The Stone of Pergamum [Wednesday in Lent 2]

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READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Revelation 2:12-17

• St. Matthew 20:17-28

 

Grace to you and peace. (1 Thess 1)

 

Jesus speaks to you tonight, saying:

“To the one who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it”

 

As we ponder our Lord’s letter to His Church in Pergamum, we can’t help but see a little humor. Recall from the reading that the Church is offered a stone and it is a big deal. This stone seems to be the key to some secret name or secret manna, or bread, that no one knows about except those who have it. 

 

And yet, Jesus has said in St. Matthew 7, “Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone?…If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!” (7:9-11).

 

Its funny, because in the first place, the stone is bad. But now in the letter to Pergamum, it is good. And to further confuse things, a mill stone is bad, especially one around your neck near deep water, but a large stone in front of a tomb is good.

 

In any case, the white stone is a God-send for Pergamum, because in it is redemption from all this sin they are charged with. I don’t know about you, but if I was accused of dwelling near or around satan’s throne, I’d rather have the mill-stone than live there any longer.

 

Here we run into another funny: the sharp two-edged sword. It cuts both ways. “You hold fast to my faith”, says the Lord, but “you dwell where satan dwells”. We can even bring in St. Peter here, who’s name is once again changed, or played with, to mean rock. 

 

Jesus says, “And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it” (Matt 16:18). So the white rock is the pope’s tiara and the “new name” is the name we figure out when they choose a new pope and he picks a popish name for himself. Halleluiah!

 

Ah, no. Let’s repent of that. Let’s repent of the misunderstanding of God’s Word in Revelation and let’s repent of the darkness of our intellect in regards to the “white stone” of Pergamum. As we maybe sang in Sunday School, “Open my eyes Lord, I want to see Jesus”

 

“The wise man builds his house upon the Rock” “and the rock was Christ” (Mt 7:24; 1 Cor 10:4).

Understanding Revelation is as simple as that. The “white stone” is Christ, His Word and His Sacraments. That is, the New Testament Church of the resurrected God-man, come to commune with His people and unite them to Him. 

 

Here is the sin at the Church of Christ in Pergamum: instead of being in the world and not of the world, they have become “of the world”. They have traded their “white rock” for the fools gold of contemporary worship, bringing in idolatry to the Lord’s House. For with the contemporary, came all sorts of false teaching which seemed meet and right so to do.

 

Yet, even in the midst of satan’s throne room, all that’s needful for escape is the presence of the Spirit of Christ, which constantly cries out for repentance. Satan does not build, but only corrupts and twists. Therefore, the stone the builders rejected remains in place. That is, though the devil has built his chapel, the Church stands or falls on the faith of Christ. 

 

Yes, our “white stone”, clothed now in deathless might, is not defeated and neither does He abandon His wayward sheep. The Rock remains, always there to give His gifts and to give His forgiveness. It remains, because He chooses to. He chooses to come to this corrupt place and call, gather, enlighten, and sanctify His whole Church on earth. None will be left out.

 

Thus, after He completes His work of suffering and resurrection, He hands Himself over to us. After He conquers on behalf of sinners, He chooses us to know His Name. YHWH, Rock of Ages, God-made-Man in the flesh, raised from the dead. That is His Name and there is none other. Those with Faith hear the Name and believe. Those without, receive deafness for their troubles.

 

And in that Name, we are saved. By His wounds, we are healed. Through His meal, we hold the secret manna in our hands, for the forgiveness of sins. When Israel first held the manna, they didn’t know what it was. That is literally what “manna” means: what is it. The manna fed to them in the desert wanderings was but a type, a shadow, unknowable without the resurrection of the Son of Man.

 

Now, having been baptized into the death and resurrection of Christ, the secret manna is the abundant Bread of the flesh of God, given each Lord’s Day, and only received by Faith. This is the stone of Faith that St. Peter was given, which Jesus praised: the faith to hear the Son of Man and believe.

 

Believe that even though he was a man of unclean lips, a sinner, dwelling among a people of unclean lips (Lk 5:8; Isa 6:5), uncleanness is washable. Believe that, though satan has chosen his spot in the church pews, with Balaam and the Nicolaitans, the Word of God comes in the flesh to defeat them for you. 

 

Faith, once again, is key to our salvation. Through Faith God is pleased, therefore, faith receives repentance, that we may avoid judgement and faith receives absolution, that the pure, white robe of Christ’s righteousness may be donned by us, claimed by us, and remain with us, in order that it may be sure and certain we are a part of the Church of Faith which prevails against the gates of hell.