[MINOR CAPTAIN MARVEL SPOILER AHEAD. YOU SHOULD GO SEE IT. ]
Observation: Oh, boy. It's Tuesday after Easter, I'm drinking extra espresso just to get ready to dive back into ministry, and for devotions, here comes... Revelation. The observation I have about this text today is that despite the vivid, cosmic imagery, which many smarter readers than I have spent years trying to unravel, the point of the passage, and of the whole letter, is so, so simple. You'll find it in verse 11. "They have conquered him [the evil dragon/accuser/Satan] with the blood of the Lamb and the words of their testimony, for they did not cling to life even in the face of death." John has many, many words about how God is dealing with the cosmic forces of evil, and the human forces of oppression in this world. But as to what ordinary Christians should do in response, just three words: hang in there.
Application: Yesterday I finally got to see Captain Marvel, and it was so worth the wait. Carol Danvers is one of the biggest, baddest, 90's-raddest superheroes yet to inhabit the Marvel Cinematic Universe. She's loyal, gifted, persistent, strong, and it doesn't hurt that she has Superman-level powers to quickly dispatch most any evildoer. Reading Revelation this morning, I couldn't help thinking the Archangel Michael could do a lot worse than to have Captain Marvel on his team. Shoot, I'd pay to see it. I guess for now, Avengers: Endgame will have to do.
A defining scene in the movie, though, comes during the final battle as she is just discovering her immense power. The villain makes a pretty standard villain speech, challenging Carol to single combat, no powers allowed, to "prove her worth" or some such ridiculous gas-lighting nonsense. In a deliciously Raiders of the Lost Ark moment, scarcely are the words out of his mouth when she blasts him into barbecued villain-chops, and walks over to calmly inform him:
"I have nothing to prove to you."
The point of my little MCU tie-in today, though it may be a stretch, is this: reading a cosmic book like Revelation, Christians may sometimes be tempted to go all out on our special effects budget--to "prove" the truth of our faith in huge, grand gestures, lily-filled naves, trumpets, tympani, "pulling out all the stops" on our pipe organs (That's literally where the expression comes from)--but as big of a story as Revelation is, its point is quite different. We have nothing to prove to the "dragons" of our culture: to consumerism, militarism, imperialism, triumphalism, or any other idol of our present age. We don't need to match power with power, spectacle with spectacle...and these days, the fact is we really can't. Brie Larson is not going to come star in your Easter pageant anytime soon, and she doesn't need to. The kind of power that shows forth at Easter, the power John lifts up in Revelation, is lamb power: The power to share your story unflinchingly, to tell the truth to the world, no matter what the consequences, and to know that the truth will overcome the most awful atrocities the world can inflict. In Jesus, the Lamb of God, it already has. The tomb is empty, life has triumphed, and we, God's people, have nothing to prove. Our super-power is faith: the faith to do our little bit, to speak our truth no matter what, one day at a time, and leave the rest to God.
Prayer: God, thank you for the super-power of faith. Help us to use it to its full effect, in hard times and even more so in easy times, when we would otherwise be tempted to forget you. In the name of Jesus, the Lamb of God, Amen.
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