The 6th Beatitude in Revelation
The 6th Beatitude in Revelation.
“The revelation of Jesus Christ…” (Rev. 1:1). John the Divine left no doubt about the purpose of his Book of Revelation. His very first words in his prologue were that his vision was an unveiling of Jesus. His baffling and otherworldly writings in this book were not primarily about future events, or the destiny of human life on planet earth, or all those mysterious activities in the heavenly sphere. John was writing first and foremost about the Person of Christ, and he intended everything in the book to point back to Him. Revelation was a lifting of the veil on the full identity and activity of Christ. It is a revelation of Jesus, from God, concerning Christ Himself. The Godhead is both the primary source of John’s vision and its main subject. Everything in this extended vision that came to John straight from heaven is to be understood through the prism of Christ. Regardless of how dramatic, puzzling or profound its contents, everything in John’s vision is intended to help us discover more of Christ and deepen our knowledge of and love for Him. All these events in Revelation that seem to pique the reader’s curiosity are nonetheless streams that are meant to lead us back to the River of Life. Perhaps it would do us all well if we continue to remind ourselves of Paul’s declaration as we read John’s vision… “I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” (1 Corinthians 2:2). So then, we can’t let ourselves get too sidetracked, too stuck in the weeds, with these fancy special effects in John’s vision… the beasts and the dragons and the angels, the numbers and colors and gemstones, the symbols and metaphors and poetic imagery… After all is said and done in Revelation, St. John has composed an essentially Christ-centered book.
Gold Mine: Another way of looking at the book of Revelation is to strap on your miner’s helmet and search for Biblical gold. In John’s vision are many gold mines that have Jesus Christ as the source… Mines like His appearance in His glorified presence, the Logos of God, the seven titles of Christ, the words to the seven churches, the seven Beatitudes, and the many songs of worship that come straight to us from heaven! And there is more! Mining all the gold in Revelation will make us wealthy with His treasure for all of eternal life. But all those fancy special effects in John’s vision are only fool’s gold if they distract us from Jesus.
“Look! I am coming soon! Blessed are those who obey the words of prophecy written in this book.” (Revelation 22:7).
“Blessed” = makarioi; a rich Greek word with many nuances, all in the context of enjoying God’s favor: fully satisfied; deeply joyful; delightfully content; profoundly happy; blissfully fulfilled. When Jesus declares that you are blessed, He is congratulating you, confidently affirming that God is active in your life. You are blessed when you put yourself in the position to be transformed by God. You are blessed, you are most fortunate, you are to be envied, because you now have the unexpected privilege of participating in the Kingdom of God. When you are blessed, you are aware that your blessedness does not depend on your outer circumstances. You are thus filled with hopeful joy. So when Jesus says that you are blessed, it is time to celebrate, for He is looking upon you with favor. In these Beatitudes, Jesus is saying that God wants us to be blessed, He is for us, He wants good to happen to us.
Jesus promised that those who keep the words of this “Revelation,” this “Unveiling of Jesus Christ,” will be blessed, and there’s no time to waste! I want you to enjoy God’s favor on earth while you can, Jesus is saying, because the time is drawing nigh. And here is how you can experience God’s fulfillment and deep satisfaction… keep these truths you are seeing and hearing. There are slight variations in the translations regarding the word “keep.” We see words like heed, observe, obey, lay to heart, carefully guard. The point is to personally respond to these truths in the prophecy. Don’t merely listen to the words being read, but respond to them by taking them into your life, by living in accordance with these truths. After all, these are words of the risen Christ, spoken for our benefit. Thus, these words are “entirely trustworthy and true” (Rev. 22:6). These words are a compass for our journey. We can’t go wrong if we heed these truths, if we allow them to form our thinking and our doing. This beatitude takes us back to John’s first blessing in 1:3, where he advises us to “keep these things which are written” in this prophecy. The repetition is meaningful. Jesus doesn’t want us to forget it. Don’t just hear, but hear-do. Don’t just listen, but listen-obey. As Jesus says toward the end of the Sermon on the Mount, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father in heaven.” (Matthew 7:21).