GOD'S NEW WORLD, DAY 30 (the God who suffers the wrath of man)

 


     What is a good God to do?  Revelation chapter 5 presents us with two elements which are important for our understanding of divine judgment – the agent of this judgment as well as the response it elicits.  It’s important to note that, in the book of Revelation, “the One seated on the throne” doesn’t do much.  Rather, the divine will is enacted by “agents” of the Creator, whether they be angels, elders, “living creatures” or…a slaughtered Lamb.  In Revelation chapter 4, John is ushered into the heavenly throne room and in chapter 5, he sees that the One seated on the throne is holding a scroll in his right hand.  As we will soon discover, this seven-times-sealed scroll contains the 7-fold judgment of God which will be brought to bear on the earth three times over (chapters 6—16).[1]

     No one in all creation is found who is “worthy to open the scroll”, i.e. to set in motion God’s judgment of the world – no one, that is, until the “Lion of Judah” is introduced to John as the “Lamb who was slaughtered”.  The Lamb (i.e. Jesus) is worthy to act as the agent of divine judgment; he takes the scroll from the hand of the One on the throne.  This is absolutely “crucial”[2] as we grapple with the “dilemma” of the death and destruction which are unleashed upon the world in the central portion of the book of Revelation.  The judgment of the world is not enacted by an “immutable, impassible” deity, reclining comfortably on his celestial seat, far removed from the ambiguity and confusion of human affairs; no – in Revelation, judgment is done by one who was murdered by the “kingdom of the world” (cf. Rev. 11.15; i.e. Rome).[3]  The Lamb had been “faithful unto death” (cf. Rev. 2.10) and had thus “overcome” (Rev. 5.5)[4] and now shares the authority of God (cf. Rev. 3.21).  The image of the slaughtered lamb provides a clue to understanding the mystery of how the Creator combats evil.  The biblical God does not attack evil by pushing a button and launching a “smart bomb” endowed with target coordinates, all from a safe distance.  Au contraire, the God of the Bible became incarnate in the person of Jesus of Nazareth (cf. Jn. 1.1, 14)[5] and absorbed the violence and disorder of the world into his very self.  The slaughtered Lamb of Revelation is a poignant image of the crucified-and-risen Lord whom we read about in the Gospels.[6]  Indeed, the passion of Jesus is the culmination of the “suffering of God” which we find throughout Scripture.  Yahweh, the God of Israel, is often depicted by the prophets as experiencing suffering, more often than not, due to the actions of his people (e.g. Jer. 2.4-13).  So, the divine judgment on display in Revelation is enacted by a (Son of) God who has “personally” suffered from both human and cosmic evil.[7]

     The multi-faceted depiction of God’s character which we find in Revelation is brilliantly captured by C.S. Lewis in his The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (1950).  The central character, Aslan the Lion, is described by Mr. Beaver as being “not safe, but good”.  Aslan is described as the soon-to-return king of Narnia (and the son of the Emperor-beyond-the-sea), whose coming will herald the end of the reign of the white Witch, who had usurped the throne of Narnia a century previous to the four Pevensie children having discovered a portal to this “parallel world”.  Edmund Pevensie proves to be a traitor to his siblings and to all the free creatures of Narnia, and Aslan rescues him from the spiteful justice of the Witch by offering himself as a sacrificial victim in his place.  Unsurprisingly, Aslan returns from death and renews all of Narnia by ending the hundred-year-long winter imposed by the Witch.  Indeed, the risen Aslan can both display mirthful affection as he frolics with Susan and Lucy Pevensie as well as bellicose violence as he kills the white Witch during a great battle between her forces and those of the “free Narnians”.  Aslan is depicted as “good”, loving, willing to sacrifice himself for unworthy people; at the same time, he is shown to be “not safe” and even violent as he fights the enemies of the world he had created.[8]

     Also, another element to factor into our understanding of divine judgment is the exuberant joy on display in the book of Revelation.  Once the Lamb takes the scroll from the hand of the Creator, the entire creation bursts forth in praise to God and to the Lamb (Rev. 5.8-14).  Praise is offered by angels, martyrs (cf. 7.9-10; 15.1-4), and the members of the heavenly court (cf. 7.11-12).  Indeed, there are 7 hymns of praise in Revelation.[9]  Not surprisingly, those for whom God’s judgment (of both the evil of the world as well as those who have surrendered their wills to its influence) is good news are…the martyrs, i.e. those who have witnessed to their faith with their very lives.  While the idea of the wrath of God being poured out on “evil” persons can easily make “sophisticated, comfortable” readers of Revelation queasy, this same idea is comforting and elicits joyful worship from those who are suffering under oppressive and hateful regimes.[10]


[1] 7 seals, 7 trumpets, 7 vials.

[2] I.e., “crossly”; from the Latin “crux” = “cross”.

[4] Where it is said that the Lion of Judah has overcome.  He “becomes” the Lamb in the next verse.

[5] Cf. Jn. 1.29, 36 where Jesus is called the “lamb of God” (a different Greek word from the “lamb” of Revelation).

[6] In the Gospel resurrection narratives, the risen Jesus bears the “stigmata”, i.e. the scars of the crucifixion: e.g. Jn. 20.20, 25-27.

[7] Cf. Robyn J. Whitaker, Revelation for Normal People, p. 47.

[8] Cf. The Magician’s Nephew (1955), another volume in The Chronicles of Narnia series.  Cf. also The Last Battle (1956), where Revelation’s “false prophet” (13.11ff) is depicted as an ape named Shift.  Lewis’ portrayal of how truth can be undermined by propaganda is simply brilliant (though I would quibble with the way Lewis “ends” the Narnian saga).  A total of 7 (!) Narnia books were published by Lewis between 1950—1956 and have continued to be bestsellers (they are even part of the curriculum of some elementary schools).

[9] Cf. Northrop Frye and Jay MacPherson, Biblical and Classical Myths: The Mythological Framework of Western Culture, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2004, pp. 232-34; cf. Rev. 4.8-11; 5.9-14; 7.12; 11.15; 14.3-4; 15.3-4; 19.1-4.

[10] Cf. Christopher Rowland, Radical Christianity: A Reading of Recovery, Eugene: Wipf & Stock, 2004 [1988], pp. 66-88; Richard B. Hays, The Moral Vision of the New Testament, New York: HarperOne, 1996, pp. 181-84.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

GEMS FROM JEREMIAH (38) A Tale of Two Sisters

Image
“I will not punish your daughters when they play the whore,     nor your daughters-in-law when they commit adultery; for the men themselves go aside with whores,     and sacrifice with temple prostitutes; thus a people without understanding comes to ruin. Though you play the whore, O Israel,     do not let Judah become guilty.” (Hosea 4.14-15)   “The Lord said to me in the days of King Josiah: Have you seen what she did, that faithless one, Israel, how she went up on every high hill and under every green tree, and played the whore there? And I thought, “After she has done all this she will return to me”; but she did not return, and her false sister Judah saw it. She saw that for all the adulteries of that faithless one, Israel, I had sent her away with a decree of divorce; yet her false sister Judah did not fear, but she too went and played the whore. Because she took her whoredom so lightly, she polluted the land, committing adultery with stone and tree. Yet for all this he
Read more

A 40-DAY JOURNEY WITH THE KING: Lenten reflections from Mark’s Gospel (5)

Image
“A leper came to him begging him, and kneeling he said to him, “If you choose, you can make me clean .”   Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, “I do choose. Be made clean !” Immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean .   (Mk. 1.40-42)      Along with exorcisms, Jesus performs many healings of various physical ailments in the early chapters of Mark’s Gospel.   Jesus’ first healing is that of Simon’s mother-in-law (1.29-31).   With the restoration of the leper, we begin to understand the meaning of Jesus’ healings (and exorcisms).   The thrice-repeated word “clean” in the above passage reveals what is truly going on when the King restores the members of the people of God to wholeness.   Leprosy rendered its victim “unclean”, i.e., it proscribed that person from participation in the life of the community, of both civil society and the worship/liturgical life of the people (cf. Lev. 13).   In the Hebrew Scriptures, as well as
Read more

Mark's Gospel as sequel: Understanding the Backstory, part IV: David (2)

Image
       To fully understand Mark’s “sequel” to the Scriptures of Israel, we need to look at 7 previous “episodes”, 7 OT characters who shed light on what Mark is saying about John the Baptist and Jesus in chapter 1.   The third character from the “original story” is David .   In 2 Samuel 7.8-16, we have the story of the founding of the Davidic covenant – God’s promise that there would always be a descendant of David on the throne of Jerusalem, forever .   It repeats the key features of God’s covenant with Abraham, which “gave birth to” the people of God (cf. Gn. 12.1-3).   God promises David three things: a great name, that Israel will be “planted” securely (cf. Jer. 1.10) in the Promised Land, and an everlasting line of descendants upon his throne (2 Sam. 7.8-13).   The wider context – and play on words – is that David had recently expressed his desire to the prophet Nathan to construct a “house” (i.e., Temple) for Yahweh (2 Sm. 7.1-3).   God replies that, in fact, he will construct a
Read more