Introduction

Revelation is the most important NT book for understanding early Christian liturgy. The central message is “Only God and the Lamb, not Caesar, are worthy of worship” (4:11). What happens in heaven is far more important than anything that happens on earth. In the midst of conflict and persecution, the triumph of God and the Chr community is not only guaranteed but already celebrated (Osborne, 48). There is no ultimate harm to any follower of Christ, even to the martyrs who gave their lives as a witness to Christ.

Julius Caesar represented the power of Rome and the empire which was at times hostile to the early church. When he returned to Rome after many years of fighting its battles abroad, he planned great festivities and triumphal processions to celebrate his victories over Gaul, Egypt, Pontos, and Africa. Each of the four processions took an entire day. His goal was to hold the city spellbound by his greatness. The cavalcades wound through the streets and ended at the temple of Jupiter, displaying treasures, booty, large paintings of battles, and maps. Then came the prisoners with their barbarian kings; then the Roman officials; and then the commander himself, riding on a chariot drawn by three white horses. He wore a laurel wreath and purple toga, carried the eagle sceptre, and coloured his face with red lead to represent Jupiter, whose power had made the armies victorious, while over him a slave held the golden wreath. Yet the same slave also repeated in his ear, “Remember, you are human.”

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Text: Revelation 1:4-8

I want to look at one of the strangest books in the Bible. The book of Revelation. It strikes us as very strange. But apocalyptic is a distinct kind of sacred writing. There are brief passages in both the OT and NT. It is like our dreams because the language is very symbolic, and any interpretation is likely to be controversial because it is open to a multitude of understandings – some even more fantastic that the source documents!

It may be fun to try to identify the ‘Anti-Christ’ in our modern age or to decode numbers such as 666, but arguably this is to miss the point. It is to indulge in wild speculation and ultimately foolishness. There is a long history of interpretation from the reformers (Pope=Anti-Christ) to Hal Lindsay’s Late Great Planet Earth (Zondervan, 1970). This was a favourite when I first became a Christian. 

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In our post-Christian era, it is reassuring that our major holidays are still Christian. Christmas and Easter focus on Christ. Mostly. You may need to look past Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny (regardless of how generous they are with presents or chocolate eggs). Thankfully, Easter is still recognisable as having something to do with the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.

I would like to talk about the Easter theme of transforming death. We start with a focus on our ‘little deaths’. They are part of life.

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There is one obvious point to be made on Palm Sunday. Jesus was welcomed into Jerusalem by the fickle crowd who cry ‘hosanna’ and a few days later shout ‘crucify him’. The obvious point is that the relationship between Jesus and society is ambiguous. So to for us as Christians.

In my last sermon, I looked at the contribution of the Judaeo-Christian tradition and how it has been formative of Western culture. Today I would like to look at and even more surprising contribution of the church in the Middle Ages.

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What is the most powerful thing we have created? You might think of the atomic bomb which has the power to destroy a city. But I would argue that an idea is more powerful. Allow me to illustrate. Yes, an atomic bomb unleashes enormous destructive energy, but the restraining idea of mutually assured destruction (appropriate acronym MAD) has meant that no nuclear weapons have been used in war for over 80 years. There is an academic discipline called the history of ideas which stresses the impact of an idea on human civilisation.

I would like to talk about some of the ideas introduced in the Judaeo-Chr tradition that has benefited our Western culture in the last 2000 years. Usually we don’t notice the difference because we are unfamiliar with the Roman world into which Christianity was born. As LP Hartly said, “The past is a foreign country.”

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