The last of the seven churches that Paul wrote to, and that we visited, is Laodicea. The city was located in a fertile valley at the intersection of two rivers with the nearby cities of Heiropolis and Colosae. We heard from Dr. John Yeatts in the theater, from which you can see the calcium cliffs of Heiropolis.
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| Eric is showing us how close Colossae and the rivers that intersect near there are to the ancient city of Laodicea. |
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| John in the Theater of Laodicea. From here you can easily see Hierapolis (with hot water spring and white calcium cliffs) as the small white patch behind him. |
The Witnessing Church VI: Poor, Rich
Christians
“For you say, ‘I am
rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing.’
You do not realize that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and
naked.”
The world has always been fascinated with the spending
habits of the fabulously wealthy. About
thirty years before John wrote Revelation, at the banquets hosted by Emperor
Nero the roses could alone cost $100,000.
His successor Emperor Vitellius loved rare delicacies like peacock’s
brains and nightingale tongues. In one
year, most of his $20,000,000 outlay of funds was for food. One Roman, after squandering his fortune,
committed suicide because he could not live on the mere $300,000 that remained.
In more recent times, King Farouk of Egypt fled his
country leaving a stamp collection worth hundreds of thousands of dollars and
various expensive pieces of gold and diamonds.
The rest he spent in resorts around the world. Frank Sinatra was reputed to have hired a man
whose only job was to distribute solid gold cigarette lighters to people
Sinatra liked. Comedian Jerry Lewis is
said to have owned twenty-three automobiles, and purchased four Lincolns at one
time.
Many other stories could be told about people who can
squander fortunes and still have plenty more to spend. We often envy those people. Yet it is often the case that the richer a
person is materially, the poorer he is spiritually. Sociologist Peter Berger says that affluent
youth who have been sheltered from suffering and poverty do not seek out the
comfort of religion. On the national
level, the wealthiest countries have experienced a severe decline in church
attendance while people flock to churches in the poorest countries of the
world. Indeed, the church has always seemed to grow more among the poor that
the rich.
So it seems clear that material riches are no guarantee
of spiritual wealth. Indeed, the
opposite seems to be true. Material
wealth often brings with it spiritual poverty.
At least, that was true of the Christians John addressed in
Laodicea. Laodicea was one of the
wealthiest cities in the ancient world.
The town was so wealthy that it could finance its own rebuilding after
the great earthquake that also destroyed Philadelphia about thirty-five years
before John wrote Revelation.
Originally built as a fortress, Laodicea was located
better for trade than for war because it lay on the great road to the East at a
point where three roads met. It was a
crossroads trade center. Several
characteristics of the commerce of Laodicea are relevant to the letter John
wrote to them. Laodicea was a great
banking and financial center, a manufacturing center for black woolen cloth
used in mass-produced clothing and carpets, and the location of a medical
school famous for eye powder called tefra
frigia.
The church
in Laodicea may have been founded, along with those in Hieropolis and Colossae,
by the Colossian Epaphras during Paul’s ministry in Ephesus. Epaphras’s name has been found on a marble
block in Laodicea. Paul may have visited
there and wrote a letter to the church (Col.4:16). Nevertheless, by time of John, the church in
Laodicea was lukewarm spiritually. Like
the church in Sardis, they were nominal Christians, complacent and self-satisfied. Laodicea is the only church for which Christ
has no word of praise. Some believe that
Laodicea is most like the church in the twentieth century, but that is to look
at the world through the eyes of the rich church nations like the United
States. Indeed, as we have seen, each of
the seven churches has characteristics of the church today.
The names chosen for Christ in this letter are not in the
vision Christ in chapter 1. The “Amen”
and the “faithful and true witness” both affirm that Christ’s witness is
reliable, which contrasts with the
Laodicean’s ,whose witness was compromised by materialistic concerns. Christ is also the origin and source of God’s
creation which will be restored when Christ’s kingdom comes. The Laodicean Christians are criticized for
their failure to bear witness to that kingdom.
Christ uses the metaphor of lukewarm water to
characterize their unfaithfulness. They
are neither hot nor cold. The word “hot”
is used for boiling water, and “cold” for freezing water. Violent opposition to the Christ’s kingdom
would have been better than a lukewarm support.
They can me contrasted to the Ephesian Christians who are holding firm
in the face of opposition.
Christ
says that he will spew them out of his mouth.
That reaction seems too strong.
Lukewarm water may not be as soothing as hot water or as refreshing as
ice cold water, but it is not nauseating.
Indeed, many people in the world prefer a lukewarm drink to one that is
hot or cold. The image likely comes from
the mineral springs in Heirapolis, six miles away, which was the water supply
for Laodicea. The water left a lime
deposit on the aqueduct through which it was transported. This may have created the image of nausea
that Christ uses.
Christ’s message to the Laodiceans is ironic when we
understand it in connection with the wealth of Laodicea. He tells the rich Christians in this banking
and financial center to come to Christ for gold purified by divine fire so that
they can become spiritually rich.
Christians in Laodicea, a town famous for mass production of garments
must come to Christ for pure white robes to cloth their nakedness. Christians in the city that produced the most
famous eye powder in the world must come to Christ for salve to anoint their
eyes so that they can truly see. In
summary, Christ says, “For you say, ‘I am rich, I have prospered, and I need
nothing.’ You do not realize that you
are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.” What powerful indictment!
Christ announces that because he loves them, he will
discipline them to call them to repentance.
No matter how cold and lifeless the Laodiceans are, the persistent
initiative of Christ calls them to repent.
Their punishment is not punitive but corrective. The motivation for the discipline is love,
and its purpose is repentance. The image
is powerful: “Listen! I am standing at
the door knocking.” Christ is constantly
knocking. If the Laodiceans hear and
open, he will enter and eat with them.
This clearly refers to the marriage supper of the lamb which Christ will
share with his witnesses who are faithful to the end.
Moreover, the faithful witnesses will join Christ on
God’s throne. By conquering in
persecution, the witnesses follow Christ who likewise conquered in the face of
crucifixion. Christ inaugurated the
kingdom when he died on the cross, but we continue the battle to establish
Christ’s kingdom until he returns to bring it to completion.
A Christian mother listened as one of her sons describe
his brother’s accumulation of wealth. He
spoke of his brother’s money, his luxurious home, his cars. Finally, he summarized, “He is really getting
on in the world.”
The mother looked at her son seriously and asked, “Which
world?”
The Christians in Laodicea were rich by this world’s
standards, but by Christ’s standards they were poor, naked, and blind. North Americans are the wealthiest people in
the world, but our wealth has made us lukewarm witnesses. Christ will spew us out of his mouth to punish us for placing our riches ahead of
his kingdom. The good news is that we
can repent and become faithful witnesses for Christ the Lamb.
Sing: Beneath the Cross of Jesus
Beneath the cross of
Jesus I fain would take my stand, the shadow of a mighty rock within a weary
land;
a home within the
wilderness, a rest upon the way, from the burning of the noontide heat, and the
burden of the day.
Upon that cross of Jesus
mine eye at times can see the very dying form of One who suffered there for me;
and from my stricken
heart with tears two wonders I confess: the wonders of redeeming love and my
unworthiness.
I take, O cross, thy
shadow for my abiding place; I ask no
other sunshine than the sunshine of his face;
content to let the world
go by, to know no gain nor loss, my sinful self my only shame, my glory all the
cross.
Elizabeth C. Clephane
Pray: O
Christ, the faithful and true witness, the origin of God’s creation, we confess
that many of us have everything that we can afford. Yet these possessions have robbed us of our
witness for your kingdom. We renounce
our materialistic bent and ask that you will make us conquerers who will join
you on your father’s throne. Through
your name we pray, Amen.
To most
Americans, Turkey is a country that is thought of ambiguously. It is in the
Middle East, so aren’t they Muslim? Doesn’t that mean they have Sharia law, and
hate Americans? These sentiments are far from the facts about the modern
nation-state of Turkey, but Turkey’s geographical location does not stop us
from viewing it with some suspicion. Perhaps because it borders countries like
Iraq, Iran and Syria, these concerns are not completely unreasonable. But what I have found is that though
Turkey is a crossroads of sorts between Europe and the Middle East, the Turkish
people share more cultural material with the west than with explicitly Islamic
countries. Sometimes this gap between Turkey and countries like Saudi Arabia is
surprisingly large, maybe even larger than the religious-political contrast
between the United States and Saudi Arabia. However, even a brief overview of
Turkish history can reveal some reasons for this.
Asia
Minor essentially acts as a large land bridge between Europe and Asia. For this
reason, it was constantly crossed and conquered by armies. This began with the
Hittites but also includes historical figures like Xerxes and Alexander the
Great. Especially during the Roman era, Asia Minor was a particularly patriotic
area in the Roman Empire. Worship of the emperors as gods was not something
ordered by Rome and brought to the area. Rather, it sprung up from the peoples’
appreciation for the Empire. It was in this religious-political environment
that the first Christians experienced persecution, and only because their
theological worldview could not allow them to declare that Caesar is Lord. By
the 4th century, Christianity was not only a tolerated religion, but
the official religion of the Eastern Roman Empire. The emperor became the Vicar
of Christ, and his Empire was the actual Kingdom of God breaking into the world
talked about by Jesus in the gospels.
