In the Spirit on the Lord's Day

In the Spirit on the Lord’s Day Commentary by Harry O. Maier Cite Share Show Bible Passage Read by Ben Quash Titian and his workshop (1488/1490–1576) painted St John the Evangelist on Patmos to adorn the ceiling of a lay voluntary association which gathered in the Scuola di San Giovanni Evangelista in Venice. We behold the instant when John ‘in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day heard a loud voice like a trumpet’ behind him, commanding him to write to the seven churches of western Asia Minor (Revelation 1:10). John is positioned on a mountain top, the biblical tradition’s cherished place for receiving divine epiphanies. The painting’s ceiling location would have magnified the verticality that the foreshortening of John’s body further intensifies. The composition situates viewers below and to the right of John so that as they look up to follow John’s vision, they behold God looking directly down not only on John but on them, along with six putti, one of them pulling the clouds open for God’s manifestation. The source of light behind God’s head heightens the aspect of divine revelation. The composition intensifies the drama of the moment through brilliant colour and atmospheric effects, and through its asymmetrical positioning of John off balance and twisting around, his red garment billowing, and his palms thrusting upward toward God’s outstretched hand. The eagle’s turned head and extended wings (lower right) lend further dynamism. The red book to the left, a Johannine iconographic symbol, is paradoxical. As though about to fall off the edge of the composition, it tells us that here is something words cannot capture. Yet, this will be the very book John writes to send to the seven churches (1:11). We encounter John in an epistemological earthquake. He will see terrifying images and exhort the seven churches to flip common sense understandings of the world on their head. John ‘in the Spirit’—that is, in worship—will learn what seeking God requires, namely, to open ears and eyes to hear and see new things. This work and the opening verses of Revelation point us to a new grammar for interpreting a world revealed through the Spirit in Scripture. We should not be surprised if, like the John we see depicted here, the Apocalypse throws us off balance.