20th March 2023
Where are you?
“Do not be afraid; I am the First and the Last. I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen…”
Revelation 1:17-18 (NKJV)
In his loneliness on the remote, tiny prison island of Patmos, John may well have said, ‘Where are you? Where are the promises that seemed so real? What about the miracles we all witnessed? We saw you alive after we’d seen you killed. We spoke to you. There was the baptism of over 3000 people on that day of Pentecost, when fear turned to courage and we were moved by the spirit that worked in you (Acts 2:41). There has been the preaching of your gospel to Jews and Gentiles. All those people converted – and many who died for that faith. Where are you? I’m imprisoned. I’m on my own. I’m old. I will die soon – and still you don’t come.’
And Jesus says in the vision that John recorded, ‘I’m here. I’m in heaven. Look at me. This is what I look like now – and I am coming, as I promised.’
John sees a glorious figure described in Revelation 1:13-18 and as the vision resolves itself, he is comforted. His doubt is removed and in faith, at the end of the Revelation account, he answers, “Even so, come Lord Jesus.” (Revelation 22:20).
If John had his doubts, as he watched the church persecuted and the apostles martyred one by one, to the point where the church looked barely able to survive, then we today, over 2000 years later, may be asking that same question, ‘Where are you?’ And as John lived in a world dominated by a tyranny that attempted to destroy the work of Jesus, so we too are living in the same world.
It is a world full of tears. It was in John’s time and it always has been. Peter ‘wept bitterly’ when he realised he had denied Christ (Luke 22:62). David wept throughout the night, appealing to God for help against those who sought to harm him (Psalm 6). Matthew, in his gospel and quoting the prophet Jeremiah, gives a harrowing account of mothers weeping for their dead children: “A voice was heard in Ramah, Lamentation, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.” (Matthew 2:18).
Speaking of Christ, Revelation promises that he will dry the tears, “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” (Revelation 21:4 NIV). It is talking about the time of Christ’s return and the promised resurrection. But we are living now as resurrection people and as we look to God to dry our tears, so we are called to a work that includes drying the tears of those around us, as we repeat with John, ‘Even so come Lord Jesus’.
Prayer
“Even so come Lord Jesus” Amen.
Study by Maggie Mitchell
About the writer:
Maggie Mitchell attends the Northampton congregation of Grace Communion International and is Chair of the Pastoral Council
Local congregation:
GCI Northampton
Ecton Village Hall
78A High Street
Ecton
Northampton
NN6 0QB
Local congregational contact:
Maggie Mitchell
Email: maggie.mitchell@btinternet.com
Word of Life contact:
wordoflife@gracecom.church