Easter 3 – Early Service
May 5, 2019
“Worthy Is the Lamb”
Our appointed readings in the Easter Season bump out the regular Epistle selection for a sampling of the book of Revelation. I’ve heard many Christians over the years express discomfort with this last book of the Bible – not knowing what exactly to make of it. And I can understand that – it’s a different type of literature. It’s apocalyptic. It is, for the most part, a written version of a vision that St. John had when he was “in the Spirit”. The voice told him, “John, write what you see!” and he did so. And the things that John saw were, frankly, spectacular. They are fantastic and otherworldly. They are at times frightening. But most of all, they are just so different from what we are used to seeing in the pages of Holy Scripture. And that leaves you and I to ask the question, what does it all mean?
Well, I certainly can’t, in one sermon, teach an entire course on how to interpret the book of Revelation. But I can tell you that it is not meant to scare the pants off of Christians with horrid and frightening predictions about what the judgment day will be like, or to give us an encoded roadmap of how the timeline of history will unfold. Instead, these visions paint pictures of heavenly realities. They show us eternal truths in symbolic and representative ways. For instance, it’s not that God is or will be, necessarily, literally sitting on a throne. But to picture him this way shows us that he has absolute reign and rule over all things. And the descriptions of the plagues and destructions described, the locusts, the famine, the war and pestilence… is a picture of all of human history in these last days before Christ’s return. The message is this, though, that God’s people are saved through it all, sealed and delivered, and by the end of the vision, we see a glorious picture of our eternal home in the New Jerusalem. We will live with God forever! Thanks be to him! That’s the great comfort of John’s Revelation!
But now specifically on to our text. Chapters 4 and 5 of Revelation are sometimes called the “Heavenly Throne Room Scene”. It depicts our Creator and king in a show of majesty reminiscent of Siani – with lighting and thunder about him. A jeweled throne surrounded by an emerald rainbow. And the seven torches, that is the seven spirits, a depiction of the Holy Spirit of God. It shows the great distance between the Creator and his creation, pictured as a great, peaceful sea. The four living creatures representing the swiftest and strongest and fiercest and wisest of all creation in praise of God. And the Elders, the representatives of the church in both the Old and New Testaments – throw their crowns down before the sea in honor of the Father, that is, the true king. We sing about it in “Crown Him with Many Crowns”, how they’re “casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea”.
But there’s a problem. Chapter 5, verses 1-7, right before today’s reading, describe it:
Then I saw in the right hand of him who was seated on the throne ha scroll written within and on the back, sealed with seven seals. 2 And I saw a mighty angel proclaiming with a loud voice, “Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?” 3 And no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to look into it, 4 and I began to weep loudly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to look into it. 5 And one of the elders said to me, “Weep no more; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals.”
6 And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders I saw a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain, with seven horns and with seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. 7 And he went and took the scroll from the right hand of him who was seated on the throne.
First, what exactly is this scroll? It is symbolic of God’s plan for the salvation of the world. It is the most essential knowledge, the most important thing to know. It is in his right hand, that is, it comes from his power and authority. And we know that this plan was in place even from eternity. But it is sealed up with 7 seals. (Seven is the number of holiness and completion). And because of this, no one is found in all of creation, on heaven or earth, who can open the seals, that is, no one who can know, and also accomplish God’s plan of salvation. There is no one to complete the mission. No sinful man. Not even a powerful angel. And to John, seeing and understanding all this, it causes him to weep.
And here we stop and ponder a bit. Why so sad, John? Is it just your morbid curiosity gotten out of hand? You really wanted to know the answers, and God’s keeping his secrets and that’s making you emote? No, it’s something deeper. John’s an old man now, the only apostle not to die a martyr’s death. He’s been around. He’s been preaching and teaching. He knows the problem of the human condition. He knows the corruption of sin. He knows the stink of death. What John is facing, in his weeping, is the hypothetical “what if?” if there was no one worthy to accomplish salvation. Because John’s not doing it. You and I can’t do it for ourselves. By ourselves, we are helpless and hopeless. Our natural condition – our fallen state is a true cause for weeping. If we could truly see, the clear and full picture of just how bad our predicament is, just how grievous our sins really are – we’d be weeping and wailing all the time. We need help. We need hope. We need a savior.
And John knows it has to be someone worthy – powerful – righteous – and who can get it done and make it count for the world. Someone who can trample Satan down under foot and snatch fallen humanity from the jaws of death.
But then one of the Elders encourages him. Weep no more. For there is one who can open the scroll. The Lion of the tribe of Judah! That’s Jesus. The Root of David! That’s Jesus. The Lamb who had been slain, but is now alive – that’s Jesus! Jesus, and only Jesus can know and command and fulfill and accomplish God’s holy plan of salvation!
This picture of Jesus is an odd one: A lamb with 7 horns and 7 eyes. That means he has perfect and holy power – and perfect and holy knowledge. And from him issues forth the Holy Spirit of God to the ends of the earth. Only he can approach the throne of God. Only he can take what is at God’s right hand (for it is also his). And only he can bring the contents of the scroll to bear for the blessing of his people.
The Lamb has been slain – of course, that’s Jesus! Who laid down his life on the cross for the salvation of the world. The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, as John the Baptist clearly confessed. But it’s not the Lamb who remains slain, or the Lamb who is still dead and buried. It’s the Lamb who was slain but is now alive! This is why we get this reading in Easter. You see a dead Jesus is no good to us without a risen and living Jesus. A dead Jesus doesn’t fulfill the plan inside that sealed scroll – but only the Jesus who unsealed the grave itself.
And it is in light of all THIS that we get to verses 8-14. The new song of praise. In chapter 4, all those gathered around the throne sang the praises of God the Father, echoing the song of the angels from Isaiah 6, that God is “Holy, Holy, Holy”. But now, with the Lamb in view, Jesus, they sing a new song:
Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals,
for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God
from every tribe and language and people and nation,
10 and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God,
and they shall reign on the earth.”
You see, Jesus isn’t just the object of our praise and worship because he’s God, though that alone would be enough. But even more, he is our savior. He has accomplished salvation for us by his blood, and ransomed us, and all people. This divine work of redemption he adds to the glory of creation. And likewise, while the throne of God is his by right, he is exalted by the Father for the very same reason – that he considered equality with God not something to be grasped, but took on the form of a servant, and became obedient unto death, even death upon a cross. …
Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Here, in the throne room scene of Revelation 4 and 5 we see these words of Philippians fulfilled. It is a spiritual, and an eternal reality.
And, as the song goes on….
Worthy is the Lamb who was slain,
to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might
and honor and glory and blessing!
We join our voices to that very song. We even sing it in our liturgy, in one of the newer pieces in our tradition, “This is the Feast”. Like so many other liturgical texts, drawn directly from Scripture, we join our words and voices with the song of the ancient believers, Simeon, Mary, Zechariah, Isaiah and the Seraphim, David, even Moses and Miriam, along with so many others. We sing to the Lamb who once was slain but who now lives. To the only one who is worthy to receive all these accolades – worthy in his perfectly lived life, worthy in his perfectly offered sacrifice of death. Worthy alone, but sharing that worth and value, the holy precious blood and the innocent suffering and death, that I may be his own.
What a day it will be when we all gather together around the throne of God and join in that heavenly song. But the warm-ups have already begun. Every Divine Service is a preview of that eternal concert, that heavenly chorus. Even now we begin to sing our faith – in response to all his good gifts and blessings. Worthy is the Lamb! Now and forevermore. Amen.
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