Ruler of All
Revelation 1:4-8,
12-13, 17-18[1]
Like people of all times and
place, our notions of power are defined by our experiences in life. Our culture
is a pragmatic one: we tend to believe in what “works,” regardless of whether
it’s “right” or “true.” Even before President Teddy Roosevelt said that we
should “speak softly, and carry a big stick,”[2] we
were already caught up in the quest for bigger and better weapons. These days,
it would seem that an equally important part of our notion of power is that
“money talks.” I think that’s something of an understatement. I think what we
really mean is that money backs people into a corner so that they have no
choice but to give in. I can’t say I find too much to admire about the “power
brokers” of our world.
But I think that even though we
have a tendency to be dazzled by big sticks and lots of money, many of us know
where power really lies. It’s not found in boardrooms of corporations, but
rather in households around the country, where people share the most powerful
means of change there is: love. True power is found in what St. Paul calls the
“weapons of righteousness” (2 Cor. 6:6-7): kindness, truth, sacrifice, and the
power of God. Despite our fascination with what masquerades as power in our
world, God’s ways always have been and always will be the true power in this
world.
Our lesson from the Book of
Revelation for today touches upon that idea. In the first place, it speaks of
our God as “the Alpha and the Omega,” the one “who is and who was and who is to
come,” and “the Almighty” (Rev. 1:8). This description of God is full of
implications, but essentially, it is a reminder that God is the one who sits on
the throne of the universe and it is his rule that will ultimately define all
things and everyone.[3]
It’s a reminder that “Our God is an awesome God; he reigns from heaven above;
with wisdom, power, and love; our God is an awesome God.”[4]
Alongside that image is another
one that is equally important. Revelation also speaks of the one who stands at
God’s right hand: “Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the
dead” (Rev. 1:5). Again, there is a whole theology about Jesus packed into that
phrase, and it takes the rest of Revelation to explain. One of the most
important images of Jesus in the Book of Revelation is that his is the lamb who
was slain and who has triumphed through his death. As in our day, so also in
that time, sacrificing one’s life was seen as weakness, not power. But the
Scripture contradicts that point of view by proclaiming that, as a result of
his death and resurrection, Jesus is “the ruler of the kings of the earth”
(Rev. 1:5).[5]
In the first-century world,
Christians had to face alternative visions of what life is all about just like
we do. The ideal in their day was defined
by Rome, and it was a dream of power through conquest, exploitation, and
domination.[6] The presence of Roman legions throughout the
Mediterranean world constantly reinforced that vision. That posed a significant
temptation for the Christians of the day.[7] Some of them had been excluded from families
who could not fathom why anyone would turn their backs on the culture of power
and glory, prosperity and success, and its “family values”. In their worship,
the central affirmation was: “Jesus is Lord”! And yet, all around them were
images that contradicted their faith.
So the book of Revelation was
written to remind those Christians that at the heart of their faith was a very
different vision of what life is all about.[8] It
is a vision of the one who sits on the throne, who bends everything that
happens, both evil and good, toward his purposes.[9] It
is also a vision of the lamb who overcame all the so-called “powers” of the
world by dying. And because of his death
and resurrection, he alone has the right to rule over all the earth. And he is the one who will one day make the
“kingdom of the world” into the kingdom of our Lord, and “he shall reign
forever and ever” (Rev. 11:15)!
At the heart of the Christian
faith is a vision of a reality that is more true than our present world defined
by power that takes the form of violence and greed. What’s more, at the heart of the Christian
faith is the conviction that this ultimate reality is already present and
working in our lives—it already undermines all the boastful claims of the rich
and powerful.[10] And the promise is that one day this
ultimate reality, the reign of Christ, will overthrow all the false powers in
our world and all people will beat their swords into ploughshares and the wolf
and the lamb will lie down together (Isaiah 2:4; 11:6)!
I guess the question we have to answer is whether this
vision is more convincing than what pretends to be power in our world. Things
haven’t changed much—we can be just as deceived by grandiose displays as the
people of that day. But the real question we have to address here is where we
place our faith. If we place our faith in “chariots,” the Scripture reminds us
that they will “collapse and fall” (Ps. 20:7-8). If we place our faith in
“mortals,” no matter how powerful they may seem, we find that in them “there is
no help” (Ps. 146:3). The Scriptures call us to place our faith in the God who
is working right now to establish his kingdom and his justice, peace, and
freedom for all peoples everywhere.[11]
They call us to place our faith in Christ as our Lord, the one who exposed the
sham of those who pretend to have power in this world by his death and
resurrection. They call us to place our faith in our Savior who lives and
reigns for all time. And one day he will be acknowledged by all creation as the
“ruler of all."
[1] © 2015
Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Dr. Alan Brehm on 11/22/2015 at Hickman
Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.
[2] Theodore Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt: An
Autobiography, 522
[3] Cf.
Richard Bauckham, The Theology of the
Book of Revelation, 27, regarding the designations “First and Last” and “Alpha
and Omega,” says, “God precedes all things, as their Creator, and he will bring
all things to eschatological fulfillment. He is the origin and goal of all
history. He has the first word, in creation, and the last word, in new
creation.” Cf. Eugene M. Boring, Revelation,
75: “God is named as the one whose being and whose acts embrace all time.”
[4] Rich
Mullins, “Our God is an Awesome God,” 1988, BMG Songs, Inc. Even though I take
issue with the theology expressed in the verses of this popular song, I think
the refrain is a sound expression of what the book of Revelation was seeking to
convey.
[5] Cf.
Bauckham, Theology of the Book of
Revelation, 73, “Fundamental to Revelation’s whole understanding of the way
in which Christ establishes God’s kingdom on earth is the conviction that in
his death and resurrection Christ has already won his decisive victory over
evil.” Cf. also Boring, Revelation, 76, where he says that this
phrase “attributes to Jesus the title claimed by the Roman Caesars, whose claim
to sovereignty John wants his readers to see as a false caricature of the real
lordship of Christ.”
[6] Cf.
Bauckham, Theology of the Book of
Revelation, 34, “The Roman Empire, like most political powers in the
ancient world, represented and propagated its power in religious terms. … In
this way it absolutized its power, claiming for itself the ultimate, divine
sovereignty over the world.” I would say that all empires throughout history,
even those in the present day, engage in this propaganda to some extent.
[7] Cf. Boring,
Revelation, 8-23, where he summarizes
the challenges faced by Christian communities in the Roman Empire, including
being caught up in Roman wars, social and economic discrimination, and the pressure
to take part in the worship of the Emperor as a test of loyalty.
[8] Cf.
Bauckham, Theology of the Book of
Revelation, 7: “The effect of John’s visions, one might say, is to expand
his readers’ world, both spatially (into heaven) and temporally (into the
eschatological future), or, to put it another way, to open their world to
divine transcendence. The bounds which Roman power and ideology set to the readers’
world are broken open and that world is seen as open to the greater purpose of
its transcendent Creator and Lord.” Contrast Christopher C. Rowland, “The Book
Of Revelation,” New Interpreters Bible
XII: “Apocalypse demands a break from our present way of looking at things. It
offers an alternative perspective—though not the authoritative, definitive
statement for which we crave—that requires the recipient who understands to
bear witness.”
[9] Cf.
Bauckham, Theology of the Book of
Revelation, 31, where he says that the “vision of God’s sovereignty in
heaven” is what “makes it possible for John to enlarge his readers’ perspective
on their own situation by setting it within the broader context of God’s
universal purpose of overcoming all opposition to his rule and establishing his
kingdom in the world.” This reign of God is “the true reality which must in the
end also prevail on earth.” Thus Bauckham can also say, (ibid., 40), “The whole
of Revelation could be regarded as a vision of the fulfilment of the first
three petitions of the Lord’s prayer: ‘Your name be hallowed, your kingdom
come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven (Matt. 6:9-10).”
[11] Cf.
Shirley C. Guthrie, Always Being Reformed,
69-70, where he insists that confessing Jesus as “the way, the truth, and the
life,” means that “he is the expression of God’s love not just for Christian
believers but for all humanity, on one in whom God was at work to reconcile the whole world to himself. He came not
to give his followers everything they wanted to be happy, successful, and
secure now and forever, but to announce and usher in the worldwide reign of God’s
justice and compassion for everyone.”
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