This morning’s text contains one of the most frightening images in all of scripture (Revelation 6:12-17). As the Lamb opens the sixth seal, the earth quakes, the moon turns to blood, the stars fall from their places, the sky rolls up like a scroll, and the mountains fall apart. We see everyone on earth trying to get away from the destruction: kings and slaves, rich and poor, powerful and powerless. But it’s no use. We can hear their cries as creation falls down around them: “Hide us from the face of the One who sits on the throne! Hide us from the wrath of the Lamb!”
As we read it, we can’t help but wonder, “Is this what we have to look forward to? Are
we all going to be cornered like rats because we haven’t done exactly what God
wants us to do? Are we all going to be squashed like bugs because Jesus has
lost patience with us?” That’s certainly what some people think. We hear it all
the time from people who claim that they understand this biblical text.
Televangelist Pat Robertson is one notable example. Back in 2005, he stated
that Hurricane Katrina was a direct result of God’s wrath over our country’s
abortion policy; and he claimed several years later that the devastating
earthquake in Haiti was divine retribution for their long involvement with
voodoo. According to him, God’s wrath is all around us; and we’d better toe the
line, or we’ll get some of it ourselves!
Now, no one can argue that the Bible talks about the wrath
of God many, many times! But the vast majority of these references are in the
Old Testament. How can we understand God’s wrath in light of the life, death,
and resurrection of Jesus Christ? Well, some people seem to think that Jesus is
as much about wrath as he is about love. Just look at the Westboro Baptist
Church folks who picket the funerals of soldiers who are killed in the line of
duty. They claim that the deaths of our military personnel are a result of
Jesus’ anger over homosexuality. The Jesus that they represent is less about
grace than he is about punishment. A few years ago, a bumper sticker even appeared
that said, “Jesus is coming again… and boy, is he mad!” Is that right? Is Jesus
lurking in the bushes, ready to pounce on us in the end? Where is the good news
in this text? Is there any good news here at all?
Actually, this text offers us very, very good news – good
news about creation, and good news about us. But the good news is disguised in
images that are strange to us. Texts like this one need some explanation before
we can see the good news that they offer. So before we decide that Jesus is
really a wolf in lamb’s clothing, let’s ask some questions about this text. Where else do images like these appear in the
Bible? Who makes the claim that this cosmic chaos is
the result of God’s wrath? What happens after the disasters are finished? When we have answered these three questions, we may find that
this text and others like it offer some very good news, indeed!
So let’s get started. Our first question is, “Where else do
images like these appear in the Bible?” The answer is that there are several
other readings like this one scattered throughout the Bible. A notable one is
in the book of the prophet Joel. “I will show portents in the heavens and on the
earth,” says Joel, “blood and fire and columns of smoke. The sun shall be
turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and terrible Day of
the Lord arrives.” (Joel 2:30-31)
It sounds very much like this text in Revelation, doesn’t it? That’s because
this kind of writing was actually very common in the time of Jesus. And the
last part of the text is crucial to our understanding it. All these disturbances
in creation are only signals of something else – the arrival of the Day of the
Lord.
The Day of the Lord is a very old
tradition in Judaism. On the Day of the Lord, Jews believed that God would come
down to earth from heaven and set everything straight. All wrongs would be set
right; all people would be reconciled; and all creation would enjoy peace at
last. And we’d know that God was on the way because catastrophes just like
these. Jesus himself talks about the Day of the Lord using language like this.
These days, though, we don’t call it the Day of the Lord; we call it the Second
Coming.
In the gospel of Luke, Jesus says
something very similar to this (21:25-28): “There will be signs in the sun, the
moon, and the stars, and on the earth distress among nations confused by the roaring
of the sea and the waves. People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is
coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then they
will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. Now when
these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your
redemption is drawing near.” These cosmic disasters don’t mean that God is
destroying creation as punishment for our sins. God created the heavens and the
earth and called everything “very good.” On the contrary, this kind of image is
a sign that the Day of the Lord is about to take place, that day when
everything will finally be set right.
That brings us to our second
question. Revelation clearly says – right there in verse 15 of today’s reading – that
this chaos is caused by “the wrath of the Lamb.” Doesn’t that mean that Jesus
is out to get us? Maybe not. Remember that, even in the Bible, some people
are more reliable witnesses than others. Anybody who watches Law and Order knows that. Think back to
the days when you were a child, and one of your friends said something that
upset you. Maybe you heard that your very favorite teacher was moving away. When
you ran to your mother to report the story, the first question that she
probably asked was, “Who said?” Did you hear this from a reliable adult; or is
this just a product of little Billy’s imagination? Whether or not we
believe a story depends a great deal on who tells it.
So, who does tell us that Jesus is out to get us? Is it an apostle, an
angel, or maybe even the Lamb himself? No, we hear this report from “the kings
of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, every slave and
every free man… ” In other words, these witnesses are all the citizens of the
Roman Empire who worship Caesar instead of Jesus. They aren’t Christians –
they’re everybody but Christians!
They are afraid that Jesus is out to get them because that’s what the emperor
would do! Now, if Jesus acted like Caesar – if Jesus used raw power to get what
he wanted, punished his enemies, and mowed down anyone who stood in his way –
then they would be right. But that’s not who Jesus is. Jesus loves us so much
that he died for us! The Jesus who
was crucified to save the world doesn’t strike me as someone who is full of
wrath. No, the people who claim that the Lamb is out to get us don’t know the
Lamb at all.
In fact, the Lamb of God is out
to save us, and all of creation with
us! That’s where the book of Revelation ultimately ends; and that’s also the
answer to our third question: “What happens after all the disasters are
finished?” And the One who answers this question is none other than the One who
is seated on the heavenly throne – God himself. “I am making everything new” is
God’s astonishing claim. “I am making everything
new” – you, me, all of us here, everyone in the world, and even all of creation
– everything new, the way that it should be. The cosmic disasters that
Revelation describes are actually God’s way of rebuilding a world that needs
some help!
It might be helpful to think about all the cosmic chaos this way. Imagine
that we bought a house. It’s a beautiful house, but it’s not a new house. No,
this house was built long ago and has been lived in for quite a few years. The
plumbing is leaky; the electrical work is old-style knob and tube; and the peeling
paint contains lead. The shingles are falling off the roof; the basement floods;
and the blacktop driveway is full of dandelions that have grown up through the
cracks. But it’s a good, sturdy house with a great floor plan! We don’t want to
tear it down and build a new one. What would we do first with a house like
that? Would we splash a coat of paint around the old gas stove in the kitchen
and put some wallboard over the leaky ceiling? Of course not! We’d pull down all
the old plaster walls, rewire the whole house, put in new plumbing, install a
new roof, regrade the yard, and pour a new driveway. Then we’d put up wallboard and do the painting! And that’s exactly
what God is doing in these descriptions of cosmic disasters. God isn’t
destroying creation – he’s fixing it.
The new creation that Revelation describes is like the one we know right now,
only it’s better! We don’t understand how God’s going to do that – but heck, we
don’t understand the creation that we have now! All that we do know is that God will fix everything
in the end so that it’s even more beautiful than before.
And we’ll have a place in it. We’ll relax in the shade of
the trees in that new creation. We’ll lie down in its pastures and drink out of
its still waters. And we’ll be restored, too – all of us. So maybe this text
isn’t so scary, after all. It doesn’t threaten us with punishment from a
wrathful Lamb. Instead, it promises us full and peaceful lives in a new
creation that only God can provide. When
our lives seem to be full of cosmic destruction, we can hang onto God’s promise:
“Behold, I am making everything new!” The chaos is just a part of God’s cosmic reconstruction
that is going to lead to a better home at the end. And that is very good news, indeed!
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