on who you are) gross.  It is the “spit-take.”  It usually happens in a comedy bit where someone takes a mouthful of drink, or a large bite of food, and then, either because someone tells a joke or something unexpected, it doesn’t taste good, or because it wasn’t what the person expected, they spit out and spray that food over whatever or whomever is in front of them.

Maybe that’s happened to us…you know, we’ve taken a mouth full of food or a large swallow of drink into our mouths, and then a friend tells an outrageous joke or a family member tells us some shocking news.  Maybe, thought, it happened, or the desire to do it occurred, when we put something in our mouth and just didn’t like the taste of it, or it wasn’t what we were expecting, or maybe it was the wrong temperature.

Whatever the case may be, just make sure you don’t do it in Chattanooga Tennessee.  They have laws against that sort of thing.  In Chattanooga it is illegal to spit on the sidewalk, in a school, in a public assembly, or, of all places where you wouldn’t think you would have to be warned, in a church.  A law, that had it been in place in Laodicea, could have landed Jesus in some hot water.  Of course Jesus wasn’t spitting in the church, he was spitting out the church…not because of any joke or unexpected news, but because he couldn’t stomach the taste of that church.

My brothers and sisters, we continue our 6 1/2 month trek through Revelation this week, but we come to the end of a leg this week.  For the last six weeks we have visited the first six churches of Revelation.

We have been to Ephesus as they were commended for their labor and patience endurance, and reminded of the critical importance of love.

We have been to Smyrna as they were recognized them for their suffering and poverty, yet marked them as being rich.  Jesus warned them of the suffering that would be coming upon them, but that he would be with them.

We have been to Pergamum as they were commended for their steadfast faith, even under the threat of death.  They were called to repentance as some of the people had given in to false teaching. 

We have been to Thyarira as they were praised for their love, faith, service, and patient endurance, but like Pergamum, struggled with members of their church who had been seduced by a false teacher. 

We have been to Sardis, where Jesus accused them of having a reputation of being alive when they were really dead.  Jesus called them to repentance and to be about loving God, loving others, and making disciples.

We have been to Philadelphia, as they were commended, for, despite their small size, that they have not surrendered, and remained faithful to God.  Jesus told them to hold fast, despite the struggles that they would have to endure.

Now we find ourselves in Laodicea...and just as we have traced the other words to the churches through a template, we will again as we consider Laodicea.

The church in Laodicea is greeted by Jesus who identifies himself as “The words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the origin of God’s creation…”

Just as we had to search back in chapter one for the connection found in the address to Philadelphia, we have to search a little harder for Laodicea.  However, if we travel a little further back, from the verses 12-20 we had been considering, we find the connection in verse 5: “…from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the first born of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.”

Jesus says, “I am the faithful and true witness.  I am the one who has revealed to you the very nature of God.”  In the Gospel of John, as Jesus was in the midst of preparing the disciples for his death and resurrection.  Jesus tells the disciples that they know the way to the place He is going, but Thomas questions him saying, “Lord, we do not know where you are going.  How can we know the way?”  Jesus responded, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.  No one comes to the Father, except through me.  If you know me, you will know my Father also.  From now on you do know him and have seen him.”  Phillip was about as confused as Thomas and said, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.”  Jesus, probably with this look at Peter that said, weren’t you just listening, says, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me?  Whoever as seen me has seen the Father.  How can you say, ‘Show us the Father?’  Do you not believe I am in the Father and the Father is in me?  The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works.  Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me…”[i]  Jesus, in Revelation, says, I am the faithful and true witness, I am the one who has honestly and completely revealed God to the world.

Paul puts it this way in his letter to the Colossians, “”He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers—all things have been created through him and for him.  He himself is before all things and in him all things hold together.  He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything.  For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell…”[ii]

Paul says, if you want to see the invisible God that we gather to worship, look at Jesus, he is the image of God.  And yet Paul’s passage connects even closer…Paul describes Christ as “the firstborn of all creation” and Jesus identifies himself as “the origin of Creation.”  Jesus is before all things, Jesus is the one through which all that was created has been created…yet Jesus is not only the firstborn of all creation, the Origin of God’s creation…this connection to Paul helps us to bookend who Jesus is, because not only is he before all creation, Jesus is also the firstborn of the dead…He is the first of the resurrection, proving that just as darkness was disrupted by the Word at creation, so too has darkness of death been disrupted by the Word at the resurrection.  The identity of Christ as the “Origin of God’s Creation” also connects to Proverbs 8:22-23 in which Wisdom declares, “The Lord created me at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts of long ago.  Ages ago I was set up, at the first, before the beginning of the earth.”

Finally, yet the first words of introduction that Jesus uses to identify himself: “The words of the Amen…”  Paul says that “For in [Christ] everyone of God’s promises is a “Yes.”  For this reason it is through him that we say the “Amen” to the glory of God.”[iii]  Jesus is “the Amen” to the glory of God…He is the “words of the Amen.”  Amen…it is the word we so often use at the end of our prayers… it was the word that we used at the end of many hymns.  Strong’s Enhanced Lexicon suggests that “amen” is the most universal word in the world…it was transliterated directly from Hebrew into Greek and from Greek into Latin, and from Latin into English without change.  Strong suggest that it can be understood as “so it is, so be it, [or] may it be fulfilled.”  It is an affirmation, a way of saying, we agree that it is…it is confirming what has been said.  Jesus is the affirmation to all that God has said and done…He is the affirmation of God’s love for the world...He is the fulfillment of all that God has promised.

And so identifying himself as the affirmation of God, the perfect witness of God, and the One who is before and after all things, Jesus begins his discourse with Laodicea.  AS we look for the commendation, the words of affirmation, Jesus recognizing what Laodicea has done right, we find that, like Sardis, Jesus doesn’t have anything good to begin with when speaking to Laodicea.  Once again we find Jesus moving straight into the criticism:

“I know your works; you are neither cold nor hot, I wish that you were either cold or hot.  So, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I am about to spit you out of my mouth.  For you say, “I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing.’ You do not realize that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.”

Jesus confronts them on two points.  First he accuses them of being fence-sitters…a scary accusation as we as Methodists have often been accused of straddling the fence…and that does not fit in, in Revelation…Revelation, as commentators will point out, is offers a complete contrast of good or evil, there is no middle ground, and as Jesus comes down on Laodicea, Jesus is telling them that there is no middle ground.  Perhaps Jesus is saying to them, you can’t have it both ways…you can’t claim to be faithful to me and also be loyal to the Empire…you are either hot or cold…one or the other, because if you are not, then I have no use for you…in fact, it does not make you okay…it makes me repulsed by you and I want to just spit you out…

Before we come down on Laodicea with a holy than though attitude, we have to ask ourselves, how many times do we ride the fence?  How many times do we try to live like we belong to both worlds…the world we see around us and the Heavenly Kingdom of Jesus Christ?  How many times have we looked at something going on in the world…and decided, hey we can do this, I know we shouldn’t, I know it isn’t what Christ would have me do, but I’m going to do it anyway…maybe it was playing the lottery, maybe it was lying on a job application, maybe it was passing judgment on someone whose skin color or language might be different from our own, maybe it was cheating on your taxes, you name it, the list could go on and on…and all the while we are doing those things, we are still trying to live lives that reflect God…it’s not possible…we have to choose…we have to hear in Jesus words, the words of Joshua, “Now therefore revere the Lord, and serve him in sincerely and in faithfulness; put away the gods that your ancestors beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord.  Now if you are unwilling to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve….”[iv]  We have to make a choice…we cannot play both sides…we have to decided, do we want to live for ourselves and the world (and be cold) or do we want to live for God in all that we do (and be hot)…because if we are stuck in the middle, we are going to leave an awful taste in Jesus’ mouth and we will find ourselves, spit out, cast out.

In addition to not making a choice and trying to ride the middle, we hear that the people of Laodicea are as self-deluded as the folks in Sardis were.  Where there was evidently a trouble of complacency among the folks in Sardis, here we seem to encounter the sin of pride:  “For you say, ‘I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing.’”  The folks in Laodicea thing of themselves as wealthy, accomplished, and self-sufficient.”  Jesus tells them quite the contrary…just as he has flipped things in Sardis (for the living but dead—a negative word) and for Philadelphia (of little power, but strong—a positive word), we see Jesus saying, “You have said that you are rich, prosperous, and need nothing….but in reality you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.’”  Jesus reminds them, that just because they have wealth, and have prospered, and feel no want in their lives right now, it’s only a temporary feeling...those things will not last forever, and someday soon, they will pass on, to those who come after us.  Jesus is saying, that if we do not realize that God is the source of all that we are and all that we have and all that we do…and we claim not to need anything from any one, that we have grown rich of our own accord, and do not give God credit, then we have failed and we are poor.

Rather than offering any words of commendation, Jesus offer them words of direction:  “Therefore, I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire so that you may be rich…”  Why is gold put through a refiner’s fire?  Gold, or other precious metals are put through the fire in order to melt them down so that the impurities can be pulled away.  Jesus says, “stop thinking of yourself,” and defining yourself by your own standards, come to me…let me help remove those things from your life that are making you lukewarm (or even cold)…if you let me refine you, then you will find yourself amongst an untold number of riches.

Jesus not only offers to make them rich, countering their wretched and poor status, he also offers white robes to cover their nakedness…and remember, white in Revelation represents, victory.  Jesus is promising that if we will come to him, let him cleanse us in His refining fire, then we will find ourselves victorious in whatever troubles we may be facing.  Jesus also offers to restore sight to the blinded and will provide a salve to anoint their eyes so that they will be able to see.  Jesus will open our eyes to the truth of God’s will.

Then Jesus offers them a word of hope:  “I reprove and discipline those whom I love.  Be earnest, therefore and repent.”  Jesus says, “You know those times when you are just really struggling…those times where I let difficult times fall upon you.  I know this may be harsh with my coming down on you know, but remember, I only reprove and discipline those whom I love.”

How many of us parents have borrowed Jesus’ words, maybe talking to one of our children, “Remember I am only punishing you because I love you, because I care about you, or because I am worried about you.”  As an adult, I understand now what my parents meant…if we didn’t care, if we didn’t love our children, then we would care less what they were doing…we could just let them do whatever it was they wanted to do…no matter how dangerous or how immoral.”  Love brings the need to offer correction, because we want the best for our children…just as Jesus wants the best for us, and so He offers us correction and guidance that we may get ourselves off the fence, and onto His side.

Again, Jesus reminds us that it is about our choice.  We must decide whether to choose him or not: “Listen! I am standing at the door, knocking; if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to you and eat with you, and you with me.”  If we hear His voice…if we recognize his voice…if we are one of His sheep…then we’ll open the door…but it requires a choice on our behalf…Jesus is not going to force himself down our throats…He waits for us to chose Him.  And Jesus promises them, (and this is before the promises are offered to those who overcome), Jesus promises that if we will choose Him, He will come into our lives and we will dine together…just as He did with the disciples on the lakeshore after His resurrection and as He did with those two who walked down the Emmaus road with Him.

The promise to those who overcome:  “To the one who conquers, I will give a place with me on my throne, just as I myself conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne.”  In this promise, Jesus says, if you will repent, get off the fence, and choose to live for God and God alone, then I will do for you, what my Father did for me…just as I conquered…we have to remember, that as Jesus challenges each of the churches, and challenges each of us, He is not asking us to overcome anything that He himself did not have to overcome…He has shown us that it can be done…Jesus says that if we will do it, then just as He sits by His Father’s throne, those who conquer will join Him there…and if we are among them…if we have conquered…we will see that sitting on that throne is so much better than sitting on a fence…we want to sit with Christ, not be spit out by Christ when He hears our name…

Jesus says, “Let anyone who has an ear, listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches.”

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

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[i] John 14                                           

[ii] Colossians 1:15-20a

[iii] 2^nd Corinthians 1:20

[iv] Joshua 24:14-15