The Crown Of Life Awaits

Some say the Greek word for myrrh (smyrna - Matt. 2:11) supplied the name for the second city to which John's Revelation is addressed. In ancient times myrrh was the chief export of that city.  It had been around for hundreds of years, first as a Greek city and later as one of the principal cities of the Roman province of Asia. To the believers in Smyrna, John writes in the name of Christ,

"And to the angel of the church in Smyrna write: 'The words of the first and the last, who died and came to life. "'I know your tribulation and your poverty (but you are rich) and the slander of those who say that they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and for ten days you will have tribulation. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who conquers will not be hurt by the second death.' - Rev 2:8-11 ESV

The believers in Smyrna suffered tribulation, poverty and blasphemy. Jesus warned that believers will ever face such trials. He calls wars, famines and earthquakes the beginning of the birth pains. Added to them, He says, will be people falling from the faith, betraying and even hating one another. False prophets will also arise to lead many astray. Lawlessness, the rejection of God's revealed way of life, and a cold, calloused attitude toward believers will be part of the last days. But these are birth pains. Painful as they are, they are signs that Christ's return is imminent (Matt. 24:3-25). When He returns to judge all mankind the true children of God will be revealed and all will be made new forever (Rev. 21:5).

Already even now the Holy Spirit is at work in the hearts of believers, renewing them in the image and likeness of the Lord Himself. Paul writes,

For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised. From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. - 2Co 5:14-17 ESV

This is what we still observe. Wherever the Gospel is proclaimed, the Spirit re-creates men and women. They are literally new creations. They are no longer controlled by their sinful flesh, but begin to live for him who died and was raised. This Gospel is God's means of bringing His undeserved grace into the lives of believers.

Jesus Himself is called here the first and the last, a name already coined by John in the first chapter when he used the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet to describe Jesus as the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come (Rev. 1:8, 17-18). So we are all comforted as we remember that all is in His hands. When Israel was released by Pharaoh in the days of the Exodus, the Egyptian king changed his mind and sent his army after them. To calm Israel's fears Moses said,

"Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will work for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again." - Exo 14:13 ESV

We all need such strong words of comfort as we are persecuted. The LORD permits such trials so that our faith may be tested (Rom.5:3).

In turn, those persecuting the believers in Smyrna were called those who say that they are Jews and are not, but a synagogue of Satan. The Apostle Paul spoke also of false Jews, those who failed to see circumcision as a matter of the heart, but merely as an outward ritual. They relied upon their outward keeping of the Law. True believers, true Jews, always see circumcision as a "putting off of the body of the flesh," as being buried with Christ in baptism and raised with Him through faith in the God who also raised Jesus from the dead (Col. 2:12; Rom 6:3-5).

Moses admonished Israel in the same way in his final words. In days to come, he said, if they again abandoned their faith in the LORD who graciously brought them to the promised land. When they fell again into such a religion, based upon outward rituals, the LORD would again have to bring upon them the curses described earlier, curses like those that came upon Sodom and Gomorrah when "the whole land burned out with brimstone and salt, nothing sown and nothing growing" and no plant could sprout (Deut 29:23 ESV).

In the same way the LORD speaks to all believers in these final days, not only those in Smyrna. The LORD will permit Satan to throw them into prison and even to kill them. They will be tested. Do they trust only in the LORD? Do they understand that ultimately the devil cannot harm them? Do they realize that tribulation will only be for ten days? All of God's commands are summarized in the Ten Commandments (Exod 20:1-17). Ten plagues came upon Egypt before Pharaoh set Israel free (Exod 7-11). Ten nations conspired against Israel, laying crafty plans against God's people (Ps. 83:3-8).  But this is the constant message: the LORD is in control. The nations cannot prevail against Him. The LORD laughs at them as He puts limits on the devil and those who serve him.

Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD and against his Anointed, saying, "Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us." He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision. - Psa 2:1-4 ESV

So the Spirit, through John, concludes with added words of comfort. Their enemies may destroy their bodies, but they will not be hurt by the second death, the lake of fire that has no power over those who have died and risen again with Christ (Rev. 20:6, 14; 21:8).  They have already died spiritually and risen again. They cannot therefore ever die again. What awaits them is the crown of life, life that has already begun in them when they were raised with Christ to newness of life. The crown of that life is the resurrection of the body (1 Cor 15:19-26). So the final word to the believers in Smyrna and to all believers in all places and all times:

Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who conquers will not be hurt by the second death.' - Rev 2:10-11 ESV

The Circumcision Of Jesus

The Christmas celebration for believers continues well beyond December 25, all the way to January 6 when Eastern Orthodox Christians celebrate Christ's birth and western Christians the coming of the Magi. The appointed Gospel for the First Sunday of the Christmas celebration is Luke 2:22-40. This text is all about Jesus' and Mary's purification and the family's encounter with two devout seniors who lived in Jerusalem and spent their days at the Temple. Let's start with Jesus' circumcision and its meaning for us now two thousand years later.

And at the end of eight days, when he was circumcised, he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb. Luke 2:21 ESV

The reference is to Genesis 17:1-14 and Leviticus 12:3, the law about a boy child's circumcision. All this seems remote and strange to us. In fact not all Christian parents have their sons circumcised. The American Academy of Pediatrics, for example, does not recommend it as a routine procedure for newborn male babies. Nor are believers spiritually bound by such rules since the coming of Christ. The Apostle Paul writes about about circumcision as it was connected to God's mystery, now revealed in Christ:

Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority. 

In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him. Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance (i.e. soma in Gk. = body) belongs to Christ. - Col 2:6-17 ESV

The organ of generation, that bodily part by which the LORD God brings children into the world, that organ had a sign connected to it since the days of Abraham. The foreskin was removed on the eighth day after birth as a sign of the covenant the LORD made with Abraham and all his descendants. For the rest of his life every male was unavoidably reminded of this covenant. Like the rainbow (Gen. 9:12-13), this sign pointed to the fact that God mysteriously and graciously chose Abraham's children as His own. Both a man and his wife were reminded of this covenant when they had intercourse. They belonged to the LORD and so did the children the LORD would create through that intercourse. This is also why Moses called upon the Israelites to "circumcise the foreskin of your heart". The LORD of heaven and earth in love chose them above all people, not because of their numbers or their goodness. He chose them out of His own grace and mercy (Deut. 7:7-8; Psalms 115:1). Consequently they were to remove anything that hindered them from devoting themselves to the LORD and His plans for their lives.

In Jesus' day the Jews had typically distorted that meaning of circumcision. They turned it into yet another way by which they were gaining the LORD's favor. They made it a good work they performed to show how devoted they were. It had become what Paul calls a "human tradition." Away with this, says Paul. Circumcision and all the other laws about food and drink, festivals and a Sabbath are but shadows. They served a purpose for believers in the days of the old covenant. But those days have come to an end. Christ is the body that cast a shadow in former days. But now he is present and has completed his work. He has taken us and our sins with him to the cross. He paid our debts. They were once and for all eternity set aside, nailed to the cross. So we are free from guilt, shame and sin. We died with Christ and rose again. This is the message of our baptism. And this is also why all those rules and laws no longer apply to us.

And yet Jesus was circumcised on the eighth day. Why? So that it might be clear he was identified completely with God's chosen people, even as he has declared himself now to be the Savior of all, both Jews and Gentiles. What a wonder and what a wonderful reason to celebrate Christmas.