Revelation 19:11-16 Pastor Nathan P. Kassulke
Easter Sunday, April 12, 2020 “Victory!”
What does victory look like to you? Perhaps, when you hear the word victory, you picture in your mind the 1997 College Basketball Championships and the Arizona Wildcats cutting down the nets in celebration of winning it all. I suppose there are other teams that might come to mind as well. Or maybe you picture a different sport and it’s the Super Bowl trophy being handed to the team in the crowded stadium, confetti floating down all around them. That’s what victory looks like. It looks like high fives and hugs and pats on the back. Others might think of more personal victories: getting a promotion or an award, one of your children winning a spelling bee or getting a good grade on a project. Or maybe, you hear “victory” and you think about the king who has gone out with his army and is marching back, having conquered his enemies. He sits high on his horse and leads his army as they wave to those who welcome them home as victors. That’s what victory looks like, isn’t it? What about this? Is this what victory looks like? Does victory look like an empty church? Does it look like a family tired of sitting around at home and watching a worship service on a television or a computer screen or a tablet or a phone? Does victory look like putting on a mask to head out to the grocery store or the pharmacy and staying as far away as possible from everyone else you see there? Does it look like more empty shelves than you have ever seen before? Does it look like having to worry about job security or survival for businesses? That doesn’t sound like victory. In the same way, victory would not look like a small band of women trudging toward a tomb on an early Sunday morning with spices to use to wrap the body there. They thought it was the right thing to do because he, their friend and teacher and guide had been buried in such a hurry that Friday. It would be good to do a better job, but doing a better job wouldn’t be a victory. Victory wouldn’t look like being swallowed by a large fish, what happened to Jonah. A storm had battered the ship in which Jonah was trying to flee from what God had told him to do. Since Jonah knew he was the cause of the storm, he had told the men how to stop it, “Throw me overboard.” That sounds like defeat, not victory. One more example. Victory wouldn’t look like the dearly beloved disciple of Jesus, John, exiled, imprisoned on an island because the leaders and rulers didn’t want him to talk about Jesus anymore. It wouldn’t look like his fellow Christians being actively persecuted and at constant risk of falling away. That’s not victory, but it is what happened just a few decades after Jesus’ death. And that is exactly why God came to John in a unique way on the island of Patmos, and why he allowed John to see a vision. God gave John a glimpse past what things might look like so that he could see what they really are. And John wrote down the vision so that his fellow believers at that time and for centuries later could look at the same vision and see how things really have been, and how they really are, and how they really will be. And that is also why we have a sermon text before us this Easter Sunday that might not be the sort of text you expect for this special holy day. This is just a small portion of what John saw from his island exile and that by God’s direction he wrote down for your encouragement and mine. This is Revelation 19:11-16. I saw heaven standing open, and there was a white horse! Its rider is called Faithful and True, and he judges and makes war in righteousness. 12 His eyes are like blazing flames, and on his head are many crowns. He has a name written on him, which no one knows except he himself. 13 He is also clothed in a garment that had been dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God. 14 The armies in heaven, which were clothed with white, clean, fine linen, were following him on white horses. 15 Out of his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. He will shepherd them with an iron staff. He himself is going to trample the winepress of the fierce anger of the
Almighty God. 16 On his garment and on his thigh this name is written: King of Kings and Lord of Lords. John saw many great and amazing things in his vision, and people have read the book of Revelation with all its symbolism and unique imagery and have come up with a lot of different and strange ideas about exactly what it means. We are going to be careful not to do that. We will approach this brief section like we do all of the book, recognizing that it is a portion of God’s Word that will not contradict any other portion. Indeed, Revelation builds on themes that the rest of the Bible also proclaim, and ultimately it tells us in no uncertain terms about victory. It talks about a victory that we so desperately needed. We see how much we need this victory as we consider all those things in our lives that seem like defeat and not victory. All of the sad and painful and difficult things that affect us. I’ve already mentioned the empty church, but I have no doubt that you could come up with other examples. Many, if not most, of those examples would have nothing to do with a pandemic either. Suffering is a part of our lives even without it. People are mean to each other. Bad things happen even to good people. Illnesses take their toll. Loved ones pass away. These things look like defeat. Go ahead and think about an example like that from your life. And then ask why. Why did something like that happen? Maybe it happened because of something that you did. Maybe it happened because someone else did it to you. Maybe it is the result of all sorts of circumstances outside of your control or you can’t really trace a cause at all. Well, you can always trace the cause all the way back to our ancestors Adam and Eve who faced a battle with the devil in their perfect paradise home. And they lost. They sinned. They listened to Satan instead of to God, and the world was never the same. And the world not perfectly fitting together, the world not operating in the perfect way in which God created it ultimately explains all the suffering that we see around us and that we experience ourselves. But before we just blame Adam and Eve for being defeated, we also have to stop to realize that we have been defeated in the same way. Satan has whispered his temptations in our ears, and we have listened to them instead of to God. We lost the battle, and we keep on losing it every time we don’t put God first and every time we love ourselves more than we love others. That message is a part of John’s vision, too. He sees a rider on a white horse. And though he is described in many interesting ways, it is clear that he is Jesus. And he is called here “Faithful and True.” His eyes are like blazing flames. Blazing flames for eyes tells us that he sees. He sees even the things that we would rather he not see. And these verses talk about him trampling the winepress of the fierce anger of God and striking down nations. It would be very easy to find defeat in these verses. On our own we have made ourselves God’s enemies and we have deserved the worst that he could do to us, the harshest punishment possible. We need a victory, but on our own we have only defeat. But that is why we look to this rider of the white horse. He does not appear in the vision to judge John. He does not appear in the vision to judge you and me—at least not to punish us. He comes to proclaim victory. The scene here sounds like the one I described earlier where a victorious king parades back from battle leading his triumphant army with him. That’s exactly what this scene is. The rider is on a white horse and is followed by an army of riders in white clothing on white horses. This is purity and holiness. This is Jesus and his angels. And he is not going out to a battle. He is already victorious. His clothing is stained from the blood of his conquered enemies. This is the one who has won the battle for us. This is the one who has secured victory. That showdown with the devil that people lost and that people have been losing ever since? Jesus stepped into that battle, and he won. He became one of us so that he could face those temptations and defeat them. He became one of us so that he could face the devil and defeat him. He became one of us so that he could face death itself and defeat it. He rode into Jerusalem not on a white horse but on a donkey. At that time he was not seen with hundreds and thousands of angels, but with a few disciples. And even
though he has always had the power to rule the universe, even though he has always been almighty God, he allowed himself to be arrested and beaten and tortured and killed on a cross. He allowed his lifeless body to be laid in a tomb. And pause there again and ask, does this look like victory? Of course it did not. But that is exactly what it was. It was a pure and holy and innocent and perfect life given up for you and for me. It was the very Son of God, God himself, slain for the sins of his own people. The punishment for our sins was laid on him so that by his wounds we are healed. And in that moment that looked like the worst defeat of all, we find the victory over Satan, and the victory over hell, and the victory over death. Because Jesus is alive. The grave did not hold him. And so Jesus could appear to John multiple times over in his vision. We can see him alive in these verses from Revelation. He is the victor. He won the victory for us, and that means that the victory is ours forever. I said earlier that verses like the ones in front of us from Revelation tell us how things are and how things will be. That is true not only for how things will be over our lifetimes or in the next several years or several centuries should God allow this world to last that long. God tells us in verses like these how things will be forever. Our living Lord Jesus leads his heavenly army just as he will on Judgment Day. He will bring wrath to those who have rejected him. He will bring judgment on the nations. But he will welcome all those who believe in him into his eternal kingdom. He is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, and many commentators appropriately note that this does not just mean that he is the greatest of kings or lords, but that he includes us, his people in his kingdom. He is the King over those whom he has made to be kings with him. He is Lord over those who will rule with him. This is the promise of his Easter victory: we will live and reign with him forever! So what does victory look like? It looks like Jonah, who was cast toward his certain death in the sea being rescued by the great fish and singing his praises to God from inside the creature before being deposited safely back on land. Victory looks like coming to the tomb early on Sunday morning fully expecting it to be full but finding it empty except for angels who say, “Look. This is where he was. His grave cloths are still here, but he is not. He is alive!” Victory looks like the aged believer being spared from months of loneliness in a quarantined retirement home by being taken to his Savior’s side. Victory looks like the cancer patient who can confidently say, “I know that no matter how this turns out, I will be fine. I will either be blessed with more time with my family and friends, or I will be with my Lord.” Victory looks like Christians all over southern Arizona, and in other parts of the country and in other parts of the world who are going to do what they can to hear this message of a risen Savior and to share that message with others. Victory looks like not panicking or worrying, but trusting that God will always take care of us. No empty church can take that away from us. No disease can defeat us. Victory looks like an empty tomb that loudly proclaims: He is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! Amen.