Turn Around - Reflections on Patmos
Revelation 1:9-12a
I, John, your brother and companion in the suffering and kingdom and patient endurance that are ours in Jesus, was on the island of Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. On the Lord’s Day I was in the Spirit, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet, which said: “Write on a scroll what you see and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea.” I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me…
John…the last of the original disciples…exiled to an island because of his faith in Jesus. It’s hard to imagine what that must have been like for this man who had so longed preached and taught about the love of Jesus. To be exiled to this place, far from everything he knew and everyone he loved. Today, this place is commonly known as one of the best places in Europe to live, but in the first century, this was a place of punishment, banishment, exile.
Exile is a time when we typically feel alone, forsaken. Maybe we think of the children of Israel, feeling forsaken by God when the Babylonians and the Assyrians took them far from their home. Or maybe we hear the cry of Jesus on the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Or you might even think of a time in your own life when it seemed like God had forgotten you, that you were all alone. She walked out. He abandoned you. God didn’t come through the way you thought he ought to. Exile comes to all of us at some point or another. John is in exile, on Patmos.
And yet, it’s here where he has his most profound experience of Jesus aside from those days (which must have seemed to be a long time ago, another lifetime) when he walked with Jesus in Galilee. Here, on this small island, Jesus was with him and reminded him of that in a profound way. What he experienced he tried to write down in the book we know as Revelation. So many people today try to take the book of Revelation and nail it down as a map of the end times or a road to apocalypse when, in reality, the book itself tells us what it’s about. It’s a “revelation from Jesus Christ,” meant to encourage exiles, people who are undergoing persecution and hurt, by reminding us who Jesus is and that he is with them—and us.
But to fully experience that presence, John had to do something. He says he was “in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day” when he heard a voice behind him. Now, let’s put aside what a “voice like a trumpet” might sound like. Let’s even put aside how he could “see a voice.” I’m struck by what John had to do in order to hear, to see, to fully experience the presence of Jesus. He had to “turn around.” He had to do a 180. He was facing the wrong direction, looking in all the wrong places!
What do you think his state of mind would have been like as an exile? Worried? Upset? Perhaps even a bit depressed? What do we get like when we feel exiled or alone? It’s really easy to focus only on our own troubles, our own problems. We can get so focused on what’s wrong that it’s easy to forget the one who makes it all right. I remember a time when I was going through some difficult things, some things going on in life and at the church that just weren’t right. Nothing seemed to be adding up, and though I got up and went into the office, I was looking down most of the time, consumed with my own thoughts, my own troubles. It was well into the afternoon when I happened to look out the window by my desk and I noticed that the sun was shining. Yeah, I know that's not a huge revelation, but for me, in the darkness of my own world at that time, that simple observation changed everything. The sun had kept shining, even though I hadn’t noticed it!
I think that’s part of what Patmos reminds us: even in exile, Jesus is still present and is still working. In fact, as I told my congregation the Sunday before we left for the trip, when it seems like we’re alone, God is still there, still present, still working. In fact, God is often doing his best work in our hearts during those times, preparing us for what comes next. All we have to do is turn around, and see the one who has been with us all the time. Patmos reminds us of the one who is, who was and who is to come. It is not a place of exile; it is a place of hope, because in that place, above all else, Jesus came and reminded his friend John that he was with him. He’ll do the same for us. Let’s pray.
I, John, your brother and companion in the suffering and kingdom and patient endurance that are ours in Jesus, was on the island of Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. On the Lord’s Day I was in the Spirit, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet, which said: “Write on a scroll what you see and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea.” I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me…
John…the last of the original disciples…exiled to an island because of his faith in Jesus. It’s hard to imagine what that must have been like for this man who had so longed preached and taught about the love of Jesus. To be exiled to this place, far from everything he knew and everyone he loved. Today, this place is commonly known as one of the best places in Europe to live, but in the first century, this was a place of punishment, banishment, exile.
Exile is a time when we typically feel alone, forsaken. Maybe we think of the children of Israel, feeling forsaken by God when the Babylonians and the Assyrians took them far from their home. Or maybe we hear the cry of Jesus on the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Or you might even think of a time in your own life when it seemed like God had forgotten you, that you were all alone. She walked out. He abandoned you. God didn’t come through the way you thought he ought to. Exile comes to all of us at some point or another. John is in exile, on Patmos.
And yet, it’s here where he has his most profound experience of Jesus aside from those days (which must have seemed to be a long time ago, another lifetime) when he walked with Jesus in Galilee. Here, on this small island, Jesus was with him and reminded him of that in a profound way. What he experienced he tried to write down in the book we know as Revelation. So many people today try to take the book of Revelation and nail it down as a map of the end times or a road to apocalypse when, in reality, the book itself tells us what it’s about. It’s a “revelation from Jesus Christ,” meant to encourage exiles, people who are undergoing persecution and hurt, by reminding us who Jesus is and that he is with them—and us.
But to fully experience that presence, John had to do something. He says he was “in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day” when he heard a voice behind him. Now, let’s put aside what a “voice like a trumpet” might sound like. Let’s even put aside how he could “see a voice.” I’m struck by what John had to do in order to hear, to see, to fully experience the presence of Jesus. He had to “turn around.” He had to do a 180. He was facing the wrong direction, looking in all the wrong places!
What do you think his state of mind would have been like as an exile? Worried? Upset? Perhaps even a bit depressed? What do we get like when we feel exiled or alone? It’s really easy to focus only on our own troubles, our own problems. We can get so focused on what’s wrong that it’s easy to forget the one who makes it all right. I remember a time when I was going through some difficult things, some things going on in life and at the church that just weren’t right. Nothing seemed to be adding up, and though I got up and went into the office, I was looking down most of the time, consumed with my own thoughts, my own troubles. It was well into the afternoon when I happened to look out the window by my desk and I noticed that the sun was shining. Yeah, I know that's not a huge revelation, but for me, in the darkness of my own world at that time, that simple observation changed everything. The sun had kept shining, even though I hadn’t noticed it!
I think that’s part of what Patmos reminds us: even in exile, Jesus is still present and is still working. In fact, as I told my congregation the Sunday before we left for the trip, when it seems like we’re alone, God is still there, still present, still working. In fact, God is often doing his best work in our hearts during those times, preparing us for what comes next. All we have to do is turn around, and see the one who has been with us all the time. Patmos reminds us of the one who is, who was and who is to come. It is not a place of exile; it is a place of hope, because in that place, above all else, Jesus came and reminded his friend John that he was with him. He’ll do the same for us. Let’s pray.
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