St. John’s Lutheran Church
11 May 2025 + Easter 4c
Revelation 7:9-17
The Rev. Josh Evans
Old news.
Same difference.
Seriously funny.
Historical fiction.
Each of them – and many more examples –
an oxymoron,
which is itself an oxymoron,
derived from two Greek words meaning “sharp” and “dull.”
Far from an exercise in contradictions,
oxymorons often exist to reveal a paradox and make a point.
Our Lamb has conquered.
An oxymoron.
It’s part of the official seal of the Moravian Church,
a close denominational cousin and full communion partner
for those of us in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
And it’s core to understanding the book of Revelation.
Big, bad, scary Revelation.
Woefully misinterpreted Revelation,
(no) thanks to the likes of Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins,
authors of the famed Left Behind series…
whose place in literary and theological history
should take its cue from its very name
and find itself left behind
in the refuse pile of bad writing and even worse biblical interpretation.
Revelation often gets a bad rap…
but it doesn’t have to!
Nor should it.
And in fact,
Revelation’s original message is far from scary.
Revelation is a message of hope.
The author of Revelation, John of Patmos, lived
during a time when the Roman Empire dominated.
Rome was all about world domination, literally.
Rome’s idea of world “peace”
was a world that would be entirely ruled by them –
which was great…if you were a part of the privileged ruling class
and those close to them…
but it came at a costly price for everyone else.
And if you didn’t buy into Rome’s vision,
Rome had ways of making your life miserable.
John of Patmos and his fellow Christians
fell squarely in this latter camp.
John hated Rome,
and writing Revelation was his way of showing it –
speaking in coded, subversive, anti-imperial language
that would have made perfect sense to his original audience.
In a world where those who opposed Rome’s vision drew the short straw,
Revelation presents another way.
The current system of Roman domination was not the way it had to be,
and indeed there is another way:
the way of the Lamb.
We actually first meet this Lamb a couple chapters before today’s reading.
The scene is classic apocalypse literature –
not in the sense of world-ending destruction
but in the sense of revealing,
which is what “apocalypse” actually means.
In that scene, there’s a scroll that must be opened,
but there’s no one worthy to open it…
except: the Lion of the tribe of Judah who has conquered!
Surely the mighty, conquering Lion is worthy!
This would have been an expected, predictable move in apocalyptic literature,
where the figure of a fierce animal stood at key plot-advancing moments.
But what emerges instead?
A lamb – and one that looks as though it’s been slaughtered?
A far cry from the conquering lion.
A surprising plot twist that begs for attention.
Jump ahead to our text today,
and the great multitude that no one could count,
gathered around God’s throne,
acclaims this Lamb as the one who brings salvation:
“Blessing and glory and wisdom
and thanksgiving and honor
and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”
No wonder we get these texts from Revelation
in our lectionary readings this Easter season.
These are texts that inspire
our canticles of praise and hymns of Easter triumph:
“At the Lamb’s high feast we sing
praise to our victorious king!”
“For the Lamb who was slain has begun his reign!
This is the feast of victory for our God! Alleluia!”
Indeed, Revelation helps us sing our way
into God’s new, Easter vision for our world,
proclaiming Christ’s resurrection
and victory over the forces of death and destruction.
The Lamb we sing of is an unexpected character in Revelation,
and the victory of the Lamb is an unexpected plot twist.
You’d expect Roman military conquest
to be met with reactionary military might and revolution…
but that’s not the way of the Lamb.
That’s not the way our Lamb conquers.
Instead, we get the image of the slain but living Lamb
who shows us that God’s self-giving love is stronger
than anything the empire can muster.
“Lamb power,” one theologian calls it.
And it’s a vulnerable kind of power.
An oxymoron – but not without its point.
***
This past week, there was a little election that took place –
maybe you heard of it?
On Thursday, May 8, shortly after 6:00 p.m. local time,
white smoke emerged from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel.
Soon, the world would be introduced to Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost,
now better known as Leo XIV,
the first US-born pope who grew up, of all places,
in the greatest city in the world…Chicago, obviously.
(But I digress…)
In Leo’s first words as pope, standing on the balcony of St. Peter’s,
echoing those of his predecessor twelve years before:
“God loves us, God loves you all, and evil will not prevail!” [1]
Evil will not prevail… and yet…
The next morning, in his first homily as pope, Leo remarked
to a much smaller audience of mostly his fellow cardinals:
“Even today, there are many settings in which the Christian faith
is considered absurd, meant for the weak and unintelligent.
Settings where other securities are preferred,
like technology, money, success, power, or pleasure.
“These are contexts where it is not easy to preach the Gospel
and bear witness to its truth,
where believers are mocked, opposed, despised or at best tolerated and pitied.
Yet, precisely for this reason,
they are the places where our missionary outreach is desperately needed.
A lack of faith is often tragically accompanied
by the loss of meaning in life,
the neglect of mercy,
appalling violations of human dignity.” [2]
***
It is true that this message of Easter,
the message of the Christian faith,
the oxymoron of the Lamb,
makes little to no sense,
is even “absurd.”
And yet it is because of this message –
because our Lamb has conquered –
that compels us to “go therefore” and share the good news in the places
where hope is lost,
where love and mercy are neglected,
where human dignity is under attack,
where evil seems to be prevailing.
Herein lies the central message of Revelation:
Our Lamb has conquered.
It doesn’t make any sense,
but it doesn’t make it any less true.
Our Lamb has conquered.
Against all odds, here is hope.
Hope which no empire nor Caesar,
no system of oppression,
no form of injustice,
no act of violence,
can overcome.
This is the feast of victory for our God.
The Lamb has begun to reign and reigns still.
This is the message of Revelation, and this is our Easter proclamation:
Our Lamb has conquered.
Our Lamb has conquered all evil and injustice.
Our Lamb has conquered death and destruction.
Our Lamb has conquered oppression and hatred.
Our Lamb has conquered
and carries us through the great ordeals of our lives.
Our Lamb is our Shepherd
who guides to springs of the water of life,
who wipes away every tear from our eyes,
who leads us from death into life.
Our Lamb has conquered
and enables us to share this good news with all people,
to strive for justice and peace in all the earth.
Our Lamb has conquered,
and so we can trust:
“God loves us, God loves you all, and evil will not prevail!”
[1] https://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiv/en/messages/urbi/documents/20250508-prima-benedizione-urbietorbi.html
[2] https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/en/bollettino/pubblico/2025/05/09/250509d.html
