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The
Church in the
Johannine writings
Excerpt
from Rudolf Schnackenburg, The Church in the New Testament,
(Herder, Freiburg, 1965) ch. 7. The page numbers
are included in this form {#} at the end of each page. In this e-text,
headings have been added, to provide an overview.
In the introduction
his study of the Church in the New Testament, Schnackenburg writes:
"it is everywhere present, even where it is
not manifest in concepts and imagery. The Church gave birth to the New
Testament writings and they all bear witness to its existence and life.
Not a single New Testament author wrote as a mere private individual,
but all took up their pens only as members and for the benefit of the
society to which they professedly belonged and impelled by motives which
concern all who believe in Christ. The New Testament documents, so different
in literary category and the style of their authors, were not simply
linked together artificially in the canon authorized by the later Church,
but are held together by the intrinsic bond of the witness they bear
to Jesus Christ. Prior to all deliberate reflection on this society
from which they sprang and which they serve, prior to any theology of
the Church, therefore, there stands the reality, the existence and the
vitality of the community' confessing Jesus Christ. Consequently, an
exposition of the teaching of the New Testament regarding the Church
will not only have to take into account the explicit statements and
express pronouncements regarding the ecclesia, but must also ponder
and judge the New Testament documents themselves as expressions of the
{09} Church's life and as speaking testimony to the way the Church viewed
itself."
"Since all the
New Testament writings have this character, it is legitimate to take
the testimony of the New Testament to the Church together as a unit,
even though shades of distinction concepts, imagery and ecclesiological
views remind us not to overlook differences and lines of development
in the idea of the Church. … [We] take as starting point that reality
of the Church of Christ which lies behind all New Testament writings
and in doing so to envisage the varied nature of the Church's
life as well as the profounder harmony of the manifestations of that
life (Part One). Then the development of the early Church's understanding
of its own nature and the growth of a theology of the Church must be
followed as far as the sources permit (Part Two). And when in this way
a firm foundation has been laid by an historical and theological investigation
of the sources, we can … strive to penetrate through the multiplicity
of theological concepts and … to the central nature of the Church
in the New Testament (Parts Three and Four)." {10}
At first sight the Johannine
theology expounded in the Gospel according to John and in the "great
epistle" (1 John) does not seem to recognize the Church as a theological
factor (the term ekklesia does not occur). It is different, of course, with the Apocalypse,
which will be included here among Johannine writings in the wider sense,
but its whole nature requires, it to be envisaged separately, and consequently
it is treated last here. For a long time John's Gospel was considered
evidence of an individual, spiritualized, even "mystical",
Christianity. The "religious individualism" expressed in the
call "he that believes in the Son has eternal life", or other
such statements (3:16, 36; 5:24 etc.), the "mysticism" that
appears to lie in expressions denoting union ("... abides in me
and I in him", 6:56; 15:5 etc.), the wrongly interpreted statement
concerning "worship in spirit and truth" (4:23), all contributed
to such a distortion. Nor is R. Bultmann's existential interpretation,
which regards the Gospel according to John as the chief witness on behalf
of an already "demythologized" gospel message, capable of
grasping the eminently ecclesiological aspect of Johannine theology.
Where everything is aimed solely at the "eschatological",
concrete decision of the individual in regard to the "revealer"
and his word, no place remains for the reality and operation of a redemptive
society equipped for, and charged with conveying the light and life
brought into the world by the divine envoy. It is also insufficient
to form the link with the community only by the requirement of brotherly
love comprised in the moral summons; for then the movement is again
solely from individual to society and it is not evident that the individual
can realize his Christian life only on the basis of the redeemed community
to which he is subordinated. In fact, the idea of the Church is much
more deeply rooted in Johannine thought, and indeed is indispensable
to this inde- {103} pendent, magnificently
devised theology, with its concentration on the essential. That has
been convincingly shown by recent investigations, and will be confirmed
by examination from the ecclesiological point of view.
There can be no doubt
that the chief interest of the fourth evangelist is in Christology.
The impelling motive for the composition of this late gospel (the traditions
of which it is true must go back very far) certainly lies in the author's
intention to provide the Church of his time and surroundings with a
picture of Christ corresponding to the Church's spiritual condition,
but which, in the evangelist's view, was already perceptible in Jesus'
words and work (cf. 1:17f.; 17:3; 20:31). But is it not inevitable that
readers and faithful who were already living at a considerable distance
from the historical events should raise the question of the relation
in which they stood to the Christ who had brought revelation and salvation
to the earth, and ask what function was assigned to the community which
they acknowledged? Was the Church only the recipient of Christ's gospel
and saving gifts; was it not also the administrator of his bequest,
and the executor of his intentions? Closer penetration into John's gospel
shows that the Church in fact is assigned a quite definite position
in the work of salvation.
In the soteriological
revelation saying: "He that believes in the Son has eternal life",
the gift from God's envoy appears in the first place to be one made
there and then. Yet it is only the Spirit sent from the exalted Christ
who confers the divine life to the faithful in a definite and real manner.
At the beginning of the individual's way of salvation there is needed
in addition to faith, a "generation from on high", that is
to say, baptism, in order to enter at all into the sphere of God's life
(cf. 3:3, 5), and this at the same time places the individual, even
when this is not expressly stated, in the array of the other children
of God (cf. Jn 1:12f.; 1 Jn 3:If.), who in the First Epistle of John
are recognizable as the orthodox {104} community (cf. 2:20,
27f.; 3:9f.; 5:If.). In defence against the "anti-Christs"
the profoundly rooted community-consciousness appears: "They went
out from us but they were not of us. For if they had been of us they
would have remained with us; but it was to be made manifest that they
all did not belong to us" (2:19). If W. Nauck is right in thinking
that the basis of the epistle is an exhortation written in connection
with baptism and its obligation, the significance of baptism becomes
quite clear; but even without this the theological lines are plainly
recognizable: baptism is the generation by God which produces children
of God; it implants in the believer the "seed of God", that
is to say, the Holy Spirit, for a life without sin (cf. 3:9) and administers
to him the "unction" for perseverance in correct doctrine
(2:20, 27). But by the behaviour of the children of God, by their true
confession of Christ (2:22; 4:2f.; 5:1) and their fraternal love (2:9ff.;
3:14, 23; 4:20 f.; 5:2), it is then recognized whether they are really
such, or not rather "children of the devil" (3:10). The community
represented by the author (cf. also 3:14) makes the claim to be the
true children of God, to possess communion with God (1:3, 6; 2:3 etc.),
and refers in this regard to its possession of the Spirit (3:24; 4:13).
Spirit and life are only conveyed and preserved, are only operative
and fruitful in the community.
That is not, however,
as it were a subsequent, supplementary conviction formed in controversy
with teachers of false doctrine. The same fundamental theological ideas
are already expressed in the Gospel according to John, which is not
dominated by this polemic. It is only since Jesus has been raised up
that the Spirit has been there for the faithful as life-giving power
(7:39). He is released in "streams of living water" which
(so verse 37f. should no doubt be interpreted) flow from Jesus' body.
This metaphor immediately recalls the scene in John 19:34 f., where
blood and water come from the open side of the Crucified. If the cognate
passage in 1 John 5:6f. {105} is compared
with this, the assumption will probably be justified that the evangelist
also sees in it a symbol for the sacraments of baptism and eucharist;
for according to the passage in the epistle, Spirit, water and blood
all become perpetual witnesses whose testimony converges (in favour
of Jesus Christ). The death of Jesus becomes effective for salvation
by means of the Spirit in the sacraments of the Church. For the holy
eucharist we have another passage which fits into this group of ideas.
At the end of the discourse on the bread of life in chapter 6, Jesus
says: "If then you shall see the Son of man ascend up where he
was before (will you be scandalized even then)? It is the Spirit that
gives life, the flesh profits nothing" (6:62-63 a). This must certainly
be interpreted as follows: a Son of man who comes from heaven (cf. however
v. 42), returns there once more and shows by that that he is not confined
to the sphere of the "flesh" (the earthly human sphere); he
also gives his flesh and blood (v. 53), not in the manner of his earthly,
natural existence, but after his return to heaven in a way in which
his life-giving Spirit is at work. Both sacraments, but similarly the
forgiveness of sins as well (20:22f.), are effective through the Spirit
proceeding from the exalted Lord. In fact the thought is fundamental
for the whole picture given by the gospel that the earthly Jesus continues
and only then really fulfils his saving work when he is raised on high.
Consequently he asks his Father to be glorified; only when glorified
will he be able to use the "power over all flesh" given to
him, in order to bestow eternal life on all those "given"
to him by the Father (17:2). Only when he is exalted will he "draw
all to himself" (12:32) and only after his departure to the Father
will the disciples accomplish "even greater works" than himself,
clearly in winning over men (14:12). There is also for John a "time
of Jesus" and a "time of the Church" characterized by
the Spirit, but he does not present them as Luke does in a double work,
but views them together in the very words {106} of his Christ. Jesus'
gaze is already perpetually turned towards the future in which when
glorified he will make his work, completed on earth (19:30), fruitful
for all men (cf. 12:24, 32; 17:2, 21), through the Holy Spirit (cf.
the sayings regarding the Paraclete) and through the activity of his
disciples (15:27; 17:18; 20:21).
That this gaze of the
Johannine Jesus, fixed on the future, is directed towards the Church,
is clear from various sayings and metaphors with which he defines his
work. The chief image is that of the flock which not only occurs in
the discourses and imagery of chapter 10 but exercises a pervasive theological
influence. The faithful, in Jesus' time the disciples assembled around
him, are those whom the Father has "given" to the Son and
brings to him, and whom the Son does not "cast out" but rather
accepts and keeps and does not allow "to be lost" (cf. 6:37-39;
17:6, 9f., 11 f.). If this mode of speech is compared with the pictures
of the shepherd in chapter 10 a complete system of thought can be recognized
which has also shaped that terminology. God is the real owner of the
sheep but he has entrusted them to the shepherd Jesus so that the sheep
belong to both, just as, in general, there is a complete community of
property between the Father and the Son (cf. in particular 10:26-29;
17:10). The true and good shepherd, Jesus, in contrast to the hirelings
(the Jewish leaders), knows and loves his sheep, cares for them and
gives his life for them (10:11-15); the sheep who know him follow him
and he gives them eternal life (10:10, 27 f.). On departing, however,
he gives them back again to his Father's immediate care; above all he
prays that the Father will preserve them in perfect unity (17:11ff.,
22f.). By this metaphor light is thrown on other questions too, such
as the call to faith, which results from the Father's free power over
grace (cf. 6:44, 65); in the present connection, however, it is important
that the image of the flock is also maintained for the future. "I
have other sheep that are not of this fold; them {107} also
I must bring and they will hear my voice and there will be one flock
and one shepherd" (10:16). There the perspective opens out to the
one Church composed of believing Jews and gentiles. The question regarding
the old "Israel" and the call of the gentiles is, therefore,
perceptible in John too. "Israel" is still a title of honour
(cf. 1:31, 50; 3:10; 12:13); only the unbelieving Jews are depreciated,
even verbally (oi 'IouSatot is used mostly in a negative sense for the
leading Jewish circles), for as the representatives of the "world"
hostile to God, they have become haters of Jesus and persecutors of
Christians (cf. 2:18; 5:16, 18; 7:1 etc.; cf. also 15:8-16:4). Non-Jewish
mankind already meets Jesus in very promising representatives (the Samaritan
woman 4:39-42; the "Greeks" 12:20 ff.), and wait as it were
to be incorporated in God's flock. Then all national or other modes
of thought disappear; Jewish modes of thought are radically broken.
The chosen children of God (not even: the children of Israel dispersed
among the gentiles) are scattered all over the world and are to be gathered
together into a unity by Jesus' redemptive death which avails for all
(11:52). It is solely a question of faith in Jesus the Christ and the
Son of God; the departing Lord prays for all who will believe in him
through the word of his disciples (17:20f.).
Finally the image of
Christ's flock also appears in the "supplementary chapter 21",
in the words of the risen Christ to Simon Peter: "Feed my lambs,
feed my sheep" (21:15-17). Even if this chapter perhaps did not
belong to the original plan of the gospel, it certainly belongs to the
evangelist's tradition. The conferring of pastoral ministry on the disciples
whose position in the rest of the gospel (perhaps precisely on account
of the rivalry with the "disciple whom Jesus loved", cf. 20:6ff.)
is not in doubt (cf. 1:42; 6:68f.), cannot be dismissed with a remark
that the Johannine picture of the Church is not interested in a constitution,
for even in that scene after Easter, it is not the constitution which
is the {108} decisive
viewpoint, but care for the guidance of the sheep which are deprived
of their true and abiding shepherd (cf. 10:16). The heavenly protection
of the Father, preservation from evil, sanctification (17:11-19), do
not exclude earthly direction by a representative of Christ. For John,
too, the Church is a reality both of the present world and the next,
a society existing in the world but of a kind that is not of this world
(cf. 17:14 f.).
The Johannine picture
of the Church is enriched not only by the image of the flock but also
by that of the vine and the branches (15:1-8), which concerns as it
were the very sanctuary of the Church, its nature and mystery, that
is to say, the living union of the faithful with Christ. In this sense
it is a parallel to the Pauline idea of the Body of Christ. The Johannine
picture, however, has a different basis and depth. If it was borrowed
from the imagery of the Old Testament, and there is much in favour of
this supposition, it is linked with the idea of God's chosen people;
for in the Old Testament Israel is regarded as God's vineyard (Is 5:1-7;
27:2-6), or choice vineyard (Jer 2:21; Ps 80:9-16), which God himself
has planted. In that case Christ himself first of all would take the
place of Israel as the authentic vine on which believers in him would
blossom like living vine branches, bear fruit and glorify the Father.
This thought is not of course worked out because it is the need to "abide"
in Christ which is to the fore. Nevertheless such an identification
of Christ with the "true Israel" and such a concentration
of eschatological thought on him as the representative and foundation
of the life of the new people of God would certainly be possible, for
in him the eschatological hour and salvation are already present (4:23;
5:25), and he has only gone on ahead of his own, where he intends to
bring them themselves (cf. 14:2; 17:24, and the passages that refer
to the Son of man). In the same way he could represent the new "temple",
for the logion regarding the building up of the Temple in 2:21 {109} is interpreted as referring to the body of the risen Christ, and the
"adoration in Spirit and truth" is fulfilled (4:23 f ,87)
from now on (in the Church). But again the identification of Israel
and vine, worshipping community and Temple (and certainly the interpretation
of the Son of man in a collective sense) is not at all so certain. It
remains open to question whether the Johannine Christ may be regarded
as a corporate personality (in the sense of the Pauline Body of Christ),
who even in his historical work of salvation comprised in himself the
society of believers.
The Johannine Christ
in fact makes a markedly exclusive claim. He, and he alone, is the divine
revealer and bringer of salvation (cf. the eyco ei[u sayings); he is
the Son; he demands adherence, by faith, to his person, in order then
to give life to the believer and to lead those who are joined to him
in that way into the heavenly world. Yet even if the "corporative"
interpretation is not insisted on, the eschatological significance of
the allegory of the vine remains. For what Jesus here says to his band
of disciples in view of his departure is after all only realized in
the Church. Only in the Church is the abiding in Christ and the promise
of Christ's abiding in them possible; the disciples and the later believers
could not have understood this in any other way (even as regards the
supplementary exhortation "to remain in his love" and as regards
brotherly love). Whether there is also a reference to the holy eucharist,
as many commentators suppose, need not be inquired here. It is sufficient
to recognize the Johannine Church's conception that in it the most profound
communion with Christ is accomplished and that this alone permits any
fruit to be borne. The Old Testament metaphor of the vine is then transferred
to another, the Christian, plane; it is the new people of God which
is the fruitful vine, by its union with Christ who gives it life and
strength just as God's flock, led by its shepherd Christ stands in a
new light: by its inner connection with him it attains true and full
communion with God. {110} It is for that reason that the Church is so insistently called to
unity. Unity is impressed on the Church as an essential characteristic,
for Christ draws the Church into the existing indissoluble communion
between Father and Son (cf. 10:14 f.; 17:21); consequently unity must
also take effect perfectly and distinguish the Church (17:23), so that
the world may believe in the divine mission of Jesus Christ. This idea
of unity is hardly derived merely from topical reasons of polemic through
the danger of heretics, but belongs to a profound Johannine grasp of
the essence of the Church. God's love, which is wholly directed to the
Son, also comprises all who are in communion with the Son (cf. 16:27)
and is, therefore, also to overflow as a unifying force to all who are
united with Christ (cf. 17:26).
This picture of the
Church, however, also reveals some focal points of church life in the
Johannine communities or, to put the matter in another way, shows us
something of the functional context of John's exposition. They were
churches in which liturgical and sacramental life was flourishing. They
understood their worship of God as "adoration in Spirit and truth"
and themselves as true worshippers filled with the Holy Spirit; their
worship was the eschatological culmination of all worship practised
until then, transcending even the Jewish service of the Temple (which
in the meantime had disappeared) (cf. 4:21-23). Their Pasch replaced
and fulfilled the Pasch of the Jews (cf. 2:13;6:4;11:55), for they possessed
the true paschal lamb, Christ (cf. 19:36; 1:29). They had already inwardly
withdrawn themselves from the "festivals of the Jews" (cf.
also 5:1; 7:2), even though they did not deny the historical origin
of the redeemer of the world from Judaism (cf. 4:22). In the sacraments
they possessed testimonies and vehicles of the continuing redemptive
act of Jesus Christ (cf. 1 Jn 5:6f.), and obtained living and abiding
union with the Son of God and through him perfect communion with God
(cf. Jn 6:56f.). Whether divine service was celebrated only as celebration
of {111} a meal or of baptism,
or whether "the community at divine service finds expression as
body of the crucified and risen Christ", as O. Cullmann seeks to
infer from John 2:18, must remain doubtful; but it cannot be disputed
that the Johannine Church experienced the word of Christ (cf. Jn 6:63b;
8:31, 51; 14:23 f.; 17:14, 17) and the person of Christ (cf. 6:57) as
present in its solemn worship (comprising word and sacrament) and was
even more consciously to experience it through the Johannine writings.
A strong interest was
also felt in the Johannine Church for the mission. As well as what has
already been quoted, two further scenes may be indicated. The detailed
account given of the episode in Samaria (c. 4) culminates in the conversion
of the inhabitants of Sychar. These Samaritans, cut off from Judaism
and regarded as half pagans, make a full profession of faith in the
"saviour of the world" (4:42). The intervening missionary
discussion of Jesus with his disciples (4:31-38) is noteworthy. The
people of Sychar, approaching over the fields are a harvest full of
promise, and Jesus' gaze moves prophetically into the distance to the
day when he will have sent out his disciples. They will harvest where
they did not labour; others have already laboured before them and they
have entered into their labours (v. 38). This vista which is no longer
fully intelligible to us, must have had a concrete meaning for the evangelist,
perhaps in relation to the mission in Samaria. The "Greeks"
who shortly before the Passion came to Jesus and wished to see him (2:20
f.), are a sign that the grain of wheat when it dies does not remain
alone but brings forth much fruit (v. 24) and that when Christ is lifted
up he will draw all things to himself (v. 32). Though the Gospel according
to John is not expressly a missionary work, its missionary interest
is nevertheless unmistakable.
Finally, the Johannine
Church is engaged in a stern defensive battle against an unbelieving
hostile world, but is certain of victory (cf. 16:33). It carries on
the struggle not with weak {112} human powers but in the might of
the Holy Spirit: The Paraclete will "convince the world of sin,
of justice and of judgment" (16:8, cf. 9-11). How else is sin as
such, unbelief in regard to the eschatological envoy of God, revealed
than by the Church's preaching and its inflexible faith? How is "justice",
the entry of Jesus into the heavenly world of his Father, made plain
if not through the testimony of the Church to the resurrection? And
how is it disclosed that "the prince of this world" is already
judged, except by the triumphant existence of the Church in the midst
of a world hostile to God? The testimony of the Holy Spirit is perceptible
in the testimony of the disciples (cf. 15:26 f.). The same conviction
that Jesus' victory is continued in the faithful and manifested before
the world is expressed in 1 John 5:4-8 and, similarly, that this is
only possible by virtue of the sacraments and of the Holy Spirit.
This should be the point
from which the shortest way leads to the Church of the martyrs in the
Apocalypse. This prophetic book was intended of course less to offer
apocalyptic revelations about conditions and events in the future than
to confer strength of faith and confidence to the contemporary Church.
In the visions of the seer of Patmos the Church not only appears under
various figures, but a spiritual picture of the Church emerges which
eminently serves that purpose. For the oppressed believers, it must
already have meant a great deal to be reminded of their dignity: Christ
has made them "kings and priests" (1:6, cf. 5:10; 20:6; 22:5);
those redeemed and sanctified by Christ (cf. 1:5b) inherit these titles
of honour of the old people of God (cf. Exod 19:6). The Church is the
true eschatological Israel; that is shown in the great vision of the
144,000 "marked with a seal" in chapter 7. The enumeration
of the twelve tribes (vv. 4-8) does not refer to the children of Israel
according to the flesh, that is, to Jewish Christians, and the "great
multitude which no man could number" of all nations and peoples
(v. 9 f.) the {113} gentile Christians who are associated
with them; it is rather a matter in the first and second sections of
the same people and the new start in verse 9 (meta tauton ei)don) marks a change of scene: the Church equipped for the eschatological
battle with God's protecting seal, now appears in this new vision as
the perfect and triumphant society. Its faithful are dressed in the
white robes of conquerors, carry palms of victory in their hands and
sing with loud voices rejoicing in victory the song of thanksgiving
of the redeemed. In the image of the 144,000 marked with a seal it is
perhaps symbolically indicated that the eschatological "Israel"
is built up on the old Israel and is its true fulfilment. At all events
there is only a single community of the elect and redeemed which is
first represented under the figure of the eschatological Israel, then
under that of the universal people of salvation composed of all nations
and tongues. Only by this interpretation (according to which v. 99ff.
is a scene anticipating the perfect fulfilment), can a connection be
made leading to the later vision of the assembly on Mount Sion (14:1-5)
and the Jerusalem which descends from heaven (c. 21, especially v. 12).
Those who are saved "on the sea of glass" also sing "the
canticle of Moses, the servant of God" which at the same time is
the "canticle of the Lamb" (15:2f.). The people of God of
the Old Testament is fulfilled and transcended in the eschatological
people of God of the New.
That a genuine continuity
exists between the old Covenant and the new, and that fundamentally
there is only a single people of God, also emerges from the most magnificent
ecclesiological vision, that of the heavenly "woman", the
great adversary of the dragon Satan (c. 12). In this, idea and reality,
majesty and lowliness, unconquerable strength and earthly distress of
God's Church have been focussed as they are nowhere. else. The ecclesiological
interpretation may be regarded as certain in view of the recent lively
discussion. According to it, the woman who bears on her head a "crown
{114} of twelve
stars" (12:1) signifies in the first place the old people of twelve
tribes which gave the world the Messiah. According to the intervening
picture of the battle of Michael with the dragon (vv. 7-12), however,
the woman who has to flee to the desert where she is miraculously protected,
unexpectedly assumes the features of the Christian Church; for the rest
of the woman's offspring against whom the dragon wages war, are those
"who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus"
(v. 17). In the following chapter where Satan's accomplices appear,
the "beasts from the sea" and that "from the land"
(the anti-Christ and pseudo-prophet), the contemporary historical background
of the persecution of Christians (under Domitian) becomes even clearer.
Consequently the woman in the vision concerns the allegorical figure
of God's Church of the old Covenant and the new viewed as a unity, —
a fact full of importance for the evaluation of the old Israel and for
thought in terms of sacred history, even if membership of the eschatological
Israel is only decided by confession of faith in Jesus.
God's earthly community,
however, also lives in mysterious connection with the host of the redeemed
and God's court in heaven, and receives from this association strength
and confidence in victory. In 14:1-5 the afflicted Church (on earth)
is characterized as the followers of the Lamb. Something of their interior
glory already shines from them; for the faithful and pure members of
it hear a call from heaven which sings a new song before the throne
of God, the "four living creatures" and the "ancients"
(cf. c. 4), and only those "who were purchased from the earth"
can "learn" that hymn of praise and victory. There is for
the Church in the world as it were an inner holy precinct ("Mount
Sion"), a spiritual protection in communion with the Lamb which
makes it strong and unconquerable. The same idea is probably expressed
by the figure of the measuring of the Temple, in which the inner {115} sanctuary with the altar remains reserved and protected while the
outer court is abandoned to the gentiles who lay waste the holy city
(11:If.). God provides that the Church, despite all Satanic seduction,
remains incorrupt and that despite violent persecution it continues
to exist. The time of Satan and his satellites is limited; the devil
knows "that he has only a short time" and consequently rages
with fearful but ultimately powerless anger (cf. 12:12). In heaven,
however, the songs of victory are already ringing out (11:15, 17 f.;12:10ff.;
15:3 f.; 19:1 f., 6ff.), and special jubilation prevails over those
who have conquered Satan "by the blood of the Lamb and by the word
of their testimony" and who "did not love their lives unto
death" (12:11). The whole Church of Christ on earth is a Church
of martyrs (cf. 7:14 f.; 13:7-10; 20:4), but in union with its already
perfected brothers, strong and confident, for the victory of the Lamb
is already decided (5:9f. - 12, passim down to 19:11-16). There is only
one Church in heaven and on earth which is journeying towards its victory
and accomplishment at the marriage of the Lamb.
That is the last impressive
metaphor: the Church as the bride of the Lamb. The more the end approaches,
the more the Church prepares for this joyous festival. In heaven they
sing, "Let us be glad and rejoice and give glory to him (to God);
for the marriage of the Lamb has come and his wife has prepared herself.
And it was granted to her to clothe herself with fine linen, glittering
and white" (19:7f.). But when this long-awaited event occurs (21:2,
9) the picture which so excellently expressed the close union of the
Church with Christ and its eschatological longing is exchanged for that
of the new Jerusalem. This is a significant proceeding, for it indicates
that the Church has now attained its real destination and is taken up
into a reality of another order: the perfected Church enters into the
eschatological kingdom of God and becomes the company of the blessed
in the future {116} city of God, the
new creation, the goal of the whole divine plan for the world and the
economy of salvation.
If the picture of the
Church given in the Apocalypse is compared with the others already described,
it perhaps chiefly recalls that of the Epistle to the Hebrews. In both
theological writings the earthly Church is journeying, in conflict and
trial and yet in close connection with heaven and striving towards the
eschatological goal. Yet the Apocalypse retains its special features
in imagery and conceptual structure. In the Apocalypse, in a way quite
different from that of the Epistle to the Hebrews, the Church has undergone
suffering and persecution and become the Church of the martyrs; the
word that is addressed to it is not simply doctrinal discourse and exhortation,
but prophetic proclamation with sure anticipation of the end and insuperable
certainty of victory. This prophetic character markedly distinguishes
the Apocalypse from the Johannine writings in the narrower sense, although
in fundamental religious attitude as well as in various particular theological
ideas, threads of connection link them. But the confidence in salvation
and victory, which is powerfully displayed in both, derives in the gospel
and epistles of John principally from reference back to the salvation
brought by Christ and which from that time onwards can never be lost;
but in the Apocalypse it is also attained by gazing ahead to the irresistibly
approaching end. The writings which seem so different, meet, however,
in the "ecclesiological centre":the Church in this world stands
firm on the foundation of Christ's saving work, inviolable in its possession
of salvation; rich in its liturgical life, firmly confronting the world
hostile to God and unswervingly bearing its witness. It only needs to
hold fast to the gifts bestowed in order to be certain of the future
victory. {117}
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