Revelation 5 --- Linger there, please

Revelation 5 is part of our assigned reading for Wednesday, Nov. 26th. I urge that we each linger there, not worrying greatly about the symbols we might not understand, but sharing in the wonder of that which is clear.

John the Revelator's vision includes a scroll, "sealed up with seven seals" (v. 1). A strong angel can't himself open the scroll and can find no one who can.

(Sometime do a study of mighty things angels in Scripture do -- increasing the wonder of seeing here an angel who can't himself open the scroll and who can't find anyone "in heaven, or on the earth, or under the earth" -- v. 2 -- who can).

When John sees that no one can be found who is "worthy" to open the scroll he "weeps and weeps" (v. 4).

Twenty centuries of discourse has provided no firm agreement about what was written on the scroll or why John felt so overwhelmed with sadness that no one worthy to open it could be found.

Your humble correspondent thinks the scroll contained all the hopes and dreams, all the possibilities of man who has lived since Adam and Eve in a fallen world where hearts are irreparably broken by the separations caused by sin, including the "final" separation brought by death.

I think of the countless hordes of men and women, boys and girls who have, with all their great promise and the pure wonder of their humanity, failed in pursuit of their dreams, and who have been divorced from each other and even from themselves by sin and then death. As a minister I've often been called on to preside in the breakup of marriages, the dissipation of lives addicted to substances and, far too often I've presided at the gravesides of people whose passing left broken hearts and lives. Always I've wept.

The possibilities were always great, the hopes real, many times the dreams palpable. But the Great Sadness has been overwhelming.

The solution to the hopelessness is written on that closed scroll. So John wept and wept because he knew that -- and now he in a vision from God sees that no one can open it.

I WEEP WITH HIM.

But wait! One of the elders in heaven said to John, "Stop weeping and Look! Look!!" (v. 5). There is one who has overcome and who can break the seals and open the scroll to all our hopes, our dreams, to life, to holiness.

The elder pointed John the Revelator (and you and me) to a sacrificial lamb which had been slain.

John saw the Lamb take the scroll in hand and then followed a scene of such grandeur we weep again -- this time tears of the greatest joy.

1. Four living creatures (previously described in the Revelation) and the 24 elders fell down before the Lamb, worshiping. Among that which they held in their hands as they lay prostrate before the Lamb was bowls of incense which "are the prayers of the saints" (yours? mine?).
Their song is in vv. 9, 10. I urge you to linger there, especially.

2. Then the chorus was joined by "myriads and myriads, and thousands and thousands" of angels. Their addition to the song is in v. 12. Linger again.

3. Finally, "every created thing which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all things in them" joined the chorus. Their contribution is in v. 13. Again, linger.

The four creatures kept repeating, "Amen! Amen." And the elders who I suppose were now standing, beholding the wonder, fell down again and worshiped.

That scene will be played out. We anticipate it longingly as we deal with our disappointments, our brokenness. And in faith we join the chorus of praise even now -- praising him who alone is worthy.