One of the most iconic moments in film of the 1990’s, Leonardo DiCaprio playing the poor world-roving artist Jack Dawson and his best buddy Fabrizio De Rossi standing at the very tip of the bow of the RMS Titanic as it sets sail on its maiden voyage carrying some of the richest people in the world to America where they intended to make themselves more and more wealth. For Dawson, he’s going home, back to the land of dreams having roamed the world a bit. Like sons of Poseidon, they peer over the gunwale to watch the dolphins escort them out to sea. The ship’s captain, like Zeus, is watching from high above on the bridge while he has his tea. The sweating minions are down below in the belly of the beast shoveling that dirty coal into the largest steam engines ever made that propel the largest steamship ever made out to sea. The RMS Titanic, the symbol, the prophetic emblem of the Imperial power of the British Empire and Capitalism and Industrialism, and so on and so on but mostly it was the symbol of the pride and fall of man. Caught up in the moment, Fabrizio says, “I can see the Statue of Liberty, very small though.” Then Jack climbs up on the railing stretches out his arms, his coattails flapping in the wind as if he’s flying and with a Superman fist pump, he shouts, “I’m the King of the world. Woohoo. I’m the King of the world.” We, of course, know how it all ends. Three hours later in the world of film, the unsinkable Titanic sinks and Jack dies after heroically making sure his new found love, Rose, is safe.
How could the Titanic and the Empire-ism of Modernity that it represented sink? It had a fatal flaw, the pride of its makers. They deemed it unsinkable. It’s avantgarde design was such that nothing could pierce its hull. Believing that icebergs can’t sink ships, the captain dismissed warnings of icebergs in the area and kept going at near full speed with no adjustment to course and relied only on lookouts peering through the dark of night. And in an ode to arrogance and irony, the designers only equipped it with just 20 lifeboats that could seat 47 people each, enough to save just half of the passengers. The Titanic sank due to the denting of its hull that caused seams and let water in. Over 1,500 died. This captain honourably went down with the ship. Such is the fate of just about every man who would be King of the world. Human ingenuity is no match for Nature. And like the Titanic, empires end. Emperors and kings come to their end. Those who seek to be almighty and rule the world come to their end…usually due to the pathetic foolishness of pride. That’s the unveiled prophetic message behind the sinking of the Titanic. The Titanic sinking signalled that the British Empire would end.
There’s a reason why kings and emperors and empires don’t last. The Book of Revelation prophetically reveals it. It’s that there’s only one king of the world, Jesus, the truly faithful witness to what rule and power is – giving oneself in love. He is the ruler of the rulers of the earth. Empire emboldened by religion killed him but God, the God of the Jews albeit, His Father, raised him from the dead. Even death and the fear thereof (which is the power of Empire) has no power over him. The Romans liked to call their great god Zeus (Jupiter) the one who is, who was, and who is to come, but that’s who Jesus is - the First and the Last, the Alpha and Omega. Jesus is the One who is, who was, and who is to come…and the message of the Book of Revelation is…he is indeed coming. Jesus is coming and you kings, you little emperors who like to think you are gods on this earth will face his judgement and you will mourn. You will weep and mourn and wail because you will find yourself in the presence of God confronted by his love and then you will utterly realize how you have utterly wasted your life and abused your power and hurt people and that realization is a lake of fire reserved for Satan, his minions, and for Sin and Death themselves.
Our passage ends with calling Jesus “the Almighty”. I don’t like the English word Almighty as a title for God. That’s what Hitler called the god he claimed to serve, the god who undergirded the Third Reich. The word in Greek is Pantokrator. Krator means ruler and panto means over all. I’m sorry to steal your thunder there Leo DiCaprio, but Jesus is King of the world, Ruler of all that is. Everything was created by and through him and this creation will come to its completeness in him. Everyone and everything will answer to him. He is coming.
Well, sorry to get off on that bit of a King Jesus gonna get you rant. But, and bear with me, that’s how John opens this letter – with a little bit of bravado, of bragging on Jesus like introductions at a professional wrestling match. In this corner is Arnold “the Terminator” Schwarzenegger, prepare to meet your end and in this corner, Dwayne “the Rock” Johnson, you’re going to get crushed. John is throwing some titles out for Jesus and interestingly, they are all titles that are falsely attributed to the Roman gods and the emperor back in the day. Right off the bat John is blatantly saying the real God and Ruler of this earth is coming to put things to rights and you false gods and rulers are going to get your due.
This is scary if you’re one of the Imperialists who has bought into the Dark Side. But that’s for them. John also opens with some very comforting words for those who follow Jesus. The Book of Revelation is actually a letter of hope written by John while he himself was exiled, imprisoned on an island off the coast of what we call Turkey. He was a political prisoner during the reign of the emperor Diocletian, one of the real nasties of the emperors. Dio was a big enforcer of the Imperial Cult. The emperors had temples built all over the empire that worship might be offered on their behalf or that they themselves could be worshipped as a god. Diocletian was one of the latter. Refusal to worship there was treason. As an elder pastor-type, John was the leader of groups of people who refused to bend the knee to the man who would be a god and so John was made an example of and fortunately it was only exile.
John wrote the Revelation to the churches of western Turkey who were threatened with or undergoing persecution encouraging them to remain faithful. This letter was a prophecy predicting the end of the Empire but also of “Empire-ism”, that evil abuse of power by which we humans conquer and oppress with militaries and take economic advantage of those people who live in the lower decks of the Titanic and who shovel that coal so to speak.
To those who follow Jesus John writes: Grace and peace to you. Grace is a world from the world of monarchy not the courtroom. Grace is not acquittal as some would presume. Grace is that the faithful have been welcomed into the very presence of the God and Ruler of all Creation who extends his favour to them and promises to act on their behalf and unlike worldly kings and emperors, King Jesus carries through on his promises. Peace is what one has when in the presence of the King feasting. It is good.
John goes on to say that King Jesus loves us. The word he uses for love is agape, the humble love of putting oneself aside to serve the needs of others. Emperors don’t do that. They demand to be served.
John also points out that King Jesus freed us from our sins at the cost of his own blood. On the one hand that’s God’s forgiveness of all we have done to hurt others and ourselves. Emperors don’t forgive. They hold such things over our heads to exact a false loyalty. On the other hand, this freedom is from the realm of sin to live in God’s kingdom of grace and peace amidst a faithful community who love as Jesus loves. Don’t renounce that freedom. Enjoy it.
John then says that King Jesus has made us a kingdom of priests. We share in Jesus’ reign. We conquer by being faithful by loving as he loved as a living testimony to how God reigns even if it means we die for him as Christians all over the world have done and continue to do. Emperors and empires are not founded in love. As priests, we pray for the needs of the world and even for our enemies. We give voice to the song of praise that God’s very good creation continually sings, a Creation that moans because of human Empire-ism. We are those who never cease to point to God’s goodness. Emperors only seek to be worshipped themselves.
To close, the core message in the Revelation John brings is that emperors and empire-ism get what’s coming to them. God makes sure of that. King Jesus is the Ruler of all…and he’s coming with his Kingdom to reign. If you look at the course of history, this has held true. Rome fell. Like a virus, it imploded until in the 400’s, Barbarians, the Huns, Attila himself dealt the final blow. The emperors, well, next to none of the Roman Emperors came to an end that looked like living long and prospering. They were routinely assassinated, went insane, or died in horribly gross ways. There was never a moment's peace for them.
Carrying this message into today’s world. Rome died but Empire-ism still needs to meet its end. The emperors are gone but there are still powerful world leaders, nearly all men, who would be kings or even gods if you gave them enough rope. The urge to conquer and dominate still persists in the form of multinational corporations and in some governments. Plaques, poverty, economic disparity, and wars still persist as the symptoms of the disease of Empire-ism. The message of the Revelation today is still the same…Jesus is coming to put an end to Empire-ism finally and for good. Until then, all you little emperors, men who would be kings or even gods, you will get your comeuppance. Jesus is coming.
And now to the one who, by the power at work with in us, is able to do far more abundantly than we can ask or imagine; to God be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus, forever and ever. Amen.
