Week 52: Jesus, Day 3

Read:
Revelation 5:1-14
Psalm 108

Reflect:
 As we have seen, in Revelation 1-3 Jesus is presented as the Shepherd of the Church, guiding it in the challenges of life and witness. Revelation 4-5 then places all in perspective, as John is brought up into a vision of heaven itself, and he gazes on the astonishing activity at the throne of God, the center of all things visible and invisible. He finds no timeless placidity here, but an ebb and flow of constant and strenuous activity that has its central purpose in giving constant, energetic, vital praise to the Most High God.
 In the midst of this activity, an angel steps forward (5:2). Let’s be reminded that the appearance of an angel (as we noted earlier) means, “Listen up! God is saving!” The one “seated on the throne” has a scroll in His hand, and the angel asks, “Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?” At first no one in heaven or on earth is found who is worthy to perform this task. Poignantly, it causes the author of Revelation to break his background role, as he is overwhelmed with an almost uncontrollable grief. Why does he weep? The imagery of the closed book speaks to us that there is some powerful and beautiful message or action that God is ready to perform, but that remains unfulfilled and undelivered because there is no one in creation who is able to handle the message. No one is worthy to hear and accept the Word of God in its power and beauty. John weeps because he understands that it signifies the isolation of humanity from God; we are cut off from His grace and blessings because we cannot even hear His voice. His grief is the grief for the full tragedy of fallen humanity.
 But the moment is not over. True, no one was found who is worthy; but now someone “has overcome so as to open the book and its seals.” The tense of the verb (“has overcome”) implies that a drama has played out in some sense that has changed the situation forever. The prophesied Messiah of the line of David has done it. As He steps forward to take the scroll and open it, we find that the Lion of Judah is in fact the Lamb of God slain for our sins (5:5-6). In His work of salvation, Jesus has rectified the relationship between God and humanity, and the full blessings and joy of God can once again flow in our created world. The angel was right to get us to “listen up!” Jesus has arrived, not just for good times, but for salvation itself. And the rest of the chapter records the energy of the heavenly praise, hardly pausing but rather broadening to acknowledge not only the creating work of God (4:11) but now also the salvation of God and of the Lamb (5:9).
 Do you hear the Christmas message? Humanity needs to have relationship with God to be truly blessed and alive, and yet sin has placed all humanity under a cloud. And so God sent His Son to be born as a tiny infant, to live and grow not as a freakish alien but as a real human, as a real member of creation itself. In this way Jesus was positioned to receive the word of judgment and the word of blessing that must come to humanity, but He was able to accept it and deal with it because He was worthy as only God is worthy.
Mild, He lays His glory by; born that man no more may die;
Born to raise the sons of earth, born to give them second birth!
Hark, the herald angels sing: “Listen up! God is saving!”

Respond:
While Christmas is often the time for wonderful productions and glorious services, it is simultaneously the time for us to bring our deepest, most personal worship to Jesus Christ. It can happen as we listen to music in our homes, or gather for worship at church, or even as we check the franticness of a shopping expedition with a moment of praise and thanks. Jesus saves!

Pray:
Dear Lord, Thank you for the gift of salvation. Please help us be ready to share the real meaning of Christmas with all those we encounter, in thought and word and deed.

- D.D.