When Justice Comes
page detail from Revelation, 1611 KJV Bible (Replica Edition) photo by jch
Sermon Series “Through the Bible,” № 86, Revelation 11:15-19
The nations raged, but your wrath has come, and the time for judging the dead, for rewarding your servants, the prophets and saints and all who fear your name, both small and great, and for destroying those who destroy the earth.” –Revelation 11:18
Our journey through the Bible arrives at the Book of Revelation. Years ago, I preached a fuller series on this rather lengthy and mysterious book. This time, we’ll look at just a few slices.
If you ever decide to go to seminary to study the Bible, then you will learn a lot of new vocabulary words. One important word is “genre,” g-e-n-r-e. Genre is defined as “a category of … composition characterized by a particular style, form, or content.” The genre to which Revelation belongs is “apocalypse.”
The genre of apocalypse seems very strange to us. It claims to record “the revelation of divine mysteries through … visions, dreams ….”[1] It is written mainly during times of severe conflict. The author usually is among a persecuted minority, so he or she cannot speak plainly without great risk of the message being suppressed, the receivers being attacked, or of personally dying for transmitting the message. Therefore, the message is written in a way that will be understood by the intended audience, but not by enemies, using a kind of “code. Apocalypse expresses a pessimistic view about what is happening now, and a belief that God will soon intervene in world events to usher in a new future.
Our Bible’s Book of Revelation is cast in the form of a letter edited for a large audience of early Christians living in several locations in Asia Minor, and was given its final editing sometime in the late first century or early second century C.E. Bible scholars tell us some reasons that it was the only extended apocalyptic writing to earn a place the New Testament. The early Church was satisfied that Revelation was passed down from the time of the apostles, was then widely known, and was not otherwise in conflict with Apostolic teaching. While today there is debate about who wrote it, the early Church was convinced that its author was John, the beloved disciple of Jesus.
At the heart of this section of Revelation are two series of visions: the seven seals and the seven trumpets. In Revelation, the number seven is symbolic of completion or fulfillment. Professor Eugene Boring, in his commentary, says that the opening of the seven seals and the blowing of the seven trumpets display a recurring pattern. “The first four elements of each series present … four interrelated catastrophes. In the fifth and sixth … a more elaborate description is given, as the woes intensify. Between the sixth and the seventh … comes an interlude filled with anticipatory and retrospective visions of God’s … victory in Christ.”[2]
When I last preached on Revelation, I spent a lot of time describing the visions, and showing artistic representations of them. If you weren’t here then, somewhere along the way perhaps you’ve read through the catalog of disasters envisioned by John. It doesn’t take much emotional sensitivity to be troubled by all of the violent imagery. Perhaps most troubling: the way John tells the story, all this violence is initiated by Christ, the Lamb, the one who is worthy and willing to open the seals, and get this whole process moving.
Why is this so? Bible scholars say it helps to remember the scripture and history that John inherited. It’s helpful to remember that the catastrophes he writes about grow stronger and more intense something like the plaques of Egypt recorded in Exodus. Professor Boring invites us to remember that John didn’t start by dreaming about future suffering for God’s enemies, but rather with the fact of present suffering for God’s people. He reminds us how in many psalms of lament, the author seems pushed to the edge of endurance. Professor Boring says, “Cries for ‘revenge,’ rather than being personal, are but a plea for the justice of God to be made manifest publicly.”[3]
If we call to mind the suffering we see in our world today, then it’s easier to sympathize with John’s vision about a future when justice comes. In my sermons, I tend not to focus on the latest news cycle, partly because you can get the news in a hundred other places, and partly because the news can be so depressing. There are the murders that take place in our nation’s cities, which happen so regularly that they may not even feel startling. There’s the war in Ukraine, with hundreds of thousands dead. Among them, there are twenty-thousand civilian casualties, nearly seven times the number lost in our nation on September 11. There’s the conflict between Israel and Hamas: civilians gunned and knifed, civilians bombed and burned. The news reels of children crying are among the most difficult things to take in. I imagine that most people who watch or listen to news reports about these things also pray to God for justice to come.
If you get in touch with your feelings about suffering in our world today, then you have a good foundation for understanding what was happening when John wrote down his visions. They are a kind of coded narrative about a longing for wholeness, a plea for justice, and a reassurance that it will arrive. For generations of Christians living in zones of persecution, terror, and war, John’s visions have inspired rich expressions of prayer and song.
John saw it like this: “The nations raged, but your wrath has come, and the time for judging the dead, for rewarding your servants, the prophets and saints and all who fear your name, both small and great, and for destroying those who destroy the earth.” The seals opened tell us that God has set the process into motion. The trumpets herald the arrival of God’s new era of justice.
His vision becomes our prayer for justice to come : May the kingdom of the world … become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah …. Then, we will give you thanks, Lord God Almighty, for you will have arrived in power to rule in justice.
NOTES
[1] Elliot Wolfson, as quoted by Elaine Pagels, Revelations: Visions, prophecy, & politics in the Book of Revelation, New York: Penguin Books, 2012, p. 74.
[2] M. Eugene Boring, Revelation, Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching, Louisville: John Knox Press, 1989, p. 119.
[3] Boring, p. 114.
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