A great multitude...

These days it is so difficult to watch the news or listen to the radio. The whole world feels like it’s falling apart, like everyone is divided.

I listen to one of those phone-in radio shows when I’m in the car and hear people argue as they call in to share their different opinions and political beliefs.

Currently the whole world is focused on the conflict in Israel and Palestine.

Yesterday there were marches across the globe, 40 marches in the UK, including in Newcastle, with protesters calling for a ceasefire.

There have been clashes on the street between Pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli protesters. Some people were arrested for inciting hatred and today promises to bring bigger protests with more planned for next weekend.

This ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas-governed Palestine over a historically and religiously significant land has the power to divide nations, communities and friendship groups.

In these times it can feel as though no one is speaking the same language. That the multitude of different people groups, the diversity of opinion, politics, religions and ethnicity, can only lead to division, fighting and trouble in our world.

But in this morning’s passage from the book of Revelation, we see an incredible picture that turns this view upside down.

John shares his vision of a staggering number of people, from every nation, tribe and language. A multitude of people that is impossible to count. This massive crowd seemingly have so many differences between them that could be a source of division and hostility. But the emphasis in this passage is on what they have in common.

• They are standing before God’s throne and before Jesus, the Lamb of God after coming out of a great ordeal.

• They are wearing identical white robes, which we are later told they have washed in the blood of the Lamb.

• They are holding palm branches in their hands.

• And, despite the fact that there are so many languages being spoken, they are all speaking the same message – the language of worship. They cry out in a loud voice, saying “Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!”

Now, the book of Revelation is full of symbolism and powerful visions. It is very complicated and hard to understand as it leaps from past to present to future events in seemingly random order. And yet, each vision is disclosing and revealing something of God’s plan.

John’s description of this great multitude of people reveals many things to the reader through the symbolism included there. Is there anything that we can uncover in this passage today, this All Saints Sunday?

Well, I feel that this passage reveals who we are and who we will be. Because this great multitude are the Saints, past, present and future, who have lived their lives and entered into God’s presence.

Yes, these people are all different, coming from different cultures, different nations, and different centuries, but they are all equal before God. A reminder that all people are precious to God, and no tribe or background is exempt from His love. The message of the Gospel is inherently opposed to racism.

Each person standing there before God’s throne has had to wash their robes. The white robes symbolise the removal of their sins. Fabrics are not white in their natural state. They need to be bleached and their natural colours stripped away. And this vision reveals that no one is able to stand before the throne of God in their natural sinful state. We need to be washed in the blood of the sacrificed Lamb so that the stain of our sin can be removed.

Finally, the multitude are holding palm branches in their hands. The Palm branch is a symbol of victory, triumph, peace and eternal life. These people, these Saints, have triumphed. They have come through the great ordeal of life and emerged into a peaceful place, in the presence of God. They are in a place of shelter where there is no more hunger, suffering, a place where every tear will be wiped from their eyes.

They are promised that they will have shelter because the Lamb at the centre of the throne will be their Shepherd. Jesus is not just our sacrificial lamb who can clean away our sins and protect us from the Judgement, but here in Revelations we are reminded that He is our Shepherd. The one that will lead us into God’s Kingdom.

Jesus, the lamb and the Shepherd, offers to clean our robes, to cleanse the stain of our sins from us. To qualify us to stand in God’s presence, before the throne, with the great multitude in Revelations.

In the sermon on the mount in today’s Gospel reading, Jesus is in Shepherd mode, describing the route we may pass through in this great ordeal of life.

He describes the different emotions and experiences we humans go through in life. He points out those who are poor in spirit, people who recognise that they struggle with sins. He refers to the times of mourning we will go through when we lose our health, our jobs, or the people we love. The times we will need to forgive when we have been hurt and betrayed. The times we will face conflicts in our homes, workplaces, church families and communities, and will need to do the difficult work of being a peacemaker.

Jesus’ sermon gives us a map of how we are to go through life’s journey.

And yet, as always, God doesn’t just tell us in words, He allows the Word to become flesh so we can see an example of this life journey lived out. This sermon is more than just a list, it also reveals Jesus as Shepherd, guiding us along the path He trod. The path that He knows all those who follow Him will also have to walk through.

Although Jesus didn’t sin, He endured temptation while on earth, like all of us who are poor in spirit. He mourned the loss of close relationships, weeping when he heard of Lazarus’ death. He was persecuted for righteousness sake and sentenced to die on a cross even though He was innocent of any crime.

He tells us that we, who join our lives to His and accept Him as Lamb and Saviour, will be reviled, persecuted and falsely accused for our faith in Him. But at the same time he gives us and all the Saints in John’s vision, hope. He calls us blessed and encourages us to rejoice and be glad because He promises us that we, the prophets and saints who came before us, will stand before God’s throne in that great multitude of believers, too many to number.

And how can we be encouraged today, as we look around our divided nation, our divided and broken communities, our divided world? How can we take hope in this great ordeal of life? When we see racial, political and religious polarisation on the rise. When politicians are pitting the homeless and the desperate against each other and cruelty towards the ‘other’ is encouraged?

Maybe we need to look at each other, and those we feel are our polar opposites whether that’s politically, culturally, spiritually, or whatever. We can hold on to the picture in Revelations and see ourselves before the throne of God alongside every nation and tribe, past, present and future.

And remember that the love of the Father for all humanity is that we should be called children of God. That is what we are. That is what they are. We are equally loved and equally in need of the blood of the Lamb to wash us clean from sin.

We have equal access to God as the Psalmist who knew he could “call in his affliction and the Lord would hear him and save him from his troubles.” We have been invited with all humanity to “taste and see that the Lord is good;… to trust in Him and seek Him…” in this great ordeal of life.

So let us follow the teachings and example of Jesus, our Lamb and our Shepherd, and seek to share this hope we have in God with everyone we encounter as we journey through life; so that we too can join the multitude of Saints – in this life and the next, blessing the Lord at all times and saying, “Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!”