Just how big is heaven?
Easter 4, 29th April, 2007
The Rev'd Dr Craig D'Alton
Assistant Priest, St Peter's, Eastern Hill
John 10:22-30
At that time the festival of the Dedication took place in Jerusalem. It was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the portico of Solomon. So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, "How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly." Jesus answered, "I have told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father's name testify to me; but you do not believe, because you do not belong to my sheep. My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. What my Father has given me is greater than all else, and no one can snatch it out of the Father's hand.
That which has been given over is greater than all else, greater than we can comprehend, greater than we can allow. That which the father has given over to Jesus, those who are the sheep of the flock of the good shepherd, are more in number, more in diversity, than may be perceived or perhaps even conceived.
Revelation 7:9-17
After this I looked, and there was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands. They cried out in a loud voice, saying, "Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!" And all the angels stood around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, singing, "Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen."
Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, "Who are these, robed in white, and where have they come from?"
Even the elders do not know. Even those closest to God and the lamb are confused by the presence of the multitude. They are too many, they are too various. They break the rules. They should not be here. Who are they?
I said to him, "Sir, you are the one that knows." Then he said to me, "These are they who have come out of the great ordeal; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. For this reason they are before the throne of God, and worship him day and night within his temple, and the one who is seated on the throne will shelter them. They will hunger no more, and thirst no more; the sun will not strike them, nor any scorching heat; for the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of the water of life, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes."
The commentator Elizabeth Schussler Fiorenza has noted an extraordinary thing about this passage which, I must admit, had not occurred to me before I read her opinion: "The paradoxical image of 'having washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb' may refer to the baptism of the great multitude. It could also allude to their present experience of suffering and violence at the hands of the anti-human and anti-divine powers that have also caused the violent death of Christ. Their number, however, is not necessarily limited to Christians, but could include all those who have suffered the great violence of the great tribulation, was hunger, pestilence, death, and persecution." Schussler Fiorenza's comment comes in a commentary titled Revelation: Vision of a just world. Her view is certainly not universally held, but it is certainly able to be argued from the text, and I must confess that I do find it appealing. I also find it to be consistent with so much else in Revelation.
The theology of the Book of Revelation takes us to many, varied, surreal, scary, and dangerous places. The images are of violence and death, of beasts and angels, of destruction and redemption. Ultimately, however, Revelation is about answering the questions "What is heaven like", and "Will I be invited in?" To the first question, the answer is, basically, that heaven is incomprehensible, but may best be compared to the most stunning, the most perfect, the most peaceful, the most refined (as in through a furnace), the most holy, place imaginable, and then make it more impressive, more perfect, and a whole lot bigger, and then do that again, and then you'll still not quite grasp it. It is more than we can ever know. The answer to the second question is much easier. It is, quite simply, yes. I have spoken before from this pulpit of the final verses of this book, and of how, even at the very end time, the Spirit and the Bride stand at the gates of the heavenly city, looking out, and inviting in those who remain outside it – the dogs, the sorcerers, the fornicators, the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood. That's at the very end. But here, in the middle of John's vision, Schussler Fiorenza points us to a very deep truth. Those who have washed their robes in the blood of the lamb, and who have already accepted the invitation and stand around the throne of glory, these include those who have been abused and attacked by the world, those who have suffered the fate of Christ, those who have been crucified in their lives. And even if they did not know Christ then, they knew, they lived, his experience, and they know him now.
This is not a universalist argument. Neither Schussler-Fiorenza, nor Revelation itself is arguing that everyone, absolutely everyone, gets to heaven. But both, I think, would insist that everyone, absolutely, everyone, is invited in. Those who know suffering know at close hand the extraordinary love that God has shown. These understand the imagery of the lamb that was slain, these understand what it is to become the sheep of the Good Shepherd, and to rest at ease and at peace under his protection. These are "in". But, as the later chapters of this remarkable book equally insist, so are we all. Even we who have rejected the commandments, even we whose sin is so great, even we are invited, even at the very end, to come in, and to enjoy the hospitality of the heavenly city.
No wonder it is, that those who gather around sing their hymn:
They cried out in a loud voice, saying, "Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!" And all the angels stood around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, singing, "Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen."
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