All of you are familiar, I’m sure, h the Hans Christian Andersen story about the Emperor’s new clothes. It begins, “Many, many years ago lived an emperor, who thought so much of new clothes that he spent all his money in order to obtain them; his only ambition was to be always well dressed. He did not care for his soldiers, and the theater did not amuse him; the only thing, in fact, he thought anything of was to drive out and show a new suit of clothes. He had a coat for every hour of the day.” Well, as I’m sure you remember, one day two swindlers came to this city; who declared they could manufacture the finest cloth to be imagined. Not only were the colors and patterns exceptionally beautiful, but clothes made of their material possessed the wonderful quality of being invisible to any man who was unfit for his office or unpardonably stupid. Well, of course the emperor had to have such a suit! So when the day came and he put on the non-existent outfit, nobody was willing to admit they saw nothing, until a little child who had neither position nor ego to protect finally told the truth: “he has nothing on at all,” whereupon people were finally free to recognize what they had really known all along, and they joined in the cry.
But what you may not remember - I certainly didn’t remember - was that even when exposed both the emperor and all his officers continued to pretend, for the sake of their dignity.
I wonder how many of the people in Laodicea responded to Jesus’ message the way the emperor did - holding the tattered remnants of their self-image around their exposed inadequacy? Because that is what Jesus says to the church there: you are naked. You have nothing on at all.
Let’s start at the beginning, with Jesus’ self-identification. He is “the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the origin of God's creation” [v. 14] This emphasizes that real truth can be found only in and through Jesus. The “Amen” is simply a Hebrew way of saying “this is really, really true”, what the KJV renders as verily, verily. Truth
can be found in Jesus. Everything else is a fraud and a fake. And how can we know that? Well, Jesus was the one through whom the universe was created in the first place. He knows what’s real and what isn’t. Don’t buy the product if it the manufacturer’s safety seal isn’t intact, it’s been tampered with! This introduction tells us that what the church there in Laodicea is dealing with is some form of deception.
And then Jesus goes on with his indictment. This is the most severe of all seven letters - Even Smyrna and Pergamum didn’t get hit as hard as this, and they were actually condoning idolatry and immorality! What can be worse than that, for goodness sake?
The first thing we have to recognize is that Laodicea was a very, very wealthy city. The Syrian King Antiochus II had founded it and named after his wife Laodice. It was strategically located where three highways converged, and so in addition to being the center of government for the region it was also a major commercial hub. It was best known for its banking industry, its manufacture of black wool, and
a medical school that produced a world-famous eye ointment. They had fabulous shopping centers, theaters, a huge stadium where gladiatorial games were held, lavish public baths, anything that the wealthy traveler or tourist could desire. Sound familiar? Sounds like a typical American city. And what’s more, Laodicea was so rich that when an earthquake almost entirely destroyed it about 30 years before this letter was written, its wealthy citizens refused help from Rome in
rebuilding the city. Can you imagine? It’s like Florida refusing federal disaster assistance after a hurricane! Laodicea was rich - and proud of it. Who wouldn’t feel lucky to live there? The only real negative about the place was the water. Their own water was full of minerals, very unpleasant to the taste, and so most of the water drunk in the city came in through aqueducts - either from the famous hot springs at Hierapolis to the north, or icy cold mountain water from Colossae to
the east. And of course by the time it got to Laodicea, it was lukewarm. Tepid. Insipid. Blah.
And so that is why Jesus withers them with "I know your works; you are neither cold nor hot. I wish that you were either cold or hot. So, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I am about to spit you out of my mouth.” [v. 15-16] The people there knew that their water was second-rate at best. It was the one thing they couldn’t brag about. How could Jesus be so insensitive!
There’s more to the comparison than that, of course. And it’s probably not just that cold water is refreshing, and hot water is healing, either. It’s typically taken to mean that Jesus would find outright rejection of the gospel better than phony, superficial piety. But however you interpret the metaphor, there’s no doubt that he’s telling the Laodiceans that they’re not just useless, they’re disgusting! He’s
going to spit them out of his mouth! And if that weren’t bad enough., Jesus then goes on to denounce the very things they are proud of, unlike the water. 'I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing.' [v. 17a] This is a picture of a church
that thinks they’ve got it made, they’ve got it all together, that surely Jesus will admire them for their beautiful building, their stained glass windows, designer choir robes and state-of-the art sound system. Imagine their shock when he goes on to tell them, “You do not realize that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.” [v. 17b] Those new clothes the Laodicean church are so proud of, all the
external trappings of worldly success, are invisible to Jesus’ eyes. Their rich clothes, their bank accounts, their big houses, their thriving businesses - nada. Filthy rags. Moths will eat them, thieves will steal them, time will rot them.
And that’s a message for us, as well. We are never farther from Jesus than when we are satisfied with ourselves, and we are never closer to him than when we have nothing and no one else to rely on. "Blessed are the poor in spirit,” [Mt 5:3] Jesus said in the sermon on the mount, “for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” He turns the lesson around later, when the rich young man comes to ask him how to gain eternal life. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God." [Mt 19:24] It’s not that there’s anything intrinsically wrong with prosperity - it’s that there’s something in us, in each one of us, that grabs at almost any opportunity to reject dependence. Moses warned the Israelites of that very danger back at the beginning: “When you have eaten your fill and have built fine houses and live in them, and when your herds and flocks have multiplied, and your silver and gold is multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied, then do not exalt yourself, forgetting YHWH your God.. Do not say to yourself, "My power and the might of my own hand have gotten me this wealth." [Dt 8:12-14,17
But even so, even in their pride and self-satisfaction, Jesus isn’t rejecting the Laodicean church. Far from it. Instead he’s begging them to realize their true state so that they can get back on the right track, get back on course for heaven. “I reprove and discipline those whom I love.” [v. 19]
How many times, parents, when you have to punish your kids, do you say, “I’m doing this because I love you.” If you are willing to forego your pride, Jesus says, and admit that you are naked, that your fine new clothes are a sham, that your
famous medical school can’t cure your real blindness, that your banks can’t buy you eternal security, then he’ll be happy to replace all of your second-class, shoddy - stuff - with “gold refined by fire so that you may be rich; and white robes to clothe you and to keep the shame of your nakedness from being seen; and salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see.” [v. 18] And then comes one of the
most famous verses in the entire book of Revelation: “Listen! I am standing at the door, knocking; if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to you and eat with you, and you with me. [v. 19]
Do you realize how badly Jesus wants to be in relationship with you, with me? Sometimes I think we forget how much love was behind the price he paid so that you and I could sit down at the table and share the living water, the bread of life, the feast that he has prepared for us. Of course we forget. We’re human. We have short attention spans.
How long did it take, do you suppose, for Peter, James and John to forget the dazzling vision that appeared before them on the Mount of Transfiguration? I suspect that it was fading even by the time they got to the bottom of the hill and the crowds started pressing around them, demanding attention - comfort and healing and direction and hope. They probably didn’t actually forget the vision. But it got shoved to one side, out of the way, while they dealt with all the noise
and demands of life. It faded. They had tried to hang on to the moment, tried to keep it fresh by staying put, by building a shrine and moving into it. But Jesus knew that wouldn’t work. Instead, he sent them back into the world.
How do we keep the vision from fading? And how do we avoid being taken in by the cheap glitter of worldly success and prosperity and fame instead of holding fast to the dazzling brilliance of the Son of God?
Jesus has provided us with two powerful memory enhancers. The first way he gives us to pull us back to himself, to restore us to fellowship and usefulness and spiritual life, is the feast we will be sharing here, today. As we prepare ourselves to share in his body and blood, let us remember our hunger, poverty, our nakedness, our blindness. If we are honest with ourselves and God about who we
really are, about our secret fears and insecurities and failures, Jesus can fill us, feed us, clothe and heal us. And when we realize that everything that we have that is worth anything is God’s gift, then there is no limit to how much he is willing to give us.
The second way Jesus has given us to make sure we don’t forget is the job he gave to the three: “Go back into the world and continue my work.” As long as we are about his business of feeding the hungry and comforting the sick and befriending the lonely Jesus will be with us, and we won’t mistake shoddy counterfeits for the real thing. Why, do you suppose, had the Laodicean church stopped being Jesus’ hands and feet? Did they think, “someone else is doing it”? Or did they think, “I’ll get to it later, when I’ve finished building my own
kingdom”? We all have our favorite excuses. What’s yours?
Most of us here have had moments of profound spiritual significance, when in some way Jesus has touched us and we have seen, if only briefly, a glimpse of the dazzling beauty that will be ours if we stay the course. Has that moment faded? Have you occasionally wondered whether that glimpse of Jesus was truly real, or just an illusion? Have you been looking for a chance to restore the vision again, to get Jesus back into the center of your life? Have you been tempted to fall, instead, for the con artists who try to sell you on a different kind of glitter? Or perhaps you have only heard of the truth and beauty of a relationship with Jesus Christ, but have not yet experienced it.
Every day is a good day to return to Jesus, but as we are about to enter the season of Lent, today is an especially good time to renew the vision, or to open the eyes of your heart to him for the first time.
