The Blessing
“‘Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.’
(Rev. 19:9)
And he said to me, ‘These are the true words of God.’”
Lately, I’ve been interested in truly understanding what the Bible means by “blessing.” As William R. Osborne explains, “True blessings, no matter the form, always lead us nearer to God, deepening our relationship with the divine giver.” So blessings may be material, spiritual, experienced in the present, or fully realized in the future, but, at their core, what makes something a blessing is that it draws us closer into relationship with the Giver, the One Who Blesses.
In my research, I came across Nancy Guthrie’s book, Blessed: Experiencing the Promise of the Book of Revelation. The book is a study of Revelation based on the seven blessings mentioned in the book. SEVEN blessings. Having essentially ignored and avoided Revelation my whole life, I only knew vaguely of its images of bloodshed, beasts, violence, judgment, and destruction. Where are the blessings in that? Perhaps the biblical idea of blessing is a far more complicated than one might have guessed.
Guthrie groups chapters 17-19 of Revelation with its blessing,
“‘Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.’ And he said to me, ‘These are the true words of God.’” (Rev. 19:9)
The Context
Just to review, the context for this blessing, chapters 17-19 of Revelation, are about “the doom of Babylon.” John, the author of Revelation, is trying to describe what he saw in a vision – what was revealed to him about how the world is and will be from the perspective of the divine realm. John, however, only has earthly words and thoughts to describe what God has shown him. As a result, the descriptions are largely symbolic. In chapters 17-19, we’re supposed to feel hopeful about what happens to “the whore” and “the beast.”
In these chapters, John describes the world as Babylon. Babylon looks like a gorgeous, drunk woman in fine clothes and covered in jewels who sits upon a beast of seven heads and ten horns. The beast represents evil. Babylon isn’t just a city, but a representation of all economies, commerce, governmental power, racism, paternalism, sexism, abuse, injustice, etc. All world systems that promote excess and inequality in the world, prosperity at the cost of poverty, immorality, the celebration of human achievement and power apart from God, indulgence and addiction, all systems of greed and manipulation and oppression. In these chapters, John sees the gruesome and definitive end of Babylon and evil. While Revelation may be largely symbolic in its images, the destruction of “the whore” and “the beast” is not a symbolic end to these complex worldly systems and the evil those systems demand and perpetuate. John witnesses the complete end of evil and all those who support, prop up, benefit from, enable, and value those systems of injustice and immorality.
All that remains after Babylon’s demise are those who have been faithful to Jesus. Those who held fast to Him and patiently endured, despite the persecution, loneliness, pain, suffering, messiness, awkwardness. The invitees are those who valued what Jesus valued, worked their work as best they could, and lived the Gospel truth. Those who spent their energy, money, and days living faithfully in Jesus are “blessed” and “invited to the marriage supper.”
The Meaning
The point is that by staying committed to Jesus in all the decisions we make, big and small, and through all the experiences forced upon us, we are prepared as a bride. We get ready for a world without sin and death by resisting Babylon and its temptations and staying faithful to Jesus’ way. Bit by bit, we let the truth that God loves us, blesses us, is with us and for us transform what we do and how we do it.
“Babylon” comes for us in many ways. And yet. We refuse to return evil for evil. We follow the way of the Lamb.
When we patiently endure and love anyways, we thwart corruption. When we grieve and suffer and struggle, we turn to God, crying out for help and trusting God to hold and eventually heal our pain and anger. We doggedly persist in gratitude and acts of generosity and kindness and forgiveness as we reject the lure of consumerism and pursue justice. We practice our faith in a million little ways, confident in joy and contentment, blessing others.
Or, at least, we try. Thankfully, the marriage is to the Lamb – the one who knows our limitations and weaknesses, has embodied them. The Lamb, slain for our sin and rising victorious over the death that evil brings, gifts us with grace. The bridegroom knows we falter and fail. We aren’t yet perfect. God knows it can feel impossible to resist evil. Sometimes, though, the hard part of faith isn’t doing what’s right but truly believing we are forgiven fully and loved completely just as we are.
We are prepared as a bride. We turn to our Lover again and again to do life together here and now. We repent, again and again. The blessing is that not only are we together now in this mess, but in the end, too, at the marriage. We trust the Lamb’s love and accept His grace, and so we are not swept away by the sins of the world around us or consumed by the sins we chose. We will be invited to supper and dressed for the wedding. Rev. 19:7c-8 (CEB) reads, “his bride has made herself ready. She was given fine, pure white linen to wear, for the fine linen is the saints’ acts of justice.” The bride is given the dress to wear. We will be deemed worthy to be known by the acts of justice that God’s own Spirit empowered us to do because our sins will have been washed away by the love of the Lamb. We will enter an intimacy that is now only glimpsed, rumored, tasted in moments. And it will be worth the wait and the work. Love and justice will be our new normal.
The Questions
Think about your roles and responsibilities. Parent. Spouse. Employee/Employer/Supervisor/Coworker. Purchaser. Owner. Neighbor. Member. Citizen. Friend. Consumer.
As you consider these realms of responsibility and influence, reflect on the following questions.
- How do I come out of Babylon — to be in the world, but not of the world? In other words, as a ______________, how does the world urge me to believe/behave and how does Jesus?
- What power do I have and how might it be used as an extension of the beast? How might I be unfaithful to Jesus as a _____________?
- In the end, we are clothed with the righteous deeds of the saints. But the dress (the righteous deeds of the saints) is given to us. We are not saved because of our good deeds, but by the grace of Jesus. We love because Christ first loved us. As we trust in the truth of that Love, the Spirit empowers us to live abundantly – to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with God. How is Christ’s righteousness evident in my life/helping me live? How am I faithful to Jesus?
These Scripture passages came to my mind as I tried to answer these questions: Romans 12:1-2, Deuteronomy 15:10-11, Luke 9:23-24, Matthew 11:28
How is this a blessing?
If the Bible’s idea of blessing is everything that draws us to the Giver, what makes the struggle to be in the world, but not of the world, a blessing?