Day 139

“Then one of the elders responded, saying to me, “These who are clothed in the white robes, who are they, and where have they come from?” ¹⁴ I said to him, “My lord, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” Rev 7:13-14 NASB.

God’s end-time believers overcome by the suffering and victory of the Lamb rather than by armed resistance. Christ reveals His power more clearly through the broken than through the powerful and the talented. His kingdom is more advanced by the humility of a St. Francis than through the temporal power of the popes who promoted the Crusades. A Christian faith that stands up for the weak and the powerless is far more effective than one that brandishes its wealth and political power. 

In a sermon, I once used the story of a Korean student beaten to death by some homeless teenagers. The parents travelled to the US for the trial and sat silently throughout. As the trial drew to a close, they asked for one opportunity to speak. The request was granted, right after the guilty verdict was read and before the sentencing. 

The parents approached the judge’s bench, and to the stunned amazement of the audience, they knelt down before the judge. They begged the judge not to carry out the penalty he had in mind, but instead to release their son’s murderers into their custody, so that they could give them the home and the care that they had never had. 

“We are Christians,” they explained to the judge, “and we want to show something of the grace that we have received from God to these boys.” The ones who had done so much evil to them and their son would now be on the receiving end of a grace that only God could possibly inspire. 

The judge, who newspaper reporters claimed had a reputation for being hard and unemotional had tears in his eyes when he said, “I’m so sorry, but that is not how our system of justice works!” 

By their forgiveness, these parents offered a powerful testimony of a kingdom that is utterly different from the kingdoms of this world. It is a kingdom whose system of justice is radically different than the ones we know. It is a kingdom that is open to anyone who dares to believe in its existence and in its radical solution to life’s problems.