Holy Saturday and The Millennium

The rhetorical strategy that John utilizes in Revelation is one that encourages readers of the Apocalypse to locate themselves within the text. 

Those reading the work are invited not only to identify themselves as various characters within the narrative,  but also to find their circumstances reflected in the imagery that John constructs. 

Thus John’s first audience could equate their own experiences of suffering and martyrdom with those of Jesus the slain Lamb, while finding their hope of resurrection expressed through the continued existence of the Lamb on the throne. 

Some of John’s audience may have found themselves suffering the betrayal of Maundy Thursday, or the fear of Good Friday morning, or they may have seen others join Jesus on the cross through a martyrs death. 

In its invitation to identify with Jesus, Revelation therefore encourages its audience to interpret their own lives according to the lived example of Jesus himself, with the events of the cross becoming real in their lives.

A way to understand John’s imagery of the millennium and the subsequent release of Satan is to read it in the light of the crucifixion story. The audience are invited to locate themselves in the space of Easter Saturday, awaiting resurrection and restoration, confidently hopeful, but still living with the present pain of Friday’s grief and horror. 

By this reading, the martyrs have departed the present life of suffering and gone to vindication (20.1–7), and Satan’s hold on the world has been broken through the sacrificial deaths of both Jesus and the martyrs. However, in the present experience of John’s audience, Satan is still loose in the world making war on the dwelling places of the saints. 

In this way, the Easter weekend can be seen as a paradigm for reading the story of the Church as presented in Revelation 20.1–10. The following table expresses these correspondences:

Crucifixion narrative                          Revelation Ch. 20

Death of Jesus                                  Martyrdom of believers

Victory over Satan on the cross          Binding of Satan in the pit

Easter Saturday                                  Release of Satan ‘for a little while’

Resurrection                                 Final judgement and new creation

For more, see Simon Woodman, The Book of Revelation, SCM, 2008.

Everlasting to everlasting

Everlasting to everlasting;

eternity to eternity;

moment by moment.

Life is a mystery of being,

a constant quest for meaning.

Tired old bones struggle onwards

while the spirit leaps to new heights.

Faith grows stronger even as it dies,

and hope will not quiet down.

And in all this, love persists,

hunting each second

and bringing home it's quarry.

A Blessing

May God the three-in-one, who binds us together in community as one body, fire us by the Spirit, inspire us to live the life of the Son, and indwell us with the love of the Father; this day and for evermore.

Prayers of Intercession – The Body of Christ

Great God of the whole earth, you call us to be your body. And so today, as your body gathered in this place, we offer our whole selves to your service. May we be knit together by your Spirit, so that our common life reflects your calling and your will.

Direct our thoughts, words, and deeds in ways that make real in this world the eternal truth of your coming kingdom.

Teach our eyes to see the world as you see it, rather than as the world wants to be seen. May we learn to see through the insidious propaganda that so readily dominates human relationships from the interpersonal to the international. May we learn that the ‘other’ is also a child of God, as deeply loved and valued as we are ourselves. From the abstract refugee, migrant, and asylum seeker, to the person we find most difficult in our day to day lives, may we discover you in those we fear. And so we pray for those who help us to see. We pray for journalists, for the opinion formers, for politicians, and for bloggers. We thank you for fearless truth telling, and we pray for integrity for all those who show others what to believe. We thank you for the freedom of speech that we enjoy in this country, and we ask for your wisdom as we discern where we should direct our own eyes. May we look not only to our own interests, but also to the interests of others.

And as we have seen, so we must do. Teach us, living Lord, where we should take our stand. May we be released from the compulsion to aggressively defend our own territory, and instead may we learn what it means to stand on justice and righteousness and truth. As the firm ground of our certainties shifts beneath us, may we learn how to walk new paths of collaboration and cooperation. So we pray for our traditional enemies, for those who we instinctively stand against, and we ask that in the new world of your Spirit, enemies may become friends reaching out across borders previously uncrossed. And so we pray for Israel and Palestine, and for Syria and Iraq, and for the countries of Europe. May peace and justice and righteousness prevail. We pray also for those who take their stand on issues of moral or theological certainty, and in so doing exclude others from your love. Grand us again a vision of your universal kingdom which recognises no divisions and transcends all borders.

And as we negotiate the changing territory of the world, we pray that you will direct our actions. May the works of our hands be acceptable in your sight. May we build friendships and not enmities. May we reach out in love and acceptance to those whom others would push away. May we become your body, extending a welcome to all, in your name; bringing food to the hungry, clothing to the naked, and healing to the sick. May our hands be generous in your service, releasing our time, talents and money to the service of your kingdom. So we pray for all those with whom we partner as we reach out to the vulnerable and hurting of this world. We commit to our care and guidance our relationships with BMS World Mission, Christian Aid, and the Amos Trust, who extend our reach around the glove, and also more locally the work of London Citizens, the Simon Community, the C4WS night shelter, and the Green Light team. Great God of us all, teach us to live in love, to stand in hope, and to act with justice.

For the sake of your kingdom. Amen.