(Revelation 7: 9-17)
In past sermons some of you may remember me speaking of the elementary school my grandkids go to over in Edmonds. Peder has moved on, but Eva still has a few years at Westgate Elementary. One of our duties in helping out our working daughter was to take the kids to school a couple days a week and then pick them up in the afternoon. I particularly enjoyed the pickup times as I got to stand out on the sidewalk and watch the activity. I noticed parents and grandparents of all nationalities, some even dressed in their native garb, waiting for their child to be released for the day. And then someone would kick the anthill and the kids would come excitedly streaming out of the building laughing and chattering as they looked for whoever was there to pick them up. We were told that there were at least 27 different nationalities represented at Westgate Elementary. And to me it looked like what I thought a United Nations school might look like. It gave me hope for the world that these children would all grow up one day not to fear or hate one another but to see each other as equals in the eyes of God living in peace and harmony. I have to cling to that hope because what I’m seeing today isn’t so good and as I watch the evening news I wonder where this is heading?
Where it’s heading is I think what the Apostle John is talking about in our Scripture reading for this morning. The Revelation was written by John around 95 A.D. while he was in exile on the island of Patmos. It was written after a great period of persecution of the Christian church and for many the future looked bleak, and what John had written so far about the end of times looked pretty scary. In the previous chapter he writes about six of the seven seals that will be unsealed leading up to the final judgment. The first six seals describe conquest, violence, famine and economic injustice, death, slaughter of the martyrs, and a cosmic meltdown. He then pauses before he gets to the seventh and final seal and reveals something unexpected at that point. He paints a picture of hope and salvation, sandwiched between the seals of judgment. In the first few verses of chapter seven he talks about the surviving Jewish remnant of 144,000 representing the 12,000 each coming equally from the twelve tribes of Israel. In his second vision which is directed to the Gentile believers he says: After this I looked, and there was a great crowd that no one could number. They were from every nation, tribe, people, and language. They were standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They wore white robes and held palm branches in their hands. They cried out with a loud voice: “Victory belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb. This second vision portrays a countless multitude from every people and nation which must have been a great relief to those Gentile believers who may have wondered whether or not the God of Israel would remember them when the time came. It’s important to understand that these two visions do not represent two different and distinct groups; rather both scenes picture the redeemed people of God, but from two different vantage points. What John now sees and wants us to understand is a numberless crowd representing every nation, tribe, people, and language, just like Westgate Elementary, children of a loving God from all over the world. God’s promises to Israel find their fulfillment in the new, multinational people of God. The assembly’s sheer magnitude, as well as the universal makeup, surely would have encouraged the minority, marginalized Christian community within the Roman Empire who, under various rulers, faced all sorts of prejudice and persecutions who wondered to themselves and out loud: where is this heading?
John continues by telling us that all of the angels stood in a circle around the throne, and around the elders and the four living creatures and that they fell facedown before the throne and worshipped God, saying: Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and always. Amen. Then John tells us that one of the elders asked him: Who are these people wearing white robes, and where did they come from? John replied: Sir, you know. Knowing the answer, the elder responded: These people have come out of great hardship. They have washed their robes and made them white in the Lamb’s blood. This is the reason they are before God’s throne. They worship him day and night in his temple, and the one seated on the throne will shelter them. The elder, God’s representative, is acknowledging their struggles and great hardships, recognizing that they have confessed their sins and sought forgiveness, and when it would have been so much easier to turn back or stay home, they continued to worship the Lord day and night in his temple. The elder continues by saying: They won’t hunger or thirst anymore. No sun or scorching heat will beat down on them, because the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them. He will lead them to the springs of life-giving water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. The elder is reassuring them that they have not been forgotten and that their faithfulness in the face of trials and tribulations have not been for nothing. Better days are ahead in eternity. Keep the faith.
Keeping the faith. That’s the point. John’s vision gives hope today to churches that face either stiff opposition or widespread apathy from the societies in which they bear witness. It assures us that God’s purpose to redeem people from all nations will be realized in the end. This vision, this diversity of people, shapes who we are and what we are about in the world now. John’s vision calls us to a mission of reconciling all peoples to one another and to God. It challenges us to embody an alternative to the racial, national, and cultural divisions that permeate our world. It calls us to be the somebodies that do something in the name of Jesus Christ because apparently nobody else is willing to take a stand for what is right and just. We are the faithful remnant that now stands on the shoulders of the multitude that has come through a great ordeal. The hardships we experience pale in comparison, but they are still to be considered a normal aspect of Christian life, hardships that we consider to be the crosses we gladly bear for Jesus Christ. John is not preaching the Prosperity Gospel so many evangelists spout today promising that if you turn your life over to Jesus (and them and their church) you will be greatly rewarded in your earthly life. No, we need to take our lead from the worshippers who did not face their tribulations passively. They “washed their robes” making them “white in the Lamb’s blood.” They made a commitment to actively honor and worship God willingly accepting the scorn and disdain from those whose eyes were focused on the pursuit of worldly gain for their own benefit at the expense of the powerless, hopeless, and helpless.
John is assuring us that the God of Israel is faithful; that everything he promised his people will be realized through the slaughtered Lamb. But we are also reminded of our present calling, a calling to serve God unceasingly and to embody the healing, restoring ministry of the Lamb for a broken world because Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world, red or yellow, black or white, they are precious in his sight, Jesus love the little children of the world, because a life in eternity with him is where we’re heading.
Let us pray.
Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine! O what a foretaste of glory divine! Heir of salvation, purchase of God, born of his Spirit, washed in his blood. Gracious and all-loving Father, how we praise you for the gift of the Lamb, your Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ who came to save us from ourselves, who came to lead us during those times when we wonder where all of this is heading. Because of his perfect submission to you for our benefit, all is at rest and we in our Savior are happy and blest, filled with his goodness and lost in his love. Move us blessed Father to endure the hardships of this life in a way that glorifies you and brings the lost and searching to you so that they too can be a part of the great multitude of believers saved by your grace. This is our story, this is our song, praising our Savior all the day long. In Jesus name, we pray, Amen.