Jeanie C. Crain http://crain.english.missouriwestern.edu
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Jeanie C. Crain http://crain.english.missouriwestern.edu
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http://www.pacificcoast.net/~muck/rev/revmap.html
Chapter three of Revelation completes the letters to the seven churches and picks up an important theological point concerning an open door of opportunity. The NRSV ends the first of seven parallel divisions at 3: 22, the end of the seven letters. The church of Sardis was outwardly flourishing, but not without serious damage to its spiritual life. Philadelphia, on the other hand, was a city where Christians were isolated in the community; but the church had remained faithful. At Laodicea the church seemed to be flourishing, but was spiritually poor. (See Map 14:E3.) The Open Door 3.8 reads of Philadelphia, "I know your works. Look, I have set before you an open door, which no one is able to shut." The very important theological point made by the image is that the door of the Holy One is not shut by human beings; no one "is able to shut" it. That human beings are capable of closing another door, that to their own inner selves, is farther made clear in 3.20: "Listen! I am standing at the door knocking; if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to you and eat with you and you with me." When John resumes his message and vision, he begins in chapter four with "After this, I looked and there in heaven a door stood open!" John is invited to come up and be told what must take place. Results of Bible search on "door." (pdf file 4.5 Acrobat) Before leaving chapter three and the seven churches, the reader may want to review the descriptive phrases used for the risen Lord:
One needs to remember the seven stars are the seven angels of the seven churches (seven lamp stands). Jesus is then holding the angels in His preferred right hand while walking among the churches; His words are the first and the last of the resurrected Christ; He has the Word, the two-edged sword, the words of the Son of God, His words. He has the fullness of God and the churches; He is holy, true King, who opens and no one shuts, who shuts and no one opens; so be the words of Jesus, Amen, who is the faithful and true witness, the origin of God's creation. This is Christian theology in a nutshell. The Christian Church The Oxford Companion in discussing symbols points out that "In Judaism and Christianity certain symbols are drawn from their historical and cultural backgrounds. Thus, circumcision is the sign of entrance into the community for Jews, as baptism is for Christians. The seven-branched lamp stand or menorah used in the Temple can symbolize the Jewish community, while the cross can stand for the Christian community." I find it interesting that the writer of Revelation keeps the lamp stands and the same number as symbol of the Christian community. |
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