Today’s Scripture Reading (April 22, 2018): Revelation 3
The Greek Historian Herodotus tells the story
of Cyrus the Great, in 549 B.C.E., stumbling onto the city of Sardis. The
Persian King marveled at the defensive position of the city. The cliffs that
seemed to surround the city were too steep to climb. And so the king desired to
make the city his own. He offered a reward to any soldier who could find a way
into the city. One soldier was watching a guard at the top of the cliff when
his helmet fell off and bounced down the steep embankment. He watched as the
guard climbed down the cliff to get his helmet back. The Soldier recognized
that there must have been a path to the top for the soldier to regain his
helmet so easily. Once they located the entrance of the path, Cyrus ordered his
army to climb up the path at night, under the cover of darkness. When they got
to the top, they found the leaders of the city had not bothered to even posted
a guard at the entrance. They were so confident that no one could reach them
that there was no need to post a watchman. Within minutes, the city fell to
Cyrus.
We might think that the fall of the Sardis to
Cyrus would have cured the city of their overconfidence, but we would be wrong.
In 214 B.C.E., Cyrus’s capture of Sardis replayed itself out one more time.
This time the King was Antiochus III of the Seleucids, and once again the city
was captured because of this same overconfidence.
It is this history that Jesus points to
through John. If only a watchman had been posted,
the city might not have fallen. No matter the strength of the attacking army,
coming through the bottleneck of a path entrance at the top of a cliff is often
an equalizing situation. It might not have taken much at the top of the path to
dissuade the opposing forces from attacking. Even a meager defense would prove
that the city simply could not be taken. But the people, and the soldiers, at
the top of the cliff, were asleep and
offered no resistance to the attacking army during either situation.
The message to the Christian Church at Sardis
was a simple one. They, like the guards of the city, had fallen asleep. They
were about to be defeated, and yet they didn’t even know they were under
attack. They didn’t recognize that danger was near or that their task had not
yet been completed.
The image of the Sardis Church could be compared to the Christian Church which is
content to rest on its past accomplishments. This church believes that it
understands everything. It is overconfident and often has accepted an easy
faith. They are no longer watching out for evil
because they believe that no evil can
touch them. And for all of these reasons, they are a church which is about to
die.
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Revelation 4
No comments:
Post a Comment