One Man's Jedi Is Another Man's Sith

The Jedi claim to fight for peace and justice; yet they employ violence to uphold their peace; they enforce their justice with a sword. They claim to have an allegiance to democracy; yet, uphold that democracy with the threat of force. They claim that they are motivated by a desire for peace and love; yet they use violence to impose their peace on others, and kill in the name of their love. Their peace is defective, their love is a distortion, and their justice is destructive. The major difference between the Jedi and the Sith is not that the Jedi are good and the Sith are evil, but that the Jedi are deluded or dishonest about who they are and what they want, and the Sith are open and honest about their motives and their methods.

This is basically the point that the Book of Revelation is making. Okay, John of Patmos was not writing about Jedi and Sith, but he was writing about things not being the way we pretend they are, or how they seem to be. The Book of Revelation is sometimes called “The Apocalypse” from the Greek word ἀποκάλυψις (apocálypsis), which means “unveiling.” What the Book of Revelation is, is a back stage pass, allowing us to see what the production looks like on the other side of the curtain. Those sitting in the audience have one perspective of the stage, and their knowledge and view is limited; but those who are back stage, those who get to see behind the curtain (apocálypsis) get to see the production as it really is -- not the glossy show and performance that occurs on stage, but the tension, the arguments, the struggles, the politics, the power plays, the vomiting, panic, and anxiety that goes on back stage.

We would be better suited to stop thinking of the Book of Revelation as a road map of future events, and think of it more as a back stage pass to the events that are happening now. The Book of Revelation is powerful because it is always relevant -- the themes presented in the book have been true for every generation. Every generation has seen struggles, an oppressive (and often seemingly unstoppable) force trying to impose itself on others, profit and power victimizing the poor and the helpless. Since the time of its writing, every generation has produced people who declare that the Book of Revelation was coming true in their time -- and they were right because it is always true, and will always be true, until the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

One of the most famous images of the Book of Revelation is from chapter six, when Christ (the Lamb that looks as if it has been slaughtered) opens up a scroll by breaking the official seals. The first four seals unleash upon the world the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse �" or do they? Remember, Revelation is ἀποκάλυψις and ἀποκάλυψις is “unveiling” -- “looking behind the curtain. It is our back stage pass. So when the Lamb breaks the seals, the Lamb is not necessarily letting loose a punishment, or a judgment, or setting something in motion, but may simply be showing for the first time what is already happening.

The Four Horsemen are in a way a protest against the Roman Empire, exposing it for what it really is in spite of what it claims to be. The Roman Empire, in addition to imposing its will through military might, also sought to market itself and its rule through the use of slogans: Roman Victory,  Roman Peace, Roman Prosperity, Roman Justice.

I saw that the lamb had torn open one of the seven seals and I heard one of the four alive things say with a voice that sounded like thunder, “Go!” And check it out! I saw a white horse. The rider of the horse has a bow and he was given a victory crown. Then he rode away, looking like a conqueror who was spoiling for a fight.
~John's Revelation

Those who make the Book of Revelation a blueprint for the end of the world miss the point and they are forced to interpret this image in a manner that conforms to their preconceived idea that it is about the end of the world and not about the world as it is today. Therefore, this white horse and rider are fashioned into the Antichrist -- even though that word does not appear in the Book of Revelation -- or false religion. But there is another way to look at this image that has nothing to do with the Antichrist or false prophets and religion, or even the Parthians that many claim this image is based upon.

The white horse and rider are symbols of Victory, and more than just a generalized victory, it is Roman Victory. The image is that of a victorious general who is riding in a Roman Triumph. The general would ride a white horse, or in a chariot pulled by a white horse. The Triumph was reserved for victory over worthy opponents. The image here is exposing the nature of Roman Victory -- it is a victory built on conquest. It is not just that the Roman Empire wins fights, it is that it actively seeks out conflicts “like a conqueror...spoiling for a fight.” Roman Victory is Roman Conquest and Roman Subjugation -- it is a victory built on unnecessary violence and slavery.
    

When the Lamb tore open the second seal, I heard the second alive thing say, “Go!”  Another horse, a fiery-red one, went out. The rider of that horse was given the power to take peace from the earth. He was also given a giant sword so that they will slaughter one another.
~John's Revelation

This image is understood as being a symbol of war. Yet it is more than a symbol of war, it is a challenge to the strongest and most enduring of the Roman slogans: The Pax Romana -- The Roman Peace. The Roman narrative is that with the ascension of Augustus, the Roman world entered into a period of peace and prosperity. But a look behind the curtain shows that the Roman Peace is based on war. During the years of that Roman Peace, conquered peoples were killed in wars and revolts. New people were conquered and forced into the Empire. The Roman Peace was a lie �" it was only peaceful for those who ruled because it had more to do with the end of power struggled that killed rulers than it had to do with actual peace for the Empire.
    

When the Lamb tore open the third seal, I heard the third alive thing say, “Go!” And check it out! I saw a black horse. The rider of that horse holds a scale in his hand. Then I heard something that sounded like a voice coming from the middle of the four alive things that said, “A day’s pay for a quart of wheat and a day’s pay for three quarts of barley! But don’t harm the olive oil and the wine!”
~John's Revelation  

The prosperity of the Roman Empire was something to behold. In its time, it was the most powerful and wealthiest Empire in the history of the world. Yet, that wealth and prosperity was not shared among the peoples throughout the Empire. It was reserved for the elites and the rulers. Most people who lived in the Roman Prosperity were poor, or slaves, or day-laborers, who got to each if they found work that day, or go hungry if they did not. Roman Prosperity was conditioned upon the enslavement of large segments of the population, the economic subjugation of most of the rest.            

When the Lamb tore open the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth alive thing saying, “Go!” And check it out! I saw a pale-green horse. The rider of this horse is named Death and the grave* follows behind him. He was given the authority to kill a quarter of the earth’s population by means of the sword, disease, famine, and the wild animals that live on earth.
~John's Revelation

This is an attack on the Roman social order as a whole including Roman Justice. The images of sword, disease, famine, and wild animals were classic Hebrew images of the total breakdown of society and the civilized world. It is descriptive of what follows a city that is under siege -- the city is starved, no food or supplies get in or out, famine results, disease crops up and spreads, there is fighting within as some want to surrender, then the enemy storms the city, killing everyone if it breeches the walls, and adding to the difficulties if it cannot. When the army has finished with the city, many of the population is dead, buildings are destroyed, the wall is knocked down, and the barriers that separated the city from the wilderness are gone, allowing wild animals to prowl the city streets.

Rome promise civilization. Part of Roman Civilization was its proud tradition of justice and legalism. Romans were a society ruled by laws, to the point that they even felt that conquered provincials and non-citizens were entitled to justice and legal proceedings; although, they were not privileged to the same standards of justice reserved for Roman citizens. A provincial could be detained, beaten, and questioned, but a citizen could not. In the Book of Acts, Paul is about to be beaten by a soldier and Paul reminds him that since he is a Roman citizen, it is a crime for the soldier to beat him.

The image of the Fourth Horseman is exposing the idea that the whole of Roman civilization is actually chaotic. It pretends to be order and justice, but it is violence, subjugation, extortion, forced impoverishment, that creates despair and distress for those forced to live under their rule.

Okay, so by now someone is asking: “If this is all true, then how does this apply to today since the Roman Empire no longer exists?” The Roman Empire never died, it simply changed hands and adapted. It passed through the Byzantine East and the Germanic West. It found its way into the British Empire and the American Empire -- our legal understanding and justice and our buildings for our government and courts are inspired by the Roman Empire. Those people who wait for the end of the world and who await a reconstitution of the Roman Empire can stop waiting. It is here and has always been here.

So the questions that Christians in twenty-first century America have to ask are: “What is the basis for our victories?” “What is our prosperity founded on?” “What is behind our justice?” “Is our peace really peaceful, or is it based on subjugation, conquest, and violence?”

The point is that the breaking of the seals in chapter six not only exposed the Roman Empire for what it was in the first century, it also exposes who we are in the twenty-first century. If you cannot accept that, then please remain seated in the auditorium and watch the show that is presented on stage. Do not look behind the curtain if you do not have the courage to see what is behind the production.

The Book of Revelation through poetry and imagery makes it clear that one man’s Jedi is another man’s Sith. One man’s justice is another man’s oppression; one man’s prosperity is another man’s poverty and slavery; and in a society in which we are now perpetually at war, our “peace” is based on the blood of those sent to die, so that most of us can live our lives as usual �" unaware of their struggles, hardship and sacrifice.

Our peace, our justice, our love are like those of the Jedi �" dishonest, defective, delusional, and destructive. Like the Jedi, we are merely Sith who are unwilling to face who we really are.

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*The Greek word is hades, the abode of the dead. Often translated as “hell,” it is not the fiery punishment of Gehenna, which is also translated as “hell.” Gehenna was a garbage pit outside of Jerusalem that was constantly on fire. Jesus Christ used it as a metaphor for the fate of sinners and those who do not do the will of the Father. Since hades is the abode of the dead, it seems a parallel term for the Hebrew sheol, which is often translated as “the grave”; therefore, hades is usually translated as “grave” throughout this translation.