First Sunday after Easter
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Easter is Forever
Revelation 1:9-18 I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are
in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. 10 I was in the Spirit
on the Lord's day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet 11 saying, “Write what you see in a book and send it
to the seven churches, to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and
to Laodicea.” 12 Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands,
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and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his
chest. 14 The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, 15 his feet were
like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters. 16 In his right hand he held
seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength. 17 When
I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, “Fear not, I am the first and the last,
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and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades.
H
ow many of you have read the fiction book, Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson, or seen the classic
Disney movie version of the book? I saw the movie version when I was a kid, and read the book for the first time
a couple of years ago as an older kid. I found that I really enjoyed the book. If you are not familiar with the story
it is a fast moving adventure tale which centers on a treasure map which falls into the hands of the main character, an
honest, daring boy named Jim Hawkins. He is pursued at first by a pirate named Pew, who is in search of the map. Soon
Jim finds some friends, namely Dr. Livesey and Squire Trelawny, who protect him, help him and decide to fund an
expedition to Treasure Island, the bearings of which are noted on the map. But a new problem arises: Squire Trelawny
carelessly talks too much when hiring some of the crew for his ship. He is won over by a very personable saloon keeper
named Long John Silver, whom he hires with some of his men. Little does he know they are all pirates, who are also
trying to get their hands on the map. It was their map! During the voyage, Jim overhears of Silver’s plot to mutiny. He
informs his friends so that they are ready when the mutiny happens soon after arriving at the island. Jim, ashore on the
island after the mutiny, ventured off alone and ran into a quirky character named Ben Gunn. Ben was a pirate who had
been marooned on Treasure Island by John Silver at the time when the treasure was originally hidden and buried. Ben had
been abandoned on that island for a few years. He had kept his sanity—barely. When he saw Jim he was overjoyed! He
helped Jim and his friends foil Silver’s plan to gain the treasure, and he got off the island!
Imagine being marooned like Ben Gunn had been. His own shipmates marooned him there for some transgression of
Ben’s part. A marooned sailor would be forced to live in isolation, off the land, until either insanity or death took him.
Often, pirates would show one kindness to the man they were marooning: leave him with a loaded gun so that the man
could kill himself rather than die of starvation or insanity. Imagine being marooned like that—if you can.
In a certain sense, John the Apostle wouldn’t have had to imagine it. He was marooned on the Island of Patmos, cut off
from the rest of the Christian Church. His apparent transgression was in offending Roman authority as he testified of Jesus
and the Word of God, a faith which was not sanctioned by Roman law. It seems that he was marooned on this island as a
form of punishment, though the island was not uninhabited at this time. But John tells us of a visitor he received during
this time: “I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that
are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. 10I was in
the Spirit on the Lord's day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet 11 saying, “Write what you see in a
book and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis
and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea.” 12 Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning I
saw seven golden lampstands, 13 and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe
and with a golden sash around his chest. 14 The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes
were like a flame of fire, 15 his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar
of many waters. 16 In his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his
face was like the sun shining in full strength.”
You know who visited John in his circumstance, don’t you? John saw Jesus in his resurrected and ascended glory! Jesus
had come to John with a message to encourage him and the entire Christian church: the message which we know as the
Book of Revelation. This book is largely a vision which depicts one grand message: At the end of all things, after trial and
tribulation for the Christian Church on earth, Christ and his Church will enjoy glorious public victory over the sin, the
fallen world, death, and the devil. John said of Christ’s visitation to him and of the words Christ spoke to him, “When I
saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, ‘Fear not, I am the first and the
last, 18 and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades.’”
Now, this visitation took place as late as 95AD or about 65 years after Jesus had risen from the dead and ascended to
glory. John, as a young man, saw the risen Jesus with his own eyes and watched him ascend to heaven and leave him
behind (it seemed) on earth. Now John was an old man. But whether young or old, he needed the encouragement of
Christ, who said to him, “I died, and behold I am alive forevermore.”
This teaches us something about the nature of Easter. A week ago today we celebrated Easter, the resurrection of Jesus
from the dead, but Easter is more than a day. In the Christian church year, the Easter season runs six Sundays, enabling us
to celebrate the various blessings of Jesus’ resurrection, but Easter is more than a season. During our lifetimes we never
outlive our need for Easter and the resurrection of Jesus, but Easter is more than a lifetime. Easter, Jesus’ resurrection, is
more than all these things. It is forever. Jesus says, “I died, and behold I am alive forevermore.” Now how’s that sound?
I, for one, think it sounds great, though I never appreciate as I should. Jesus is the constant, gracious, living visitation that
I need to survive day by day and to live forever, and he comes to me through his Word, built upon the permanent victory
of his resurrection. So, when I maroon myself in my thinking, “How I can keep on keeping on, failing as I do in all my
Christian responsibilities?” he speaks to me through his Word, “Ben Gunn, ‘Let not your heart be troubled. Believe in
God; believe also in me’” (John 14:1). When I maroon myself in my circumstances, “Oh, my extended family and all
that I knew seem so far away,” he says to me through his Word, “Ben Gunn, ‘Take heart! It is I, don’t be afraid.’”
When I maroon myself in the problems that stem from living as a Christian in a Christ-hating world, he says to me, “Ben
Gunn, ‘Take heart! I have overcome the world’” (John 16:33). Does he not speak to you this same way through his
Word? He tells you and me and all his chosen, believing people, “Fear not, no matter your life’s present circumstances.”
Now, it’s true, we don’t the exact circumstances of John’s exile, neither the severity nor the length of it. For that matter
we don’t know each other so well that we fully communicate to each other our sense of feeling marooned in
responsibilities, location, and problems. But Jesus knew John’s situation exactly and on a Lord’s Day long ago, a Sunday,
which is the first day of the week, the resurrection day, Jesus came to John and lifted him up in the vision of his power,
victory and life. Whenever we open our Bibles, Jesus comes to us exactly this way, all these earthly years later, in just the
way we need him. He tells us, “I was marooned on the cross by my Father as I bore your sins, then died, but now I am
alive.” He tells us, “I know why and how you feel marooned and why and how you maroon yourselves but I am
sympathetic and forgiving.” He tells us, “Since I am arisen from the dead, I am with you, and fully able to help you for a
day and for a season and for a lifetime, yea, even forever.” By faith in his Word, we enjoy his visitation now in this
lifetime, though not fully due to our sin and lack of faith and the constant trouble roiling the world. But soon each of us
shall enjoy him fully—and forever—in heaven, “even as He is risen from dead, lives and reigns to all eternity” (Luther’s
Small Catechism, Second Chief Part). He who is with us always through his Word is coming back for all Christians
on the Last Day. In the power of his glory he will resurrect our bodies that returned to dust and call us to
himself. Ours will be a joy that will far exceed Ben Gunn’s on the day he was rescued from the Treasure Island!
I am poor and needy; hasten to me, O God! You are my help and my deliverer; O LORD, do not delay!
Psalm 70:5