Claim them

I was recently reading an off-the-beaten-trail translation of the book of Revelation. It was apparently willing to paraphrase and amplify the text as it translated. (Similar to the the New Living Translation.) In the beginning of Revelation, Jesus is giving both warnings and promises to seven different churches. When he comes to the church of Sardis in chapter three, he offers a powerful word of encouragement for his people. In verse three he says, “Those who conquer will be clothed in robes of light. I will not blot out their names from the Book of Life... Rather, I will confess their names and claim them in the presence of My Father and His Angels.”

What really struck me was the phrasing “claim them.” The original Greek only has the phrase for “confess their names.” But I do see why the translators added the phrase “claim them.” It helps to fill in and flesh out what it means for Jesus to confess our names. By announcing our names, by confessing us and our names, Jesus is identifying himself with us. 

Perhaps an illustration from Everybody Loves Raymond will help illustrate the value of Jesus' statement. In this episode, Raymond does his usual “I am a moron husband who really embarrasses my wife Debra” thing. This time Debra is so fed up that when someone asks “who is that guy?” while pointing at her husband Raymond, she claims not to know him. She then accidentally reveals to Raymond that she claimed not to know him. This hurt Raymond’s feelings because she wouldn't even claim to be his wife, no matter how embarrassing he was.

So here is how this story helps us to see how amazing Jesus words to us are. When Jesus says he will “confess” the names of his Christians, he is saying he is happy to be identified with us. He won’t slink away in embarrassment and avoid eye contact. Isn't it amazing that Jesus will stand in front of His Father and say, “John is mine, Kelly is mine, Matt belongs to me, Josh is one of my people” and on and on. He will list off our names as his family with the most amazing audience of all: God and his Angels.

You be may be wondering if you could ever hear those words from Jesus about you, “this one is mine.” You may think you've done too much wrong for Jesus to ever want you as one of his people. But I’d like us to look at how Jesus deals with people who mess up, but are willing to repent. 

At one point. Peter was unwilling to claim that he even knew Jesus (see John 18:15-27) Jesus was on his way to die and Peter was likely afraid that if he admitted he knew Jesus, that Peter would be joining Jesus on a cross. Peter ended up denying even knowing Jesus three times. 

Ouch. 

So it’s significant that after his resurrection, Jesus goes to the effort of restoring Peter with a recommissioning statement about tending and feeding Jesus’ sheep, three times. Jesus doesn't deny that Peter is one of his people. Instead, he comes back to Peter and helps set him back on his feet again as one of his disciples (see John 21:15-19). 

Jesus is compassionate and understands our weaknesses and is willing to help us through them. We just have to ask for his help and trust him by faith and he will guide us.