Jesus’ letter to the church in Laodicea is one of the more well-known letters in Revelation. We loved this one growing up because it talks about vomiting people up, images that most young boys, and some girls, find fascinating. The church in Laodicea is told to smarten up otherwise Jesus is going to vomit them out because they’re lukewarm. Uggh!
How does a church get so lukewarm that Jesus talks about vomiting them out because they taste
horrible? It’s easy when you’ve been in a relationship for a long time to take
the other person for granted. It’s not that you love them less, but you stop
showing it, you allow other things to take your attention away from them, and
you slowly drift apart, allowing your love to grow less hot. This creates
lukewarm relationships, even with God. Laodicea was wealthy, but was destroyed
in 62 AD by a powerful earthquake. The people of Laodicea completely rebuilt
the city without a single drachma from the government. Their wealth came from
the excellent wool that their black sheep produced; wool deeply coveted by the
wealthiest Romans. This led to a sense of self-satisfaction and pride that
resulted in a lukewarm spirituality.
Jesus tells the angel, “I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor
hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I
am about to spit you out of my mouth.” This is about their
deeds, the things they do, that has gotten Jesus’ attention in a bad way. Their
deeds are neither hot nor cold, they don’t help anyone or make any difference.
As the letter is being read in the church, the people could see the city of
Hierapolis in the distance where there were famous hot springs used to soothe
sore bodies and ease the aches and pains of growing older. Down the road the
other way is the city of Colossae, known for its clear cold fresh water. This
water was refreshing and energizing. Laodicea received its water from
Hierapolis through an aqueduct and by the time the water reached the city, it
was lukewarm and minerals clouded the water, giving it a foul taste. It had to
be run through purifiers before it was fit to drink. Jesus is saying they taste
like foul water.
When you can take care of yourself and
don’t need help from anyone else, it becomes easy to think that we don’t need
God. Hosea faced that attitude hundreds of years earlier, “Ephraim
boasts, “I am very rich; I have become wealthy. With all my wealth they will
not find in me any iniquity or sin.” It’s easy to believe
that because you’re a good person, you don’t really have any need to be
forgiven; what have you really done wrong? You mostly keep the law, so you’re
fine. Life’s good, so let’s enjoy what we have since it’s been given to us by
God. If I do something wrong, I’ll just give a little more at church and it’ll
be fine again. You do just enough to figure you’re still good with Jesus.
Jesus has a sarcastic streak in him that he
uses to grab their attention. “You say, I am rich; I
have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you
are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.” Jesus calls us to “buy gold refined in the fire, so we can be rich; and white
clothes to wear, so we can cover our shameful nakedness; and salve to put on
our eyes so we can see.” Jesus is poking at them. The call to wear white
robes that symbolize righteousness in contrast to their black wool, the eye
salve that the medical school in Laodicea was famous for refers to their
spiritual blindness, the gold is spiritual wealth that has passed through the
refiner’s fire. This spiritual wealth is the life knowledge that comes from
living through hard times when you find yourself searching for what’s really
true, for who you can really count on. For us, that’s Jesus who is the way, the truth and the life. Jesus uses suffering
to strengthen our faith, to draw us closer to him, and help us see the world
through his eyes. The Old Testament calls us to be refined like the gold, to
have the dross, the mess in our hearts and lives burned off, often this comes
through suffering that refocuses us back to God, stripping away all the things
we relied on, the things we had made into idols. Jesus died on the cross to
purify us from our sin, just as the Laodiceans purified their water to make it
clear again.
So many people live with disappointment, with
lost dreams and hopes, living with relationships that could hold so much more.
For many different reasons, we’ve learned to live with less hope and no longer
strive to live for more meaning. Life hasn’t turned out the way we had hoped or
planned and we live with regrets and disappointments. When someone asks us how
we’re doing, we say we’re doing fine. We do lukewarm because all we see is our
own needs and wants.
We’ve learned to hide our struggles and
hurts really well from each other. A good friend who’s an actor once told me, “The
church is filled with hypocrites.” I leapt to the church’s defense, but he
stopped me and said, “All I meant was that most people come to church
wearing masks, in Greek theatre, an actor wearing a mask is called a hypocrite
because he’s not who he appears to be.” We wear masks is because we’re
afraid people won’t accept us for who we really are; that they might look at us
differently and judge us because we’re not doing as well as we could be. We
wear masks to avoid examining our true beliefs, our true feelings, so we bury
them deep inside us where we hope they will disappear if we ignore them long
enough. We accept lukewarm and convince ourselves that this is good enough.
This is the church in Laodicea. On the
outside they look good. They meet their budget, they help out when asked, they
show up for worship on Sundays, but it’s not coming from a place of following
Jesus, but from a place of self-sufficiency. They believe they don’t really
need Jesus. They don’t recognize their need for Jesus, their need for healing from
their sin. They believe they can handle everything themselves just fine. They
do the faith things, but with a lukewarm heart, going through the motions,
doing what’s expected, but not engaging deeply into God’s plan for their lives
and the life of the church. They don’t want to do the hard work of examining
their hearts and souls, of going for more: for deeper together, for inner peace,
for freedom from fear, instead settling for wealth and getting by.
How do you change lukewarm? Jesus tells us, “Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and
repent. Here I am! I stand at
the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in
and eat with that person, and they with me.” These letters to the
churches are a call to respond to Jesus and repent of our self-centeredness.
When Jesus calls us to be earnest, he’s calling us to be enthusiastic, to
regain our excitement in Jesus, to open the door to your life that Jesus is
knocking at. This means getting up from your comfortable chair, putting aside
that bowl of chips, and responding to Jesus’ voice to open the door of your
heart and life so Jesus can come in and eat with you.
Ephesians 2:10 says, “For
we are God’s handiwork, created in
Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” Paul sees
all of life as lived through and for God. Romans 12:1 says, "I urge you ... to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice,
holy and pleasing to God." This offering takes place in our
everyday ordinary life. In the same way, Colossians 3:17 says, "And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in
the name of the Lord Jesus." Be hot and offer the soothing healing
that Jesus came to bring to those God has placed in your life. Many people are
looking for healing in their lives, in their hearts and souls that only Jesus
can give them, but they’re unable to experience the soothing healing of Jesus
until someone, you, invites them to meet Jesus.
Be cold
and bring refreshment to
your own life and the lives of your friends, co-workers, fellow students by
inviting them to meet Jesus who can rejuvenate their lives again. Show them a
fresh perspective on the craziness we’re living in and through right now by
helping them see God’s in control and working his plans out for the salvation
of the world. Help them see, instead of a wilderness of COVID 19, masks,
vaccine passports, and infighting, show them a God who brings overflowing cups
of refreshing life-giving water we can offer to others. Don’t settle for less
than the full life Jesus came to give you; don’t settle for lukewarm. Grab the
life of meaning and purpose God offers, a life focused on drawing others to
God, inviting them to join us in walking the Jesus path of service and grace.
Everything we have is a
gift to use to grow the influence of Jesus into our community, to care for
those needing a hand up, and to use our gifts and talents to help our community
flourish. These are the good works prepared in advance
for us to do. A community of Jesus followers investing in others and
inviting them to join us in following Jesus changes hearts, changes lukewarm
into hot and cold, bringing healing, hope, refreshment and energy; giving us a
glimpse of the coming kingdom of heaven that renews our passion for Jesus
again. “Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit
says to the churches.”
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