“Teleos!” my Greek friend exclaimed when he saw my Camp Tallowood shirt. I explained that it came from our study of Revelation. “Have you been to Patmos?” he inquired. “No,” I confessed with disappointment. “I have been there,” he said with a smile. “That is where John saw Jesus.” I have since been to Greece, but still not to the island of Patmos. To be clear, John was there in exile, not on vacation. On the Lord’s Day, he saw Jesus in great glory. John surely remembered a glimpse of glory on the Mount of Transfiguration. But this was different. He wanted to see Jesus because he needed to see Jesus.
Would we know Jesus if we saw him today? We have the familiar pictures from our children’s Bibles and Vacation Bible School pictures. We could pick him out of a lineup, couldn’t we? We might be surprised at how ordinary Jesus looked during his earthly pilgrimage. If we saw Jesus as he looks today, we would undoubtedly know him! John knew Jesus well, but he was unprepared for the glorified Jesus. Listen to his description, “The hair on his head was white like wool, as white as snow and his eyes were like blazing fire. His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters.” What would you do if you saw Jesus like that? John fell on his face, like he was dead. Then Jesus touched him and lifted him to his feet and said, “Don’t be afraid.”
If we know who Jesus is we will live with a healthy “fear of the Lord.” Still, God’s ultimate purpose for us is not for us to run away from him but to him. If we saw him, like Isaiah, we would immediately recognize our unholiness is the radiant light of his holiness. Good news: Jesus who died and came to life wants to give us life and free us from the encroaching power of death. Like John in a world which leaves Jesus’ followers feeling exiled, we need to see Jesus. Do we want to?
