This blog provides a meditation on the Episcopal daily readings along with a headline from world news:

wealth: a merciless compulsion

SOLICITOR IN TRAIN SUICIDE BECAUSE UNABLE TO AFFORD PRIVATE EDUCATION FOR KIDS

Revelation 20:1-6

20Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain. 2He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, 3and threw him into the pit, and locked and sealed it over him, so that he would deceive the nations no more, until the thousand years were ended. After that he must be let out for a little while.

4 Then I saw thrones, and those seated on them were given authority to judge. I also saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their testimony to Jesus and for the word of God. They had not worshipped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. 5(The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended.) This is the first resurrection. 6Blessed and holy are those who share in the first resurrection. Over these the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years.

Jimmy Carter in Haiti: thought and action free of evil

The book of Revelation moves towards its conclusion, which is the “new creation” but lest the reader think God’s new creation is necessary because the first has been unsuccessful, we are given the vision of the 1000 years of justice in the first creation, on the earth. St Augustine thought that this millennium was a sort of magnification of the ministry of Jesus and certainly the concept of binding the devil is present in the gospels. Those who “rule with Jesus” are those who have not worshipped the beast and have suffered for their opposition. They are described as not having the mark of the beast on their heads or their hands. That is to say, their thought and action is free of evil. In a world polluted by the by the insidious power of evil, it’s a miracle such people exist. But they do, I’ve met one or two of them in my life, and I’d be happy to be ruled by them.

Matthew 16:21-28

21 From that time on, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. 22And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, ‘God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you.’ 23But he turned and said to Peter, ‘Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling-block to me; for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.’

24 Then Jesus told his disciples, ‘If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 25For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. 26For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life? Or what will they give in return for their life?

27 ‘For the Son of Man is to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay everyone for what has been done. 28Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.

This passage is consonant with the passage above from Revelation: 

Vittorio Arrigone: humanitarian activist killed by terrorists in Gaza

1. Peter thinks that Satan can be bound without suffering. He doesn’t understand that it is the readiness to suffer which defeats the devil and establishes the rule of God. Jesus has praised Peter for receiving from God his faith in Jesus as Messiah. Now he is rebuked for failing to listen to God and becoming an instrument of Satan.
2. Jesus spells out the meaning of his own suffering and that of his disciples: it requires self-denial; opposition to worldly power (that’s the meaning of taking up a cross); following Jesus’ way. This way leads to life although it involves losing what others call life. It is the fulfilment not the waste of human potential.
3. It’s impossible to tell what a) Jesus in fact said about the imminence of the kingdom and b) what Matthew made of the words he found in his source. The Son of Man in Matthew means “Jesus and his people”. It’s possible that Matthew saw Jesus’ words fulfilled in the resurrection, the gift of the Spirit and the formation of the church as the new people of God.

The important thing is not speculation about apocalyptic imagery but the challenge to believe that God rules and Satan is bound wherever people free themselves from greed and power and put their lives on the line to follow Jesus’ way. It sounds quite extreme, so I must emphasise that it has nothing to do with either hysterical self- negation or jihadism. It is the generous gift of one’s whole being in the service of a goodness which is not of this world.