Commentary on Revelation 5:11-14

Throughout the letters to the seven churches (Revelation 2–3), John, the purported author of Revelation, expresses his concern with misdirected worship. Idolatry, for John, involves participation in any activities focused on honoring imperial rulers or local deities, including the veneration of idols and images. Opportunities for honoring imperial rulers and local deities were frequent in the cities John addressed. Imperial festivals and games, public sacrifices and dedications, and communal and professional meals provided ample opportunity for idolatry, including eating the meat from an animal given in sacrifice to an idol or image. 

In back-to-back letters, John condemns idolatry as “fornication” (2:14, 20), a metaphor aimed at signaling misdirected worship and repeated in later chapters (Revelation 17–18). John’s condemnation of idolatry also denounces “those who worship the beast and its image” (14:9; 16:2; 20:4) and those who participate in idolatry through “the work of their hands” (9:20). Understanding John’s disdain for idolatry is important to understanding Revelation 4–5. 

Following the seven letters, John further condemns idolatry by demonstrating what he considers to be proper worship—worship directed toward God and the Lamb. First, Revelation 4 demonstrates that true worship is directed toward God, the real ruler and creator of the world. The two hymns offered in Revelation 4 describe God as holy, almighty, and eternal and disclose the reason God is the subject of true worship: “for you created all things and by your will they existed and were created” (4:11). It is important to note that Rome perceived itself as a world power, ascribed to itself divine authority, and projected universal endorsement. In other words, Rome saw itself as sovereign and eternal, and John refutes this claim by declaring that God alone is in control. 

In the following chapter (Revelation 5), John reveals the second subject worthy of worship—the Lamb, the predominant image for Jesus in Revelation. By taking the scroll from God, the Lamb becomes God’s agent for establishing God’s sovereignty throughout the world. Every creature in heaven and on earth joins together in worshipping the Lamb, further suggesting that idols have no place in proper worship. In contrast to a world that constructs altars to a pantheon of figures, a rightly ordered world is centered solely on the worship of God and the Lamb. 

John’s condemnation of misdirected worship continues beyond the opening chapters. Hymns, prayers, prostration, and loud voices are repeated themes throughout Revelation. Following one of the final worship scenes, John demonstrates the ease of misguided worship by falling at the feet of an angel himself. The messenger quickly corrects John, “You must not do that! I am a fellow servant with you and your comrades who hold the testimony of Jesus. Worship God!” (19:10). For John, worship demonstrates allegiance, and this quality necessitates his stance against participation in the honoring of imperial images and idols. A true Jesus-follower must express allegiance only to God and the Lamb. Worldly rulers are not worthy of our praise. 

Much like many modern political leaders, Rome’s rulers thrived on puffery. They saw themselves as superior to provincials, sought expansion no matter the cost, valued civic displays of “goodwill” that further enhanced their honor and status, and maintained economic practices that bolstered the pockets of the elite at the expense and well-being of the non-elite. Emperors inscribed their accomplishments on stone monuments, paraded their victories through city streets, and linked religion with their rule through the creation of the imperial cult, a spectacle of spaces, rituals, images, personnel, and theological claims that paid tribute to their rule and sang their praises. 

But despite their claims of ushering in a period of peace and prosperity, the ways of Rome destroyed life. The two hymns in Revelation 5 make a mockery of Rome’s claims. First, the slaughtered Lamb, introduced in Revelation 5, serves as John’s central image of Rome’s brutality. Three times in chapter 5 John describes the Lamb as “slaughtered” (verses 6, 9, and 12). John doesn’t want his audience to forget Jesus’ wounds; he doesn’t want them to forget that Jesus was crucified at the hands of imperial power. Second, the Lamb described in Revelation 5 is the smallest of lambs. In contrast to the power and might of Rome, John depicts Jesus as a tiny and seemingly insignificant creature, the runt of the flock.

Wealth is another point of comparison between Rome and the Lamb. Whereas Rome’s wealth serves to generate more wealth for Rome, Jesus uses the wealth he receives for the benefit of humanity. Rome purchases people for slavery (18:13), but the Lamb purchases (agorazō) people for God as priests to rule the earth (5:9). Moreover, whereas imperial priests are procured from the center, from Rome’s elite, God’s priests come from the margins, “from every tribe and nation and people and language” (5:9).

In sum, this short passage from Revelation emphasizes the incongruity between the world of political puffery and the humility of the Lamb. In the coming years, we would do well to guard ourselves against modern forms of idolatry. Rather than focusing on the size of a crowd or the accolades of corporate billionaires, we would do well to look around and take note: Are all tribes, nations, peoples, and languages represented in the crowd? Does the wealth of the mighty trickle down to the meek? Does their power bring life to those slaughtered by the world’s powers? This is the power of Easter. This is what deserves our collective Alleluias.