Tribulation to Triumph

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Readings: Jeremiah 31.31-34 Revelation 7.9-end Matthew 5.1-12

"These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." - Rev. 7.14

Tribulation

The early Christians compared a trial, a trouble to a kind of trashing process passing through a "tribulum" separating the grain from the chaff or broken bits of straw. Christians were "sifted as wheat" so that what is essentially good would come out through painful process termed "tribulation". They said: "we must through many tribulations enter the Kingdom of God."

The text is about the great tribulation, not personal troubles or sorrows but Christians from the first century until now seem to be under persecution. The spiritual stress, or the physical suffering of individual Christians are not peculiar to his/her own lot but are part of a whole process of being purified, e.g. prejudice against the plain and pure ethic of the Christian Life. The "Agony of the Cross" is part of the life of the church. It is quite common for saintly men to be persecuted.

Many saintly persons have passed through this great tribulation. This "sifting" reclaims and releases the good from the bad so that what is best and excellent comes out in great triumph. They have been purified, made holy. They have washed their robes and made them white.

Triumph

Tempted, tried, but not defeated, nor discredited, the saints in heaven have proved stronger than all the destructive powers of evil – like Daniel and his three friends who walked out of the burning furnace of the powerful Persian King.

They have prevailed against the evil forces. They have proved stronger than their own faith. They have penetrated the veil of the mystery of suffering. Not just a few, but a great multitude - millions and millions of them of every generation, every climate and nation, celebrate this great triumph.

All the saints of God everywere have come out of the great tribulation "more than conquerors".

All Saints’ Day (1 November) reminds us all of this great victory and All Souls’ Day (2 November) helps us to remember as well those other countless souls who have gone through the same tribulation silently and unknownly.

LUKE OOI