After this I looked, and there before
me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe,
people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were
wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands…These are
they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes
and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Revelations 7:9
I was trucking along at an easy pace
through chapter 7 in Revelation: John sees people holding palms…worshipping…yadda
yadda…Isn’t nice all these people are worshipping God. But then all of a sudden it dawned on me-
John had seen this scene before- maybe fifty or so years earlier when Jesus was
walking into Jerusalem. He had seen this
huge crowd waving palms and worshipping Jesus- and three days later he had seen
the same huge crowd shouting, “Crucify him.”
All of a sudden I began to wonder if for John, seeing crowds wave palms
wouldn’t be a warm fuzzy moment, but rather a PTSD, “I hate those backstabbing,
fickle, cruel nincompoops and want them to suffer” sort of moment.
It’s interesting to me that the elder
pulls John aside and asks him if he knows who they are. John answers with an all-telling, YOU know. You know
that they are my enemies. You know that
they are dirty. You know that they don’t
deserve to be here in the throne room.
Yeah, that elder knows. That
elder knows because he immediately reminds John that these people have been
cleansed- that Jesus has washed their robes and made them clean.
As I’ve mulled over the text, I’ve
come to decide that perhaps the Left
Behind series isn’t necessarily the last word on Revelations. Instead, Revelation seems to be the story of
humankind- the cycle of chaos and sin, judgment, and then healing and
restoration. Humans sin, God issues
judgment (tribulation) for a time, and then all are brought into a place of
repentance and restoration. The word tribulation
comes from trībulum- a threshing
board. We all experience the threshing
board as God separates the chaff from the wheat in our lives, in our thoughts,
in our values, in our loves. If it looks like things are bad- if we feel
like our heads are being whipped against the threshing board- we can rest
assured that it is not yet the end of the story.
It’s funny – not funny humorous but
funny because it’s the same place I get stuck- to see John not comprehending
the fullness of God’s restoration. I am
full of snitty commentary about those around me- I have my opinions of who
should or should not receive mercy. But
that’s not how God works. Revelation 7
is about the Greatest Re-Do in History. Those
who once betrayed Jesus are welcomed back into His presence. The elder reminds John- and me- how it works-
there’s healing for everyone. Which is a
lucky thing because it turns out I would fall into the category of “person who
had betrayed Jesus.” Which a lucky thing
because it means I too am privy to the cleansing, the healing, and the
restoration.
