Revelation 5: 13

¹³Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, singing,
‘To the one seated on the throne and to the Lamb
be blessing and honour and glory and might
for ever and ever!’

The early disciples had a very high view of Jesus.  He was to them simply God in a human form, who sacrificed everything for them, He was raised from the dead and exalted to the highest pinnacle of importance for whole cosmos. However His was no rule of fear. The power of the exalted Christ is a relational power; a power rooted and tested in love. This power and position of love evoked love, blessing, honour and recognition that everything had changed in the light of the liberation of Jesus.  I was watching a news article the other day on the anniversary of the D-day landing and the liberation of Europe.  Some of the surviving soldiers were present and the people of a local village, liberated by these very same brave and noble men, gathered to thank them.  A small child perhaps 10 years old cried out ‘we love you!’  One of the old men gently took her by the head and bent down and kissed her on her head.  She knew her liberator and loved him for his sacrifice; she was grateful for her life.  He simply kissed her to reassure her she was worth it. He loved her too.  The early Christian community looked to Jesus and sang ‘we love you’; they knew their liberator from the hate of legalistic religion and the rule of Rome. He looked on them and kissed them with the Holy Spirit to always remind them, that to Him they were worth every drop of His blood that He shed.  You, we, all of us, are for Jesus worth it too.  Let us live not just in peace because many people and communities still live under the tyranny of poverty, oppression and violence.  Let us live as Jesus commanded as ‘Peacemakers’ and in this way we too will sing;  ‘To the one seated on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honour and glory and might for ever and ever!’. You and I can live out this song in making peace.