A Message From The Living One - Revelation 1:9-20

John Killinger, in his book Christmas Spoken Here, tell the story of a little girl who was hospitalized during the Christmas season. "As the days passed and the test results were collected, it became obvious that she would not be able to be at home on Christmas day. Being from a prosperous and caring family, they showered her with expensive gifts in an effort to overcome this unfortunate circumstance. There were great overstuffed animals, including a six-foot-tall giraffe, dolls, dollhouses and games of every description. The room was transformed into a miniature Toys"R"Us. Every time her parents came to the hospital they brought another present. But they were never able to stay very long for they were always due at some luncheon, dinner party or society function. One day the child was particularly unhappy in the midst of all these fine gifts and held desperately on to the mother as she gave her a kiss and hug before rushing out to the next engagement. The mother tried to interest her in the newest toy she had brought. Through the tears the child cried, 'Mommy, I want you!'"

Barry Boulware, from Kansas City, tells a little different story.  One day a father went to visit his son's preschool. It was a day when dads could come to visit. But when he got there, he was shocked to discover that only a handful of fathers had come to be with their children. Later on that morning, all the children were sitting on the floor in a circle. The teacher asked the children to tell the group something about their fathers, something that was special. One little boy said, Well, my daddy is a lawyer. He makes a lot of money and we live in a big house." Another child said, "My father is very smart. He teaches at the college and a lot of important people know him." Finally it was time for this father's son to say something special about his dad. The little boy looked up at his father, then he looked around the circle of his friends, and then he just smiled and proudly said, "My dad ... my dad is here!"

Both of these stories point us to the message of hope found in our passage from Revelation this week.  We began this journey last week…a journey in which we are hoping to realize that Revelation is not a book to be feared or avoided, but God’s Word to be embraced as it is a book of hope for yesterday, today, and tomorrow.  Let’s look to the text to find the message of hope that this week’s passage brings to us.

Our passage begins with the first of the visions that God grants in the Revelation of Jesus Christ to John.  John begins by saying that he shares in the persecution that those he is writing to are undergoing, and in fact that as it stood at the time of this vision, he was exiled on the island of Patmos due to his witness and testimony of Jesus Christ.

John says that he was in the spirit, some translations render that spirit with a capital “S,” suggesting that John was saying that he was filled with the Holy Spirit on the Lord’s day, when this voice like a trumpet sounded behind him and told him to write what he is about to experience and send it to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.  Scholars will point out that contrary to being a coded message, that if you were to sail from an island, such as Patmos, to Asia Minor, you would dock in Ephesus, and if you were to begin traveling along the Roman roads to the major cities and churches along that road, you would come first to Smyrna, then to Pergamum, then to Thyatira, then to Sardis, then Philadelphia, and at last to Laodicea.  The description of these churches is along the geographical route that someone would travel, in taking a message to each of them.

John then turns to see who is speaking, and the sight he beholds is amazing:  “…on turning I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the lampstands I saw one like the Son of Man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash across his chest.  His head and his hair were white as white wool, white as snow [that’s something we’ve known a bit about lately]; his eyes were like a flame of fire, his feet were like burnished bronze, refined as in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of many waters.  In his right hand he held seven stars, and from his mouth came a sharp, two edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining with full force.”

Considering just this part of the reading, two elements stick out…well, the whole description is powerful, but in particular are the seven golden lampstands and “one like the Son of Man.”  In reflecting on Hebrew culture, because we will find lots of references to the Hebrew Scriptures through the book of Revelation, what is the significance in their history of the lampstand.  It is the Menorah, symbolic of the Jewish nation—the Hebrew symbol of the “people of God.” We also have “one like the Son of Man” standing in the midst of the lampstands…very clear to the reader would have been the reference to the “Son of Man,” for eighty-two times through the four Gospels, Jesus is referred to as the Son of Man.

John prostrates himself before this one that has appeared, probably half in worship, the other half in complete fear.  And a voice speaks to him saying, “Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last, and the living one.  I was dead, and see, I am alive forever and ever; and I have the keys of Death and of Hades.  Now write what you have seen, what is, and what is to take place after this.  As for the mystery of the seven starts you saw in my right hand, and the seven golden lampstands: the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.”  If the stars and the lampstands had been a mystery to anyone, here it is clearly explained to the reader…they are the angels and the churches…in fact they are all the angels of all the churches, if we reflect back on the significance of “7” as we discussed last week and as found in your “cheat sheet” in your bulletin.

So we have Jesus, the Son of Man, standing in the midst of the churches as they undergo persecution…Here is the hope of this passage…Jesus, the one who had been crucified and raised from the dead…the one who is alive forever more stands amongst the churches.  In the midst of their suffering and struggle stands the One who was harassed, arrested, humiliated, tortured, and hung on the cross.  In this revelation of Jesus to John, we hear Jesus saying, I am with you, I am in your midst, and I understand completely what you are going through…what they are going to you, they did to me…and guess what, I am the Living One, I hold the keys of Death and the Grave.

Jesus’ words of “I  was dead, and see, I am alive forever and ever, and I have the keys of Death and the Grave…for Grave is a much better translation that Hell…the Greek translates “death and the place of death.”  We are reminded, not only that Jesus was raised from the dead by the Father, but also of the scene from the Gospel of John in which Jesus tells Martha, who is dismayed about her brother Lazarus’ death, “I am the resurrection and the life.  Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.”  Jesus then goes on to demonstrate his power over death and the grave, by having the stone removed and calling Lazarus forth.

This is the word that Jesus offers to the people undergoing persecution.  What kind of persecution?  Well, to know a little of the history of the Roman Empire…usually once an emperor died, the Roman Senate would declare that emperor to now be a “god.”  However, some of the emperors were pretty power hungry and pretty conceited.  One such emperor was Domitian, he did not want to wait until after his death to be considered a god, he wanted that kind of worship while he ruled.  It wouldn’t fly in Rome with the Senate in place, but Domitian sent word out into the remote areas, such as Asia Minor, that the people were to come to the Roman temple in their providence and burn incense and bow before his image…refusal to do so meant that you did not receive the proper credentials to enter the marketplace….thus making needed food very hard to obtain….  Refusal to worship the emperor led to threats of starvation and death.  The emperor was in a way trying to say, I control whether you live or die.  In the midst of this, comes this message from Jesus, “I am the living one.  I was dead, and see, I am alive…and I control who lives and dies…not the emperor…for through the resurrection, death has been conquered forever.

That is the message of hope that Jesus gave to the churches in the midst of their suffering…not to fear those who threatened them, because their lives were in His hands and He, the one we call Emmaunel, was in their midst.  That same message of hope comes to us and for all who will come after us.  We are not to fear those things with threaten us, which threaten our very lives, because Jesus is with us…he has suffered all that we suffer, and more than we could ever imagine suffering.  We have this message from the Living One that none of those things have more power than Him.  Hunger does not hold the keys of death and the grave, thirst does not hold the keys to death and the grave, unemployment does not hold the keys to death and the grave, our government does not hold the keys to death and the grave, terrorists do not hold the keys to death and the grave, heart disease does not hold the keys to death and the grave, cancer does not hold the keys to death and the grave…nothing in all of creation holds the power of life and death other than Christ…and, as Paul puts it, if Christ is for us, who can be against us?  The truth to the answer to that question is that plenty of folks and plenty of things can be against us, but if we have surrendered ourselves to Christ, then none of them will be victorious…Christ is the only victor.  We can take comfort in knowing that no matter what happens to us, He, the first and the last, the Living One, has control…and that we will live in Him forever and ever.

The waters of our Baptism symbolize our dying and rising with Christ and that surrender to live with Him forever more…it is here that we are marked with His Name and connected to his death and resurrection…it is here that we say that He is in our midst…today we will mark that remembrance with an opportunity to reaffirm our Baptismal vows and remember our Baptism…

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit…Amen.