Jitterbugging for Jesus

(This is the fifth in a 30-day series breaking down the Book of Revelation and looking at what it means and doesn’t mean.)

The irony of the Book of Revelation is that it’s seen as such a violent book, for obvious reasons. It employs enormous amounts of violent language and imagery to tell the story of the very non-violent Jesus–the Lamb of God.

J. Denny Weaver’s influential book on the Atonement.

Most of us are scared of a rattlesnake, for good reason; not many of us are scared of a lamb, and it can’t be emphasized enough that Jesus as the Lamb of God (and “Lion of Judah” that we will examine eventually) is key to an understanding of how Revelation is connected to the Good News.

As I noted on the first day of this series, I’m of the belief that John’s Book of Revelation, in own its strange way, is an amplification of the Good News. For all the scary vibes it gives off, it was a pastoral letter that was shared with the seven churches of what was Asia Minor in the the era of Roman rule.

Theologian J. Denny Weaver,* a Mennonite theologian and author of such influential books as The Nonviolent Atonement, contends that “the Gospels present the same story as that told in Revelation, but from a different standpoint.”

And so, for today’s post on Revelation I want to share the following excerpt from an article Weaver wrote for “Cross Currents,” an online theological journal, years ago.* It’s an interesting take on Revelation and Jesus who was and is, after all, “the Prince of Peace.”

The Gospels narrate that same story [in Revelation] from the earthly vantage point of the folks who got dust on their sandals as they walked along the roads of Palestine with Jesus. Both accounts locate the victory of the reign of God on earth and in history — narrative Christus Victor — and make quite clear that the triumph occurred not through the sword and military might but nonviolently, through death and resurrection. The intrinsically nonviolent character of the victory eliminates what is usually called triumphalism of the church. As intrinsically nonviolent, its stance to the other or toward those who differ and are different can only be nonviolent. To be otherwise is to cease to be a witness to the reign of God and to join the forces of evil who oppose the reign of God.

At the same time, reading that story in the Gospels shows that Jesus was not a passive victim, whose purpose was to get himself killed in order to satisfy a big cosmic legal requirement. Rather, Jesus was an activist, whose mission was to make the rule of God visible. And his acts demonstrated what the reign of God looked like — defending poor people, raising the status of women, raising the status of Samaritans, performing healings and exorcisms, preaching the reign of God, and more. His mission was to make the reign of God present in the world in his person and in his teaching, and to invite people to experience the liberation it presented.

And when Jesus made the reign of God visible and present in that way, it was so threatening that the assembled array of evil forces killed him. These forces include imperial Rome, which carried ultimate legal authority for his death, with some assistance from the religious authorities in Jerusalem, as well as Judas, Peter, and other disciples, who could not even watch with him, and the mob that howled for his death. Resurrection is the reign of God made victorious over all these forces of evil that killed Jesus.

As sinners, in one way or another, we are all part of those sinful forces that killed Jesus. Jesus died making the reign of God present for us while we were still sinners. To acknowledge our human sinfulness is to become aware of our participation in the forces of evil that killed Jesus, including their present manifestations in such powers as militarism, nationalism, racism, sexism, heterosexism and poverty that still bind and oppress.

And because God is a loving God, God invites us to join the rule of God in spite of the fact that we participated with and are captive to the powers that killed Jesus. God invites us to join the struggle of those seeking liberation from the forces that bind and oppress. This invitation envisions both those who are oppressed and their oppressors. When the oppressed accept God’s invitation, they cease collaborating with the powers that oppressed and join the forces who represent the reign of God in making a visible witness against oppression. And when the oppressors accept God’s invitation, they cease their collaboration with the powers of oppression, and join the forces who represent the reign of God in witnessing against oppression.

Thus under the reign of God, former oppressed and former oppressors join together in witnessing to the reign of God.

5. The takeaway in this fifth installment is that the message of Revelation is not that believers can be passive and quiet because the time of God’s ultimate takeover is likely near. Revelation is, among other things, a part of God’s enduring invitation to witness to the God’s reign by joining in the struggle of those seeking liberation from “the forces that bind and oppress.”

* See here for more on Weaver and his books.

* Weaver’s entire article, titled “Violence in Christian Theology,” is here.