LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2016, Page 194

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194

IV. THEOLOGICAL DOCUMENTS­­—COMMISSION ON THEOLOGY AND CHURCH RELATIONS

Session 6:
Fear Not, I Am . . . the Living One” (Rev. 1:17-18)
Suffering, the Cross, and the Empty Tomb
About 50 years after the great fire of Rome in A. D. 64, the Roman historian Tacitus described the arrest
of Christians blamed for the disaster. Many Romans did not necessarily think the Christians actually
started the fire; according to popular opinion, the Emperor Nero was to blame. It was believed, however,
that the Christian faith was a destructive superstition because Christians refused to acknowledge and
worship the gods of Rome. The Christian “crime” was a social one, as Tacitus records in his Annals:
“Accordingly, an arrest was first made of all who confessed; then, upon their information, an immense
multitude was convicted, not so much of the crime of arson, as of hatred of the human race. Mockery of
every sort was added to their deaths.”43
Some opponents of the Christian faith today express agreement with the ancient accusation of “hatred of
the human race.” Atheist author Sam Harris says of all religions, including Christianity: “We have been
slow to recognize the degree to which religious faith perpetuates man’s inhumanity to man.”44 Humanist
author Hemant Mehta writes: “Do Christians do some good things? Yes. Absolutely. But I can’t focus on
that when so many Christians are to blame for some major social injustices that I witness on a regular
basis.”45 Surveys indicate that some non-Christians perceive Christians as “judgmental, bigoted, sheltered,
right-wingers, hypocritical, insincere, and uncaring. Outsiders say [Christians’] hostility toward gays—
not just opposition to homosexual politics and behaviors but disdain for gay individuals—has become
virtually synonymous with the Christian faith.”46
Certainly we as Christians have not always lived up to our Lord’s call to love one another. It is sadly and
terribly true that throughout history Christians have at times persecuted both fellow believers and
unbelievers. We have much for which we must repent. Yet the world may also magnify the failings of
Christians and even advance false accusations. Commenting on the hatred of the world that bears false
witness against believers, Martin Luther wrote: “Wherever there are upright preachers and Christians,
they must endure having the world call them heretics, apostates, even seditious and desperate scoundrels.
Moreover, the Word of God must undergo the most shameful and spiteful persecution and blasphemy; it
is the blind world’s nature to condemn and persecute the truth and the children of God and yet consider
this no sin.”47
What similar accusations have you heard or experienced? How do the above accusations, Roman and
contemporary, provide evidence of Satan’s hostility toward the Word?
Jesus our Cornerstone is “the Christ, the Son of the living God.” He built His Church on that rock-solid
confession of truth, promising that “the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matt. 16:16-18). Satan,
for all of his hostility against the Word, cannot prevail against the Church, but generation upon generation
43

Everett Ferguson, Backgrounds of Early Christianity (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1978), 556. “Popular
rumor suggested that Christians were cannibals (based perhaps on a misunderstanding of the Lord’s Supper),
atheists (like the Jews, Christians had no images in their shrines) and incestuous (their ‘love’ for one another was
well known).” Tim Dowley, ed., Introduction to the History of Christianity, (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2002), 83.
44
Sam Harris, The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason (New York: W. W. Norton and
Company, 2005), 15.
45
Hemant Mehta, “Why do Atheists Target Christians?” Humanist Network News, December 15, 2010,
www.americanhumanist.org. The “major social injustices” to which Mehta refers include preventing children from
learning about birth control and “safe sex,” opposition to gay marriage and to a woman’s right to choose abortion,
and to the indoctrination of Christian children in religious beliefs.
46
David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons, ed., unChristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks About Christianity . . .
And Why It Matters (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2012), 92.
47
Martin Luther, Large Catechism, The Book of Concord, 421.262. See also 1 Corinthians 1:18.

after Eden and centuries after Tacitus’ accusation, the ancient serpent still makes every attempt to do just
that. Persecution against Christ’s Body continues. The hostility may take shape as accusations of bigotry
and intolerance, or in shame, ridicule, and the loss of religious liberty. It may be expressed in more
harmful and deadly ways—in the loss of home and family, imprisonment, torture, and martyrdom.
How should Christians respond to persecution and hostility? With the early disciples we may rejoice to
suffer dishonor for the name of Jesus and forgive our enemies as Jesus asked forgiveness for those who
crucified Him. Like saints of old, we can turn to the Lord in prayer, remaining faithful to the Word and
using every opportunity to witness to our hope in Christ. When possible, we can take advantage of our
rights as citizens, making every effort to preserve and protect our religious liberty as we proclaim the
good news of salvation and serve others in Jesus’ name. Yet, when all else is said and done, one response
still remains. The Body of Christ suffers.
Although admittedly our persecutors have little trouble finding us, how is the Body of Christ recognized
in the world? Church buildings are recognized by the crosses that decorate them, and persecutors delight
in tearing those crosses down.48 Christians themselves are marked more deeply. According to Luther,
seven signs or marks identify the people of God, the Body of Christ on earth. These marks include the
possession of the Word of God, Baptism, the Lord’s Supper (with the Sacraments taught, believed, and
administered according to Christ’s command), the public exercise of the Office of the Keys (the
forgiveness of sins or the withholding of forgiveness in the case of unrepentant sinners; John 20:23), the
calling of ministers, and public prayer, praise, and thanksgiving. Along with these six signs, there is one
more distinguishing mark: “Seventh, the holy Christian people are externally recognized by the holy
possession of the sacred cross. They must endure every misfortune and persecution, all kinds of trials and
evil from the devil, the world, and the flesh (as the Lord’s Prayer indicates) by inward sadness, timidity,
fear, outward poverty, contempt, illness, and weakness, in order to become like their head, Christ. And
the only reason they must suffer is that they steadfastly adhere to Christ and God’s Word, enduring this
for the sake of Christ, Matthew 5 [:11], ‘Blessed are you when men persecute you on my account.’”49
The risen Savior told His astonished disciples: “See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me
and see” (Luke 24:39). Just as the crucified and risen Lord was identified and recognized by the marks of
the nails and spear, His Body, the Church, is recognized by the mark of suffering and the cross. Jesus, for
the joy set before Him, endured the cross and despised the shame (Heb. 12:2) and He calls us to do the
same: “You will be delivered up even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and some of you
will be put to death. You will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But not a hair of your head will perish.
By your endurance you will gain your lives” (Luke 21:16-19). The apostle Paul tells us not to lose heart,
and in inspired understatement describes the suffering we endure as a “light momentary affliction” that is
“preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are
seen but to the things that are unseen” (2 Cor. 4:17-18; see also Rom. 8:18).
Things yet unseen, bodily resurrection and eternal glory, will be ours in Christ, but the cross comes first.
“The blood of Christians is seed” and persecution is often followed by increase to the Church. Suffering
also strengthens us as we are conformed to the image of God’s Son (Rom. 8:29). We “rejoice in the hope
of the glory of God” and “rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and
endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because

48
In Iraqi Christian villages, ISIS militants have taken down crosses and burned church manuscripts. Kate Tracy,
“Islamic State Seizes Iraq’s Christian Capital: Qaraqosh,” Christianity Today, Gleanings, posted August 7, 2014 at
http://www.christianitytoday.com/gleanings/2014/august/islamic-state-seizes-iraqs-christian-capital-qaraqoshisis.html .
49
Martin Luther, On the Councils and the Church (1539), Luther’s Works, vol. 41, ed. Eric W. Gritsch
(Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1966), 165.

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God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us” (Rom. 5:25). Luther commented on the way in which suffering strengthens God’s people: “Since we know then that
it is God’s good pleasure that we should suffer, and that God’s glory is manifested in our suffering, better
than in any other way, and since we are the kind of people who cannot hold on to the Word and our faith
without suffering, and moreover since we have the noble, previous [sic] promise that the cross which God
sends to us is not a bad thing, but rather an utterly precious and noble holy thing, why should we not be
bold to suffer?”50 Paul, content—pleased—with weakness and persecution could boast: “For when I am
weak, then I am strong” (2 Cor. 12:10).

edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength” (Rev. 1:9-16). In the presence of such
exalted majesty, John “fell at his feet as though dead” (Rev. 1:17), just as Paul had fallen to the ground
when confronted by the Lord on the road to Damascus. This is the risen and reigning Lord Jesus, to whom
all authority in heaven and on earth has been given. This is the Living One who asks, “Why are you
persecuting me?” He is the King of kings and Lord of lords before whom each of us, including those who
persecute us, will one day be called to account (Rom. 14:10-12). It is no wonder that Luther said we have
reason to “weep and lament” for our persecutors, praying that before that great and terrible day they will
come to know the truth. What awaits them is far more terrifying—eternally so—than what Paul calls the
“light momentary affliction” that the cross-bearing saints now suffer.

Read Hebrews 10:32-39 and 1 Corinthians 12:26. According to these verses, how should we react to
persecution and suffering, our own and that of others? What attitudes mark our response? How might
these attitudes inform our prayers for our fellow saints and for ourselves as we bear the cross?
We bear the cross as our vocation, our calling, following in the footsteps of Christ, who suffered for us (1
Peter 2:21). We bear the cross in hope because our Lord, through His suffering, death, and resurrection,
has conquered. By God’s grace through faith in our risen Savior, His victory is ours. Satan wars against
us, but “he knows that his time is short” (Rev. 12:12). Our enemy and accuser, who is behind every
accusation of “social injustice” or “hatred of the human race,” who tries endlessly to turn us from the
Word, has fallen in defeat: “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the
authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses
them day and night before our God. And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the
word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death” (Rev. 12:10-11). As the Body of
Christ we continue to suffer hostility, accusations, and even death, but our hope is in Christ our Head who
suffered all of these things and by His resurrection overcame them all. This rich mystery, Paul writes, “is
Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col. 1:27).
Ascended to the right hand of the Father, Jesus reigns in glory until His return on the Last Day, when “the
last enemy,” death, will finally be destroyed (1 Cor. 15:26). On that day we will be raised bodily from our
graves as Jesus was raised, to live and reign with Him forever. As we “walk through the valley of the
shadow of death,” we fear no evil because our Shepherd has walked there before us and walks with us
now. We are “regarded as sheep to be slaughtered” and yet “in all these things we are more than
conquerors through him who loved us” (Rom. 8:36-37). Because of the victory that is already ours,
Luther could mock the futile threats of his enemies: “It is a shame and disgrace to try to threaten and
terrify Christ and his Christians with death for, after all, they are lords and victors over death. It is just
like trying to frighten a man by bridling and saddling his horse and bidding him to ride on it.”51
Read 1 Peter 5:6-11. What instruction for enduring persecution do you find here? How does humility
become an aspect of resistance? How else can you resist the “roaring lion” who wants to devour you?
What particular words of hope do you find in these verses?
While on the island of Patmos “on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus,” John heard a
voice like a trumpet. There before the apostle stood “one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and
with a golden sash around his chest. The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow. His
eyes were like a flame of fire, his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was
like the roar of many waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two50

Martin Luther, Sermon at Coburg on Cross and Suffering (1530), Luther’s Works, 51:208. The word “previous” in
this quotation from the American Edition of Luther’s Works is a typographical error. The correct word is “precious,”
that is, “the noble, precious promise.” In the German edition the word in question is tewre (teuer in modern
German), which means “precious” or “costly.” D. Martin Luthers Werke, Band 32 (Weimar: H. Böhlau, 1906), 38,
available at https://archive.org/stream/werkekritischege32luthuoft#page/38/mode/2up.
51
Martin Luther, A Letter of Consolation to All Who Suffer Persecution (1522), Luther’s Works, 43:63.

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What awaits the suffering saints is eternal joy in the presence of the Lamb. There we will stand in “a great
multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages . . .
crying out with a loud voice, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb!’”
Together with all the saints in that future scene—with Stephen, the first martyr, with the martyrs of
ancient Rome, with the saints who suffer today in Iraq and across the world—we will have come out of
“the great tribulation” of earthly suffering, having washed our robes and made them white in the blood of
the Lamb. The Lamb will be our Shepherd, as He always has been, and He will guide us to springs of
living water, and God will wipe away every tear from our eyes (Rev. 7:9-17).
That day is yet to come. Until then, it is “boots on the ground” in the face of the unrelenting hostility of
an enemy in his death throes who continues to war against the Word. The Word he so hates is the sword
in our hand: “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of
God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh
and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present
darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of
God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm” (Eph. 6:10-13).
Read Ephesians 6:10-20. Although it is people who persecute us, we know we “do not wrestle against
flesh and blood.” How does the armor of God in all of its various parts help us to stand firm in the face of
hostility and persecution?
Years before Jesus’ revelation on Patmos, John had seen the Lord in His divine majesty on the mountain
of transfiguration. Then, too, hearing a voice from heaven, the apostle fell face down to the ground in
terror. But when, at the Lord’s touch, John finally raised his head, he saw no one “but Jesus only” (Matt.
17:7-8). Now again on Patmos, the exalted and ever gentle Shepherd lays His right hand on John and
says, “Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore,
and I have the keys of Death and Hades” (Rev. 1:17-18). The Shepherd who laid down His life for His
sheep securely holds His cross-bearing flock (John 10:28)—and no one can snatch them out of His hand.
Pray for Christians who are suffering, in our nation and around the world, that they might faithfully
endure persecution and one day stand with all the saints in the presence of the Lamb. Pray for those who
persecute them—for those who persecute us—that they may come to know and worship Jesus as Lord.
Responsive Reading . . . Psalm 46
Adopted December 13, 2014
Commission on Theology and Church Relations
The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod

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