Putting Ourselves in John’s Shoes
I love talking to Russ, the man who currently keeps clean the building where I teach and where my office is located. Sometimes we chat just for a few minutes, and when he asks me a question about Scripture, it is almost always a profound one, and he is always kind and gracious when he asks. And he is teachable.
Today was no different. Russ and I were standing in the hallway, him with mop in hand and me with pen in hand, talking about the Book of Revelation. His question: Do you really think that the people in John’s day understood what he wrote? Do you really think that the people in the days of other biblical prophets like Isaiah and Jeremiah and Daniel understood what these spokesmen for God penned? “Yes, I am convinced they knew for the most part what the prophets preached and taught. That doesn’t mean they understood everything or even wanted to hear everything, let alone obey everything.”
I then told Russ (he probably thinks I never have a short answer to a question) that far too many preachers and teachers today try to put John in our shoes rather than we put ourselves in John’s shoes. If we do the former, we will miss the point of the prophetic message. I gave this illustration. In John’s day, the Roman emperor was viewed as a god and temples were built in his honor (see pp. 53ff. of Revelation’s Rhapsody
I shared with Russ that in 2005 I took some of my students to Turkey. One day we visited the ruins of Pergamum, a city “where Satan has his throne” (see Rev. 2:12ff.). Most scholars believe that Jesus through John was speaking about the pagan religions that dominated city life. On the acropolis of Pergamum, my students saw the remains of the altar of Zeus and the magnificent ruins of a temple dedicated to the worship of the Roman emperor as a god. I shared with them some information about the power of the emperor’s cult. I asked them: Can you imagine what it would have been like to have been part of a small gathering of Christians who were expected to pledge their ultimate allegiance to Jesus when the overwhelming majority of Pergamum’s citizens would have been attending “church” services at the altar or in the temple precincts? I hope that because of that visit on a beautiful January day my students understood more clearly the pressures the earliest Christians in Asia Minor faced. We had come about as close as possible of standing in John’s shoes.
We have to walk in John’s (or Isaiah’s or Daniel’s or Jeremiah’s) shoes if were are to understand their messages and apply them to us today. We must not force John to walk in our shoes. Once we walk in his shoes, then we can wear his as we walk through this world, evaluating it from “heaven’s perspective,” knowing what we should be doing as God’s faithful servants today while waiting the coming of a new day.
Now even to use the title of this entry “Putting Ourselves in John’s Shoes,” shows that I use an image that John would not have been familiar with. A more accurate title would be: “Putting Ourselves in John’s Sandals.”
Near the end of our conversation, he asked me this: Isn’t there a problem with those preachers today who use the book of Revelation to predict the future and the problem is not only are they wrong but they are not held accountable? Another perceptive question, Russ. But my answer on this website is for another day.
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As one of your students that witnessed that Altar I can say that I walked away with a deep appreciation of what those Christians must have lived through.