Waiting a little longer for justice
Revelation 6:9-17
9 When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained. 10 They called out in a loud voice, “How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?” 11 Then each of them was given a white robe, and they were told to wait a little longer, until the full number of their fellow servants, their brothers and sisters, were killed just as they had been.
12 I watched as he opened the sixth seal. There was a great earthquake. The sun turned black like sackcloth made of goat hair, the whole moon turned blood red, 13 and the stars in the sky fell to earth, as figs drop from a fig tree when shaken by a strong wind. 14 The heavens receded like a scroll being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place.
15 Then the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, and everyone else, both slave and free, hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains. 16 They called to the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! 17 For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can withstand it?”
Following Jesus is costly. With the opening of the fifth seal on the scroll, the souls beneath the altar in heaven were revealed. These represent those martyred because they followed Jesus, martyred for stating publicly that they lived by the word of God. The martyred want justice, they want the world to see that they were right to follow Jesus. But they were told to be patient and wait “a little longer” until the full number of martyrs had been killed.
To the first readers of the book of Revelation this was both frightening and encouraging. Frightening that they might be joining the martyrs in being killed, but encouraging in that they were not alone, they were joining the great company of those people who had lived and died in faithful witness for Jesus. When we face opposition because we are standing for Jesus, we join the great crowd of witnesses who have also faced opposition for their decision to follow Jesus.
With the opening of the sixth seal there was a devastating earthquake – an earthquake that human leaders recognize as judgment from God on the actions of the leaders. And here we run into one of the big challenges in the book of Revelation. How can a God of love bring judgement? If people have free will, which we do have, then people also have the ability to do terrible things and have no desire to repent of their wrongdoing. For justice to take place, the doers of wrong need to face the consequences of their actions. To say the wrong done will be ignored, swept under the carpet, fails to treat with respect the pain experienced by the oppressed. Justice does involve people being held to account – that accountability is sometimes called punishment. Jesus who challenged the wrongdoers of his day with strong words, invites us to live into the pain we see in the world while looking forward to the day when justice will come.
PRAYER:
Lord God, around the world your people are being killed day after day as they bear witness to your name and to Jesus Christ your Son and our Lord. Give us, the community of your people on earth, and those waiting in heaven, patience to wait for the fullness of time to come that justice may be seen in the earth. In Jesus’ name. Amen.