Worthy

It is a strange place to be celebrating Resurrection Day. The King Vegas reveres is not the King I honor on this day. I am here because I love my niece, and want her day to be one of joy when she gets married; for her to know that I cared enough to be here for this momentous day. But Vegas is not a place I would otherwise seek to be. It is the antithesis of what one might consider holy or righteous...not the typical Easter setting.

But, on the other hand, I think Jesus would have looked at Vegas with great compassion. It is a city filled to overflowing with humanity trying to muffle pain and longing with false comforts. Everything in the city is fake- fake Statues of Liberty, fake Eiffel tower, fake Roman fountains, fake Michelangelo statues, fake Elvises....Nothing here is real, except the decadence and the opulence, and luxury masking the fact that it is all a shadow of reality. I think Jesus would have felt this was a city that needed Him, and needed Him badly.

I walked for several hours while waiting for the rest of my family to arrive. On my wanderings, I passed an old man who was a sidewalk performer. He had a sign that declared he was the "mechanical man". He was quite good, this old guy who moved like a wind up toy. But no one was watching. Later, when I passed him again on my way back to the hotel, his grey haired wife was standing next to him. They were sharing a bottle of water and a sandwich. He was no longer pretending to be a mechanical man. He was just an old man painted silver lost in the sea of humanity, sipping cold water and wondering why no one bothered to notice him.

Beautiful girls, dressed up like chorus line Rockettes, stood on the edge of the sidewalk with tin cans labeled: "tips". Young men threw money in the cans, and draped their arms around the girls, while they posed for photographs from their friends. Photos of them hugging fake chorus line girls to send home.

I thought of the message of Easter, of Resurrection Sunday. Jesus died for our sins because He believed we were worthy of redemption. Honestly, sometimes I wonder why He believed that to be true. The astonishing thing is not that we have faith in Him...but that He Has faith in us.

Revelation 5: 2-13
And I saw a mighty angel proclaiming in a loud voice, "Who is worthy to break the seals and open the scroll?" But no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth could open the scroll or even look inside it. I wept and wept because no one was found who was worthy to open the scroll or look inside. Then one of the elders said to me, "Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals." Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing at the center of the throne, encircled by the four living creatures and the elders. The Lamb had seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. He went and took the scroll from the right hand of him who sat on the throne. And when he had taken it, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp and they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of God's people. And they sang a new song, saying:
"You are worthy to take the scroll
and to open its seals,
because you were slain,
and with your blood you purchased for God
persons from every tribe and language and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God,
and they will reign on the earth." Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand. They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders. In a loud voice they were saying:
"Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain,
to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength
and honor and glory and praise!" Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, saying:
"To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb
be praise and honor and glory and power,
for ever and ever!"


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