SOLDIERS OF THE CROSS

Like most other New Testament writers, John often used Old Testament passages to make his point that Jesus is the Messiah/Christ. He did so again in 14:1-5 as he interpreted on Psalm 2 in this way. He envisioned the decisive battle between the hostile forces opposed to God and those who by faith share with Christ the task of reducing the rebellious world to submission.

The scene depicted Mount Zion on which were gathered the Lamb and 144,000 faithful. This military roll call was like the census of Israel’s twelve tribes in 1 Chronicles 4-7. Not preparing for battle, this army of God had already begun the song of victory (vs. 3). But no one could learn this song but those who had been martyred. Their song consisted of the agony and groans of their ordeal transformed by the mysterious power of the cross into the harmonies of heaven (vss. 2-3).

Vs. 4 has a somewhat unusual reference to an ancient practice in Israel’s traditional struggle for survival. War was initiated with religious ceremony and so consecrated as holy war. Soldiers were required to maintain sexual abstinence as did Uriah in the story of David and Bathsheba (2 Sam. 11). To John this meant that the Christian martyrs would maintain their purity by resisting any association with the imperial cult required of all Roman citizens.

In so doing, the Christian martyrs would follow Christ wherever he went, even to death. They would share his royal and priestly office so that through them he may complete his redeeming work. Thus they would be offering themselves as the first fruits of the harvest representing all living things, so redeeming the whole. John is not saying that only they would be saved out of the world. Rather, they would be as Jesus, the lamb without blemish, in their unwavering loyalty.