Sacred Space #10

Here is another study summary, the last in this series is coming soon. Our new study (on Tony's new book "Virtually Christian") begins this Friday - January 7th at Health Pathways. Hope to see you there - otherwise keep watching this space for the study summaries....Linda

Revelations. 12/10/10

Revelations is the final book of the Bible. Some early Christians did not think it should have been included in the canon because it did not have apostolic authorship. It describes a dramatic vision of history yet to come. It is mind-bending in its expression and its repetition of themes. It is important because the story ends with an opening. It is written in crisis mode – not a comfortable expression of sacred space, but is yet filled with tremendous energy and hope.

The book begins with a series of addresses to seven churches. Seven is a recurring figure throughout the book. Chapter 2: 12-13 is a letter to the church in Pergamum. This is a place where Christians are being persecuted “where Satan lives”. Antipas, a faithful witness, has been killed there. Pergamum was a city where the cult of the emperor was practiced. An important shrine to Zeus and to the Caesars (Julius and Augustus) had been erected. It was a trading city in Asia Minor (modern day Turkey) that traded goods between Greece and Asia Minor. Pergamum vied with other trading cities to get privileges from Rome. Pergamum gained a march on its rivals by instituting the cult of the emperors. Anyone who traded there was probably required to participate. The “mark of the beast” probably relates to participation in this cult. There was pressure on Christians to collude with – the worship in the temple of the Caesars. Antipas refused to collude and so he was killed.

Satan here is code for the Beast and its power. It is a word that encompasses the Roman system of rule and culture. Satan represents all worldly violence, power and influence. This is similar to the Gospel use of the name - Satan is depicted as the ruler of the world in the temptation of Jesus. The emperor Nero is also associated with the Beast. He heads a kingdom that opposes the Kingdom of God. Christians towards the end of the first century were becoming aware of the powers ranged against the Lordship of Christ. These were real and significant. Satan is not understood as a real personal metaphysical rival of God (as in Milton’s Paradise Lost). Rather Satan is the price of doing business - the forces of the world.

Chapters 4 – 5 describe the court of heaven and the worship of the Almighty on his throne. In his right hand he holds a scroll that no one in heaven or on earth is worthy to open. “Then I saw between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders a Lamb standing as if it had been slaughtered…” The Lamb opens the scroll at the throne. The only one worthy to open the scroll is the Lamb who was slain. Here the Lamb, as the agent of God, becomes the conquering hero in opposition to the throne of Satan. The Lamb is mentioned twenty-nine times in Revelations. A lamb is immediately recognizable as a sacrificial animal – the inverse of one who slays.

In 5:9 the blood of the Lamb is introduced for the first time. From this point blood becomes a dominant theme - the blood of limitless violence and the blood of the Lamb. The blood of the Lamb is in conflict with the bloodiness of the world. This changes the meaning of being “saved by the blood of the Lamb” from the purely personal to a much more social or systemic thing. The blood of the Lamb discloses or reveals the bloodiness of the world and brings it to an end.

In chapter six the scroll with seven seals evokes the scrolls of the prophets. The scroll is a prophetic motif in Isaiah and Ezekiel. It also captures the excitement of something hidden that is going to be revealed. It has seven seals that can only be opened by the Lamb. The first four seals are four horsemen – white, red, black and green. These represent Christ, war, famine and death. The fifth seal is the crisis of Christian persecution – the blood of the martyrs. Their blood calls out for vengeance from under the altar. The normal function of sacrificial blood is to bring peace. Here the blood is not peaceful. The word for vengeance can also mean vindication – a restoration of life. The blood cries out – like the blood of Abel. The blood of the witnesses of the Lamb is not quiet.

The sixth and seventh seals continue the blood theme with the moon becoming like blood (v.12), and after the seventh, with the trumpets, hail and fire mixed with blood (7:7) and the sea becoming blood (v.9). Other blood references can be found in 11:6, 14:17-20 and 16:4-7. The more blood you spill – the more blood will be spilled (see 13:10). Once the innocent victim is revealed, the world reacts with more violence in its attempt to restore the world to the old order. It is a picture of the twentieth century with its two huge world wars, including the Holacaust and the atom bomb. Things can no longer be brought to the peace of forgetfulness anymore – the blood cries out. The cross has brought on the crisis. The worse the crisis is the closer the triumph of the Lamb. The book of Revelations is a revelation of violence, not (as it is sometimes used) an inciting of violence. The blood of the Lamb is not the terrifying red stuff that all humanity fears, rather it transforms and brings healing and peace. The Lamb’s blood counter-veils (reveals) and counter-offends (forgives) – robes are made white as snow. (7:13-17).

The miracle of Revelations is that, after all the blood-letting, comes the promise of healing and transformation. All those who have been killed will reappear and in Chapter 21: 1-4 we have the vision of the new Jerusalem – the final sacred space without sacred violence. This final image is of sexual union – of a bride and groom. New humanity is the bride, the Lamb is the groom. There are no more temples (v22). The Lamb triumphs over the violence. There is no more need for a temple to negotiate with a God identified with violence. Rather the Lamb replaces the temple - the Lamb whose blood sets us free from blood-letting.