An eternal perspective
Many of us at Christ Church are struggling with eyesight at the moment – some more than others, but there are a lot of us! Sometimes I think our next member of staff should be a cataract surgeon! At the moment I am blessed not to need glasses – but in the past couple of years things have started to look a little fuzzier than I think they should…
Yesterday we were visited at our morning service by Archdeacon Jenny. She preached on the first two of seven letters sent by Jesus to churches not far from the island of Patmos, where John had been exiled by the Roman Emperor Domitian.
As I said last week when I introduced this series – Revelation: the Lamb Wins – the book of Revelation is not only about the end times. In fact most of it isn’t about the end times at all. The main purpose of John’s vision is to remind and reassure other Christians: to remind them of the love and victory that is ours in Jesus, and to reassure them that in all the chaos of world history, God is on the throne and all this struggle isn’t the end.
One of the things Jenny said on this yesterday stood out for me. She said, It’s only in the context of eternity that the chaos and suffering we experience are bearable.’
Paul puts it like this to the church in Corinth: For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all’ (2 Corinthians 4.17). Bear in mind that for Paul light and momentary troubles’ included being imprisoned multiple times, betrayed and abandoned by his friends, homeless, hungry and thirsty, shipwrecked, stoned to death at least twice – and more!
Paul was not trying to pretend that his and our troubles are nothing to worry about. He was not teaching the British Stiff Upper Lip, Keep Calm and Carry On, that there’s always someone else worse off than you so buck up – and nor was Jenny.
Instead both of them were helping us see both the reality of the chaos, the struggle, the pain, the suffering, the trouble that we all face in different ways – to see all that and the truth that this is not the end. All this is not the final word. One day Jesus will return and sort it all out once and for all. One day there will be healing for the nations, one day there will be full and complete healing for you.
That reassurance doesn’t make our troubles go away, but as Jenny said it’s the only thing that makes them bearable. That eternal perspective – seeing things now as they will be – is one of the greatest gifts of the book of Revelation. I pray it will encourage all our hearts, whatever struggles you are facing today and this week. Because, the way things will be is based on what Jesus has already done. That can never be undone, and it can never be taken away. May that encourage your heart today.