9 After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, 10 and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” 11 And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, 12 saying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”
13 Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?” 14 I said to him, “Sir, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
15 “Therefore they are before the throne of God,
and serve him day and night in his temple;
and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence.
16 They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore;
the sun shall not strike them,
nor any scorching heat.
17 For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd,
and he will guide them to springs of living water,
and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”
As we hear from chapter 7 of the book of Revelation, what did John see? As he was exiled on the Island of Patmos on account of God’s Word and the testimony of Jesus John was shown many amazing things beginning with a vision of the glorified Jesus and continuing with visions of the saints surrounding the throne of God.
Our reading from Revelation chapter 7 began with John seeing an additional angel besides those who had been given power over the physical earth. An angel who ascended from the rising sun, with the seal of the living God. John heard the angel call out with a loud voice to the four angels that were given power to harm earth and sea.
John heard from the angel the number of those who were sealed: 144,000 from every tribe of the sons of Israel. Each and every tribe from Judah down through Benjamin. 144,000 This number of completeness, this multiple of 12, communicated that all of the people of Israel were preserved and saved. The promises the Lord made to his people have been kept.
Remember Genesis 15:5 And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” And he believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness. The promise has been kept.
And the promise was not only made to the tribes of Israel. The LORD told Abraham, “And I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all families of the earth shall be blessed.” John heard the angel speak, and then John looked, and behold:
“A great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb.”
Earlier in Revelation chapter 5 the song of the Lamb described how Jesus won and ransomed this multitude. “Worthy are you to take the scroll and open its seals, for you were slain and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation”
This multitude John saw, this was the result of the victory Jesus won on the cross. This was the reason Jesus taught that the poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, those persecuted for righteousness sake- all of these are blessed because they have the victory in Christ.
John saw, and heard, and beheld these things and then John was asked to speak, “Who are these clothed in white robes, and from where have they come from?”
John answered in faith, rather than his own explanation he invited the elder to speak God’s truth: “Sir you know”
We confessed these words as a congregation in the Introit: “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the lamb.”
What is the great tribulation? It is the suffering and trial that is a part of life in this fallen world. The tribulation includes the attacks of Satan and the attacks of sin in the world on the believer. The tribulation is the last gasp desperation attempt of the darkness to undo the victory Christ won on the cross. It is like the villain or beast in movies that at the last moment while it is falling down into the abyss, grabs a hold of the ankle of the hero. But the last desperate attempt is too late: Satan is defeated. Tribulations come at a fierceness that tests our resolve and fortitude, but Satan is defeated.
Jesus warned of the great tribulation, the trials believers will face. If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own, but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you”
Remember the word that I said to you, A servant is not greater than his master “If they persecuted me they will also persecute you. If the world hates me they will hate you.”
For some the great tribulation is persecution. Last week in a country and culture very similar to ours, France, believers were struck down and killed while worshipping in church, the third attack in the last few months. For others persecution may mean the loss of job or livelihood or reputation in society on account of their faith beliefs.
In Matthew Chapter 24 Jesus foretold the destruction of the temple and the tribulations that were coming. “For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until now, no, and never will be.” Jesus described shortly after this tribulation how the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven and the powers of the heaven will be shaken.”
And after these tribulations are over. Like the breaking of the dawn, Jesus will appear. “Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.”
The time of tribulation began already after Jesus ascended into heaven. The church has long throughout its history understood that we are in the end times, we are in the tribulations that happen before Jesus will return. We can feel the weight of the tribulations as we consider all of the sufferings we face in our world. Sin and illness, and even viruses that take us to our knees. When we reflect on loved ones we have lost in our lives, we feel the tribulation of the greatest enemy of all in death.
All of these who have gone through this great tribulation, including all of the saints over the years who are unknown to us, we celebrate Christ’s victory in their lives today during All Saints Day. And it is not only those who are unknown to us from the past that we celebrate, but also we celebrate that included in this vision John was shown are people like you and I who yet live faithfully on earth.
All those faithful in our world today, brothers and sisters in Christ who we know and have been impacted by in our life, are also counted as those who have washed their robe and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
This is why we pray in the proper preface to the Lord’s Supper that we join with angels and archangels and all the company of heaven in celebrating the marriage feast of the lamb. It is a great blessing that we can celebrate the Lord’s Supper every Lord’s Day, because each time we gather for worship and come before the throne of God in the Lord’s Supper, we join with those who have gone before us, those who we miss, we join with them before the throne of God.
What are the robes, what do they mean? The robes are the garment of Christ’s righteousness that covers us, and makes us worthy. The robes help us to see ‘to God be the glory, not us.’
Forget everything you were ever taught about how to do laundry and how colors mix. Because our God has made a new thing, where red makes white. The blood of the lamb cleans the robes of righteousness and makes them perfectly and completely white.
And with these robes we are perfectly prepared and qualified to be there before the throne of God. This is a marvelous picture of heaven, beyond what we can imagine, as we offer service or worship before God day and night. We can hardly imagine what it means to no longer hunger or thirst, to no longer feel scorching heat or numbing cold.
How incomparable to anything we have experienced that Jesus will be our shepherd and guide us to springs of living water. And wipe away every tear from our eyes.
There are so many reasons for tears, the aging process we experience, the inevitable march of change from one family context to another, graduations, bitter sweet moments of change, losses- sometimes even before the expected time.
In a world full of tribulations tears are the normal and here it was revealed to John what t he new normal is, not masks or procedures for safe public engagement but instead palm branches and songs of triumph. One of my favorite verses related to perseverance through trial in the Lutheran Service Book is stanza 5 of For All the Saints:
“And when the fight is fierce, the warfare long, steals on the ear the distant triumph song, and hearts are brave again, and arms are strong. Alleluia, Alleluia.” The triumph song although distant comes to us especially when we are worn and weary by the troubles of this passing world.
John saw and heard some amazing things while he was exiled on the island of Patmos. And these things are written that we may believe that Jesus is the Christ, that in believing we may have life in his name. We see what John sees, the Lamb reigning on His throne. Amen.