The Man Made of Morning

(Revelation 1:9-18)

Do you remember John?

He was one of Jesus' friends. The one who leaned his head on Jesus at supper, close enough to hear his heartbeat. The one Jesus loved.

Now John was old. And John was far away, on a small rocky island called Patmos, all alone, with the gray sea going on and on. He was there because he would not stop telling people about Jesus.

John was lonely. He was far from home, and far from every person he loved.

Then one day, standing on those rocks, John heard a voice behind him. A big voice. A voice like a trumpet. A voice like a great waterfall, like rivers and rivers of water falling all at once.

John turned around to see.

Someone was standing there, shining. His robe went all the way to his feet, and a golden band crossed his chest. His hair was white, white as snow, white as wool. His eyes were like fire, like flames that see everything and miss nothing. His feet glowed like metal in a furnace. And his face.

His face was like the sun. Not the soft sun that comes up in the morning, but the middle-of-the-day sun, too bright to look at, the kind that makes you cover your eyes with both hands.

This was the Man made of morning. The Man made of light.

And John, who had leaned on Jesus at supper, John, who had heard his heartbeat, fell down. Down at those shining feet, like someone whose legs would not hold him. Because he was afraid. Who would not be afraid? The light was too bright. The voice was too big. The One in front of him was too great to look at.

And then, on that rocky ground, something happened that changed everything.

The shining One reached out his hand. The same hand that once held children on his lap. The same hand that touched the sick and the sad and made them well. He laid it on John, gently, the way you lay a blanket over someone you love.

And the first thing he said, the very first thing, with that trumpet voice, was this:

"Don't be afraid."

Don't be afraid. It is me. The first and the last. The living one. I died, John, you remember it, but look, I am alive now, alive forever and ever. And I hold the keys.

The friend John knew was the King John saw. The very same Jesus. The lap he had leaned on belonged to the King of everything, and the heartbeat he had heard was the heart that burns like the sun, the heart that has loved you all along.

One day you will see him too. So bright. So big. And you might want to cover your eyes and fall down.

But his hand will already be reaching for you. And his first words will be the ones he always says to the people he loves.

Don't be afraid. It's me.