Revelation 13:1-18

And, I saw a beast rising out of the sea, with ten horns and seven heads, and on its horns were ten diadems, and on its heads were blasphemous names. And, the beast that I saw was like a leopard, its feet were like a bear’s, and its mouth was like a lion’s mouth. And, the dragon gave it his power and his throne and great authority. One of its heads seemed to have received a death blow, but its fatal wound had been healed. In amazement the whole earth followed the beast. They worshiped the dragon, for he had given his authority to the beast, and they worshiped the beast, saying, “Who is like the beast, and who can fight against it?”

The beast was given a mouth speaking arrogant and blasphemous words, and it was allowed to exercise authority for forty-two months. It opened its mouth to speak blasphemies against God, blaspheming God’s name and dwelling, that is, those who dwell in heaven. Also, it was allowed to wage war on the saints and to conquer them. It was given authority over every tribe and people and language and nation, and all the inhabitants of the earth will worship it, everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb that was slaughtered.

Let anyone who has an ear listen:

If you are to be taken captive,

into captivity you go;

if you kill with the sword,

with the sword you must be killed.

Here is a call for the endurance and faith of the saints.

Then, I saw another beast that rose out of the earth; it had two horns like a lamb, and it spoke like a dragon. It exercises all the authority of the first beast on its behalf, and it makes the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose fatal wound had been healed. It performs great signs, even making fire come down from heaven to earth in the sight of all, and by the signs that it is allowed to perform on behalf of the beast it deceives the inhabitants of earth, telling them to make an image for the beast that had been wounded by the sword and yet lived, and it was allowed to give breath to the image of the beast so that the image of the beast could even speak and cause those who would not worship the image of the beast to be killed. Also, it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be given a brand on the right hand or the forehead, so that no one can buy or sell who does not have the brand, that is, the name of the beast or the number for its name. This calls for wisdom: let anyone with understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number for a person. Its number is six hundred sixty-six.

The Mark of the Beast

John’s vision continues. If you remember from 2 weeks ago, when we were reading from Revelation 5, the lamb was going to break the seals on the scroll. We have a bit of a jump here to Revelation 13, so I just want to give you a brief summary of what happens in between.

When the seals were broken, plagues were unleashed on the earth: locusts with human faces, lion teeth, and scorpion tails, horses with lion heads breathing fire and sulfur out of their mouths. A third of humanity is killed. A woman appears in Revelation 12, “clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.” She’s giving birth to a son who’s supposed to rule over all the nations. But, a dragon appears, “with seven heads and ten horns and seven diadems on his heads. His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. Then the dragon stood before the woman who was about to deliver a child, so that he might devour her child as soon as it was born.” But, the child is brought to the heavenly throne room before he can be eaten, and the woman flees into the wilderness, where God takes care of her.

There’s a war between the angels of heaven and the dragon, and the dragon was cast down to earth, which is where today’s reading starts. This dragon has brought three beasts to help him. The first beast has ten horns and seven heads. Each horn has a crown, and each head has a blasphemous name. “In amazement, the whole earth followed the beast…saying, ‘Who is like the beast, and who can fight against it?”

The second beast has two horns and speaks like the dragon, and tells the people of earth to make an image of the first beast, and the second beast breathes life into this image, creating the third beast, who brands all of the people with the number 666.

And, this is why so many people avoid the Book of Revelation. The book of Revelation has been controversial ever since it was first being considered to be part of the biblical canon. It was one of the last books to be adopted into the canon, due to disagreements about who actually wrote it, and the strangeness of the text itself. Martin Luther included a preface for the Book of Revelation in his 1522 translation of the New Testament, saying it was neither apostolic, nor prophetic, though he seemed to have changed his mind by 1530. Theologian Huldrych Zwingli said that it is not a book of the Bible, and it is the only book of the New Testament that John Calvin did not write a commentary on. The Eastern Orthodox Church doesn’t include Revelation in their Divine Liturgy, the liturgy that they use when celebrating communion.

The images and themes of Revelation have a prominent role in pop culture, especially beliefs about the end times, and the number 666, the mark of the beast. We’ve been inundated with so many ideas about these things; it doesn’t even matter if you’ve read Revelation or not. So, we need to get past all of that to try to understand what the text actually means. We have more of the coded symbol language here. The beast has ten horns and seven heads, with one crown on each horn, for a total of ten. But, this is confusing, because seven and ten are the numbers of perfection and completion, horns and crowns are symbols of power and leadership, so what is going on here? It seems to be a façade. The beast looks perfect and it looks powerful, and it has tricked the people into worshipping it, “Who is like the beast, and who can fight against it?”

We know it’s a façade, because its heads have blasphemous names and it speaks blasphemies against God, against the place where God dwells, and those who live there. It wages war against the saints, and calls another beast to rise up out of the earth. This new beast tells the people to make an image of the first beast to be worshipped, something the one true God would never do; the second commandment is “Thou shalt not make unto thee a graven image.” And, the second beast breathes life into the image, created a third beast, so now, they’re a perversion of the Holy Trinity, a perversion that’s repeated with the number 666, six being the number of imperfection, here repeated three times. Those who refuse to worship the beast were killed, and John tells his audience to be wise, and to understand who this person is that this mark represents.

We could go ahead and take all of this extremely literally, and talk about how this is a prophecy of the end times, and how we need to be prepared and make sure we’re right with God because this could happen at any moment, but I don’t know how helpful that would be. Coded into this story is a message, that just because something looks and sounds good, that doesn’t mean that it actually is good. Looks can be deceiving, and actions speak louder than words. If someone quotes Bible verses at you, but they think people need to show proof of employment to qualify for Medicaid or food stamps, then they aren’t doing what the Bible tells them to do. If someone claims to be a Christian, but oppresses their neighbors and the foreigners in their midst, then they are not doing what the Bible tells them to do. If someone goes to church all the time, but is selfish and greedy and hateful in their life outside of church, then they aren’t doing what the Bible tells them to do.

It can be hard in these times in which we live, surrounded by celebrities, and propaganda, and politicians, and fake news to know what is real and what is not, not to mention A.I., which is everywhere now and is becoming more and more difficult to differentiate from reality every day. False ideas of right and wrong have become embedded in our psyches, they’re so ingrained in our culture that we don’t even notice them. We’re conditioned to think that pretty and handsome means morally good by movies and television. Ugly people must be evil, or at least untrustworthy, or maybe gross or unclean. Neat and orderly is how things are supposed to be, not unkempt or wild or out of control. But, neat and orderly isn’t morally good or bad, and unkempt or wild isn’t morally good or bad, so why do we think that way? Why is an ironed shirt better than a wrinkled one? Why is a made bed better than an unmade one? We label some foods as healthy and morally good, and other foods as unhealthy and morally bad. We ask people if they’re a dog person or a cat person, and pass judgement on them for that. None of this is real. It’s all social conditioning, and it has become so ingrained in our culture that we actually believe it. Even when we know it’s not true, we can’t help but believe it.

What something looks like, what people say about something or someone, what that person says about themselves, is not going to definitively tell you if they are more or less likely to make a good choice. The choices speak for themselves, and like John says, we need to be wise and see what lies beneath the façade.

The potential for disaster can be incredibly high if people become entranced by the wrong person. History is filled with examples, like the cult leader Jim Jones, who orchestrated the mass murder-suicide of over 900 people, by drinking Flavor Aid mixed with cyanide. That’s where the saying “drinking the Kool-Aid” comes from.

There’s the Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos, who was president from 1965 to 1986. At the age of seventeen, he killed his father’s political rival, defended himself in court, and won. He ruled with brutal martial law, stole billions from the government, and died in exile in Honolulu. To this day, three decades after his death, he is still adored by the people, and considered by some to be the greatest leader the Philippines has ever had.

And then, there’s everyone’s favorite go-to example, Adolf Hitler, whose actions led to the deaths of six-million Jews, and 5 million others.

The stakes are high when someone commands the attention of a lot of people. They can be good, like Martin Luther King, Jr., Greta Thunberg, Jesus. Or, they can be bad. It is up to us to discern who we should follow and who we should not. We know what the qualifications of a good leader are. We know what God tells us we should and shouldn’t do. We know the example that Jesus gave us through the life he led. So, don’t let yourselves become fooled by the beast, and definitely don’t let yourself be branded by him. Keep your eyes on God, and follow the leaders who direct your eyes toward Jesus. Or better yet, be the leader that the people need. Amen.

~ Rev. Charles Wei