Worthy

I'll readily admit, the Book of Revelation is not the easiest for a bit of light reading. Dragons, battles, destruction, it's fairly graphic. And yet, there are some bits where the imagery is absolutely awe-inspiring. When I come across these, I stay with them. I really try to take in that imagery.

Part of my journey of wrestling with this book was getting past the idea of assigning plagues and prophecies to the future. Scholar Erik Heen suggests that we make the reading more difficult for ourselves because we are looking at it the wrong way round. He writes: ‘The book of Revelation … tells less about the future than most of us think it does. We often assume that the big apocalyptic events lie somewhere ahead of us. Yet it was clear to John, as it was to other New Testament theologians, that the great apocalyptic events lay behind him, in the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus.’* We don’t need to wreck out heads discerning strange images as prophecies of future events, Revelation is extolling, proclaiming the truth of what has already been accomplished and how important it is for all of creation. That is certainly the case in the small portion of Revelation that popped up in this week's lectionary, Revelation 5:11-14. What we have in this text are, essentially two hymns of praise:

“Worthy is the Lamb that was slaughtered

to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might

and honour and glory and blessing!”

This is the heavenly chorus sung by angels. The next chorus draws in the whole of creation, every creature on heaven and earth and under the earth and in the sea joins in:

“To the one seated on the throne and to the Lamb

be blessing and honour and glory and might

forever and ever!”

‘Worthy is the Lamb’. We need only to think back to our Holy Week, and to reading through the gospel accounts of the arrest and crucifixion of Jesus, to remind ourselves of the significant timing of this death around the Passover festival. All the families preparing to celebrate would have been securing their Passover lamb for the sacrifice and the meal to follow. And there in Jerusalem at the same time, events swirling around the man who would be the ultimate Passover sacrifice, the one, complete and all-sufficient sacrifice. This is the Lamb of whom the heavenly beings in Revelation sing. This is the Lamb who is worthy, who has won the redemption of all creation and who is due all praise and glory.

Ruins in the historic city of Ephesus in Turkey.

John acts as scretary of the Revelation with its letters addressed to the churches of the cities of Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea. There are plenty of suggestions about the symbolic meaning of these cities, about the number seven, and about what is said to the churches. But we can draw one very powerful observation just based on geography. The area of Asia Minor and cities addressed in the Revelation were, at the time that John was writing, known for their intense devotion to the cult of the Roman emperor. There were shrines and temples dedicated to emperors past, and songs and performances in honour of the imperial household during set festivals. We could imagine those grand amphitheatres and temples filled with choirs singing things like 'Worthy is the Emperor to receive all glory and honour!' The Emperor and Rome had one way of operating. The Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of the Lamb was a radically different thing, with different priorities, not compatible with the priorities of the Emperor. Revelation extols the worthiness of the Lamb, seated on the throne, quite in opposition to the values and priorities of the world. This little passage from Revelation, these 2 hymns, remind us of the worthiness of the one whom we celebrate at Easter and every Sunday. They remind us and invite us in to the chorus of praise, and invite us to live in that redeemed identity. It is good to be reminded of this cosmic, heavenly picture. As difficult as Revelation is, spend some time resting in this imagery, finding yourself among that chorus of everything in heaven and earth and under the earth and in the sea, 'Worthy is the lamb!'

*Erik M. Heen, Feasting on the Word, Year C, Third Sunday After Easter, Westminster John Knox Press, 2009