thunder and lightning

When the kingdom of God is finally inaugurated here on earth, that will be a good time, right? It’s what we pray for and long for, at least at those times when we’re spiritually in a good place. 

Revelation 11 makes me wonder. That chapter tells of events leading up to a God-sent earthquake that leveled ten percent of the city and killed seven thousand. Then Revelation 11:16-19 tells us this: 

“And the twenty-four elders, who were seated on their thrones before God, fell on their faces and worshiped God, saying:

“‘We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty,

the One who is and who was,

because you have taken your great power

and have begun to reign.

The nations were angry,

and your wrath has come.

The time has come for judging the dead,

and for rewarding your servants the prophets

and your people who revere your name,

both great and small —

and for destroying those who destroy the earth.’

“Then God’s temple in heaven was opened, and within his temple was seen the ark of his covenant. And there came flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake and a severe hailstorm.”

God’s kingdom comes, according to these verses, in wrath, with all kinds of violence against the world. Ferocious storms and earthquakes are part God’s arrival, and the destruction of many will go right along with the rewarding of God’s servants.

It’s not the pretty image of a nice Jesus in a white robe carrying a lamb as he leads us through a pristine new Garden of Eden, the one I can often have in my head when I think of his return. This sounds noisy and messy and ugly, terrifying to God’s enemies but not particularly pleasant for his friends either.  

I’m reminded of what C.S. Lewis wrote in “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,” his fantasy classic in which the lion Aslan represents Jesus. At one point, as one of the Narnians is trying to explain Aslan to one of the children, he says something like, “Well, he’s not a tame lion. But he is good.”

I too often think of Jesus as so nice that he’s almost benign. That’s a mistake. Because he’s kind to me I think of him as universally kind, and thereby forget his implacable hatred for Satan and evil.  As I sing, “What a friend we have in Jesus,” I forget that he is primarily Lord and judge.

Jesus is seen as a tame lion in too many of our churches. But there will be thunder and lightning when he comes.