For the next six Sundays the second reading is from the Apocalypse (Revelation.) Jesus appears prominently in four scenes of this book. This Sunday presents the first of these visions (1:9-20.)
The Risen Jesus appears as a majestic figure, the Human Being, but completely otherworldly. The vision so overwhelms the senses that words just come tumbling out trying to describe it. An artist would be hard put to draw the author's description (maybe that's why the lectionary selection leaves the heart of it out.)
It helps me to think of a sort of cosmic Christ, as expansive as the universe, yet accessible to me as a person, able to touch my heart and love me.
"...I saw one like the Son of Man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash across his chest. His head and his hair were white as white wool, white as snow; his eyes were like a flame of fire, his feet were like burnished bronze, refined as in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of many waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, and from his mouth came a sharp, two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining with full force....saying 'Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last, and the living one. I was dead, and see, I am alive forever and ever....'"
The white is purity and the blazing eyes piercing insight. The words coming out of his mouth are as powerful as a two edged sword and his voice sounds like a powerful waterfall, crashing over us, frightening, all-embracing, cleansing and life-giving, "I AM alive forever and ever."
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