The Place Where John Saw Jesus
Good Morning Friends,
Back in 1978 I visited the Holy Land with my mother and father and brother. It was a trip organized by the Christian Businessmen in our area. Back then I was reading from the RSV Bible. It was a wonderful trip. I was reminiscing about it with my mother yesterday and was surprised in retrospect by the number of caves we saw or were referenced by our guides.
There were the ones at Qumron, where the dead seas scrolls were discovered, caves thought to be the place of Jesus’ birth and burial, and we heard stories about the cave of Elijah, the cave of Adullam used by David and the cave where Abraham, Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob and Leah are buried, and the cave in which Lot lived with his two daughters, and the cleft in the rock where Moses was given the Stone Tables of the Law, and the cave where Lazarus was raised from the dead. Caves are often found in the Bible places and Bible history. But of all the caves, it is interesting that the one my mom wanted to talk about was the Cave of the Apocalypse where she lost her hat in the grotto to a great wind. The Place Where John Saw Jesus.
Scripture: “Then the kings of the earth and the great men and the generals and the rich and the strong, and every one, slave and free, hid in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand before it?”
Revelation 6:15-17 (RSV)
“And men shall enter the caves of the rocks and the holes of the ground, from before the terror of The Lord, and from the glory of His majesty, when He rises to terrify the earth. In that day men will cast forth their idols of silver and their idols of gold, which they made for themselves to worship, to the moles and to the bats, to enter the caverns of the rocks and the clefts of the cliffs, from before the terror of The Lord, and from the glory of His majesty, when He rises to terrify the earth.”
Isaiah 2:19-21 (RSV)
Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb; it was a cave, and a stone lay upon it. Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days.” Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?”
John 11:38-40 (RSV)
Message: Sometimes caves can produce a strong wind at their mouth but I think that in the case of my mother’s lost hat, and she loves hats, it was a summer storm that was blowing through Patmos. Regardless, it is interesting and not a coincident that she was touch by this place spiritually and a revelation to me of the many stories involving caves in the Bible, not just of John at Patmos. From this I have come to appreciate that caves have a place in many of the world’s religions and philosophies. There is Plato’s Cave. The Companions in the Cave is a story from the Quran. The Buddhists have many cave temples including the Caves of a Thousand Buddhas. The Hindus have the Batu Caves in Kuala Lumpur. It is interesting that a book like Revelation, a summation of most of the Bible, should be written in a cave. That this place at Patmos, this rock cracked in three places, would draw my mother’s interest as she is in her end times. It is understandable, as she is summing up her life with all its images and emotions and dealing with the shadows and the seeking of the true light, that she would be drawn to scripture that deals with putting it all together in a place of light eternal. Maybe this process is meant to scare not the living daylights, but the false shadows out of us. Maybe the stone needs to be rolled away from our cave so we might seek the real truth and light….so we might walk away from our stink and believe we too will see the glory of the Lord. Maybe we are prisoners held in the shadows as Plato suggested. Maybe we need Jesus to come to our cave to free us.
Pray we realize that those who live in total darkness for just a few months will become irrevocably blind. Pray we share in the victory with Christ. Pray we too are raised to new life. Pray we see the glory of God in the light eternal.
Blessings,
John Lawson
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