Revelation 5:5, “‘Weep no more; behold the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered so that He can open the scroll and its seven seals’.”
“Weep no more.” That is the word that catches my attention this morning….. “Weep no more.” How widely, though, can we apply these words?
The context of “weep no more” in Rev.5:5 is that the “scroll” seems unable to be opened…And what does that mean? Well, I think—and there are many interpretations of it—I think the scroll represents God’s purposes in history. In that sense, we might say that it represents all the hopes all the longings all the anticipations of God’s people. It is God’s kingdom coming and His will being done in heaven and earth. Therefore, the inability for this scroll to be opened is the worst thing imaginable. If it were not opened, it would be worse than hell itself, it would be the failure of God….the thwarting of His purposes…beauty devoured in chaos, hope swallowed up in despair, light extinguished in darkness….that is what the unopened scroll would mean.
When the elder says to John, “weep no more,” he means that John should not weep over the prospect of the scroll being forever sealed….and yet….if the scroll is not forever sealed, if it in fact will be opened—if God’s good purposes will be achieved, if the “happy ending” will be invincibly secured—then are not the elder’s words to John also words to us in all of our sorrows? If the Lion has conquered, if the Lamb has overcome, is not all weeping overshadowed in the in the light of coming and sure joy? Is not all weeping, then, set in its rightful place, enduring for the “night,” while joy is sure to come with the blood-bought morning?
And more than this, is not all weeping made a servant of joy? Is not all weeping now folded into the promise that all things work together for the good of those in Christ? Is not every tear that falls to the ground in this valley of death a seed that will bear the appointed fruit of joy in its time? Yes, yes, because the Lion of Judah has conquered (and conquered only and precisely AS the slain and risen Lamb)—because of this—ALL our weeping will be turned to laughter, ALL our mourning will be turned to dancing, ALL our sorrow will be turned to joy….and so, what the elder says to John, he might also say to each one of us: Weep no more.
And yet….we are still within a veil of tears. We are still in a world where death and sickness and loss and tragedy beat against our souls like icy wind tearing against the sides of an old tent…are tears not still justified? Did our Lord Himself not weep when He was with us on this earth? Yes….I do not think the elder would speak these same words to us all, at least not in the midst of agony. And yet, we do and we ought to live in the “shadow lands” of this life with those words over our heads, with those words as a sure promise into which we are being and will one day fully be gathered: Weep no more.
And, even now, our weeping ought not to be as those without hope! Even now our tears are not tears of despair, tears of hopelessness, tears of final dismay…rather, they are tears that—even as they are shed in sincerity—know that they will one day be wiped away by the hand of our Lord and God Himself…
Weep no more……weep no more…..weep no more….words that can and will be spoken because the Lion has conquered as the Lamb whose wounds—now transfigured into glory—ARE our weeping.
“Weep no more”—He Himself will turn our sorrow into joy in the light of His resurrection, just as His own cross was turned to joy on Easter morning….“Weep no more”….except, I am sure, tears of gladness, tears of laughter, tears of wonder and awe—for not all tears are evil.
