“I, John both your brother and companion in the tribulation and kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was on the island called Patmos for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ” (Revelation 1:9
Interesting to put the question to any daring to speak the Word of God on behalf of our Lord, God and Savior, Jesus Christ. With what boldness, self-confidence bordering on arrogance so many present themselves as spokespersons for the Lord in our day. Rarely are they asked: “By what right do you dare speak in God’s Name? Who gave you the authority to represent Him? How have you earned the honor you take upon yourself?” Consider the plethora of TV and radio evangelists who have made quite an affluent life style by preaching the gospel to the poor and disenfranchised. And the scholars, theologians and professionals who study, evaluate, explain and argue over minutiae of the scriptures and from the outside of church history, safe and secure from any perils to their own lives.
Look at the way that the apostle who had been youngest and first to follow Jesus, now an old man, an exile and prisoner for his confession of faith is writing to his beloved partners in Christianity from his place of incarceration: “I, John, your brother and companion,” he introduces himself. He is their brother in suffering. Perils bond the sharers in a fellowship that lasts as long as they all live. It’s the explanation for the VFW’s and American Legion posts throughout our nation. When the heroic writer Alexander Solzhenitzyn exposed the cruelties and atrocities of the infamous prisons of the Soviet Union, in his famous series, “The GULAG Archipelago,” he wrote as one former prisoner, or Zek to others who understood by experience what he had described.
“Patience” in Greek is hipomoni, meaning steadfast endurance. Who better than St. John himself knew the meaning of the term? He who had been a very young man and the only one of the original apostles brave enough to lay his life on the line by standing with the women and the Lord’s mother while Jesus endured the agony of dying on the cross. He alone survived, knowing and mourning over the martyrdoms of his companions, the apostles and disciples who gave their lives to promulgate the sacred gospel.
John writes to those who are even at that very hour enduring deprivation, misery and suffering, which is why he calls himself a co-sufferer. Life in Christ, he reminds them, is a challenge that entails three basic realities: pressure, kingdom, and endurance.
- The true Christian is one who continues to hold on without asking how long. The only answer given by the Lord Himself is, “The one who endures to the end will be saved.” When is the end? Only the Alpha and Omega knows that.
- The reality of the kingdom is always ahead of the believer. Every true believer is running a marathon with the following exception: The marathon is a race twenty-six miles long, but our marathons are without visible goal posts. They are different for each one of us. Our concern must always be to keep on going forward. If we rest along the way, it’s just to store up energy for the next day.
- Endurance is the ingredient that a Christian cannot do without.
The Holy Apostle and Evangelist John, first Doctor of the Church and Theologian, is the biographer par excellence of Christ Jesus, our Lord, God and Savior. He uniquely possesses the credentials to do so.