THE PICTURE OF THE RISEN CHRIST

Revelation 1:14—19

His head and his hair were white, as white wool, like snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire; and his feet were like beaten brass, as if it had been refined in a furnace; and his voice was as the voice of many waters; he had seven stars in his right hand; and out of his mouth there was coming a sharp two-edged sword; and his face was as the sun shining in its strength. And when I saw him, I fell at his feet like a dead man. And he put his right hand on me and said: ‘Stop being afraid. I am the first and the last; I am the living one although I was dead, and, behold, I am alive forever and ever; and I have the keys of death and of Hades. Write down what you have seen, what is and what will be hereafter.’

BEFORE we begin to look at this passage in detail, there are two general facts we must note.
(1) It is easy to miss seeing how carefully constructed Revelation is. It is not a book which was flung together in a hurry; it is a closely integrated and artistic literary whole. In this passage, we have a whole series of descriptions of the risen Christ; and the interesting thing is that each of the letters to the seven churches which follow in the next two chapters, with the exception of the letter to Laodicea, opens with a description of the risen Christ taken from this chapter. It is as if this chapter introduced a series of themes which were later to become the texts for the letters to the churches. Let us set down the beginning of each of the first six letters and see how it corresponds to the description of the risen Christ here.

To the angel of the church in Ephesus, write: The words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand (2:1).

To the angel of the church in Smyrna, write: The words of the first and the last, who was dead and came to life (2:8).

To the angel of the church in Pergamum, write: The words of him who has the sharp two-edged sword (2:12).

To the angel of the church in Thyatira, write: The words of the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and whose feet are like burnished bronze (2:18).

To the angel of the church in Sardis, write: The words of him who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars (3:1).

To the angel of the church in Philadelphia, write: The words of the holy one, the true one, who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, who shuts and no one opens (3:7).

This is literary craftsmanship of a very high standard.
(2) The second thing to note is that, in this passage, John takes titles which in the Old Testament are descriptions of God and applies them to the risen Christ.

His head and his hair were white, as white wool, like snow.

In Daniel 7:9, that is a description of the Ancient One.

His voice was as the sound of many waters.

In Ezekiel 43:2, that is a description of God’s own voice.

He had the seven stars in his hand.

In the Old Testament, it is God himself who controls the stars. It is God’s question to Job: ‘Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades, or loose the cords of Orion?’ (Job 38:31).

I am the first and the last.

Isaiah hears the voice of God saying: ‘I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no god’ (Isaiah 44:6; cf. 48:12).

I am the living one.

In the Old Testament, God is characteristically ‘the living God’ (Joshua 3:10; Psalm 42:2; Hosea 1:10).

I have the keys of death and of Hades.

The Rabbis had a saying that there were three keys which belonged to God and which he would share with no other–the keys of birth, rain and raising the dead.
Nothing could better show the reverence in which John holds Jesus Christ. He holds him so high that he can give him nothing less than the titles which in the Old Testament belong to God. In the words from Thomas Kelly’s hymn, ‘The Head that Once was Crowned with Thorns’:

The highest place that heaven affords
Is his, is his by right,
The King of kings, and Lord of lords,
And heaven’s eternal Light.

Barclay, W. (2004). The Revelation of John (3rd ed. fully rev. and updated., Vol. 1, pp. 54—56). Louisville, KY; London: Westminster John Knox Press.

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