When I was a teen, bar codes—those “Universal Product Codes” that are printed on everything we purchase—were a little over a decade old. They were also said to be the mark of the beast the apostle John mentions in Revelation 13. Since John said that the time was coming when one could neither buy nor sell without the mark, and since UPCs were becoming ubiquitous, clearly bar codes were the mark. Then in 2014 it was “Monster Energy Drink” because its logo, which is an “M” scratched by some sort of monster, can look like three instances of the Hebrew letter vav, and since vav is the sixth letter of the Hebrew alphabet, the Monster Energy logo is “vav vav vav”—666.

It has long been common for people to wonder the meaning of the infamous “666” in Revelation. More recently some have claimed that Bill Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft, is behind the ongoing vaccinations against COVID-19, including some sort of microchip in the vaccine. (I’ve yet to see someone receive the vaccine in either the right hand or the forehead. Strange.) Many think John was referring to “Nero Caesar” through a thing called gamatria. In gamatria, one substitutes a numerical value for a letter, and if you spell “Nero Caesar” in Hebrew letters and then calculate the value of that name with gamatria, you get, well, not 666. You have to misspell his name in Hebrew to get that. Besides, his name was actually Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus; how would John’s readers know which combination of his names to spell—er, misspell—in Hebrew? Another difficulty with this understanding is none of the earliest writers commenting on Revelation 13 thought of Nero Caesar misspelled in Hebrew. Irenaeus, writing less than 100 years after Revelation was written, wondered if it were gamatria for a guy named Euanthas (we don’t know who this is) or mabe Lateinos (“the Latins”—Rome) or possibly even Teitan (“the Titans”). I’m skeptical.

What did John write, and what is the mark of the beast? Here’s the text in question.

Also it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the right hand or the forehead, so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of its name. This calls for wisdom: let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is 666.

Revelation 13:16–18 ESV

A few years ago we worked our way through Revelation. One thing we saw repeatedly was John’s use of apocalyptic imagery, including the symbolism of numbers. John says the one who has understanding should calculate the number of the beast. This is what has led some to think of gamatria. Given the symbolic nature of numbers, a more straightforward explanation seems appropriate. In apocalyptic literature, the number 7 represents the perfection of God. There are seven days in a week and the menorah in the temple had seven branches. In Revelation John has seven visions and sees the seven spirits of God, seven lampstands, seven bowls, seven trumpets, seven scrolls, seven seals, and writes to seven churches. Seven is the fullness of God’s perfections. What does the number 6 represent then? Less than 7. Seven represents fullness and completeness and perfection, which means 6 is less than fullness and less than completeness and less than God’s perfection. The beast John refers to is one who will always fail to rise to the level of God. So what is this mark? What John wrote before this is helpful:

And I saw a beast rising out of the sea, with ten horns and seven heads, with ten diadems on its horns and blasphemous names on its heads. 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 to it the dragon gave his power and his throne and great authority. One of its heads seemed to have a mortal wound, but its mortal wound was healed, and the whole earth marveled as they followed the beast. And 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?”

Revelation 13:1–4 ESV

The beast John refers to is empire and he says empire receives its power from the dragon—from Satan. The outcome of the beast’s power is people worship the beast for having such great power: “Who is like the beast, and who can fight against it?” No one. The beast is unstoppable. In the late first century the Roman empire continued to expand. It truly appeared to be unstoppable. Who could fight against the empire? All empires fall, however, for as great as they may appear to be, no empire can ever reach the status of the kingdom of God. Even the greatest empires are just 666. It doesn’t matter how many 6s you put together, 6 will never be greater than 7. What does this have to do with the mark of the beast, whose identity is that of empire, of power and of conquest? What John writes after revealing the number of the beast will show us.

Then I looked, and behold, on Mount Zion stood the Lamb, and with him 144,000 who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads.

Revelation 14:1 ESV

The 144,000 are the same group as the “great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages” (Revelation 7:4–11). In Revelation John frequently hears one thing yet sees another that only appears to contradict what he heard. What he sees actually clarifies what he heard. In chapter 5 he heard the Lion of the tribe of Judah had conquered, yet what he saw was a slaughtered Lamb. The victory of the Lion was clarified by the greatness of the Lamb’s slaughter. Notice in 14:1 that this uncountable multitude who worship the Lamb have his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads. This is their mark of identity. They are identified as the people of God. What, then, is the mark of the beast? Those who have the beast’s number on their foreheads are those who identify with empire, with worldly power and might. Those who glory in military power and conquest worship the beast, just like that famous Roman Country & Western singer Tobias Keithicus who sang, “We’ll light up your sky like it’s the Fourth of July” and “We’ll put a boot of your backside—it’s the Roman way!”

The message of Revelation is this: what you hear is that empire is winning, but what you will see is that the Lamb has already won by dying. As we look around at our world and we hear the news of ever-rising COVID-19 death counts and violence and hostility being perpetrated against people of Asian descent and we hear about political corruption and economic struggles both in our nation and around the world and as we hear our own struggles with illness or sin, we need to see that Jesus Christ won the victory when he walked out of his tomb on that first Easter morning. Over and over again John repeats his assertion in Revelation that when you hear that it’s really, really bad, look to Jesus, for there you will see the truth: he has already won.

We don’t need to fear the news. Our response should always be the response of faith, for God in Christ through his Spirit is victorious. We don’t need to fear bar codes. We don’t need to fear Monster Energy drinks. We don’t need to fear vaccines. We don’t need to fear COVID-19. We don’t need to fear wars and rumors of wars. We don’t need to fear. Our identity is firmly rooted in the one whose victory has already been secured. We have his name and his Father’s name firmly stamped on our foreheads.

There has been an alarming increase in anti-Asian violence in our country. It seems that every day we learn of a new incident in which a person of Asian descent—often an older men or woman—was viciously attacked and told he or she does not “belong here”. This sort of violence is not new; the target and the frequency of this violence is. A generation or two ago this violence was directed toward black folk. Today it is being directed toward Asian folk.

What is common to each of these acts of violence, indeed, to every act of violence, is the wrongful use of power to oppress rather than to protect and serve the needs of others. This violates the very purpose God placed Adam into the garden. In Genesis 2 we read God’s purpose:

The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.

Genesis 2:15 ESV

This seems rather straightforward. Adam was placed into the garden to take care of the garden. Eve would later be created to engage in that work alongside him as his equal. The word translated “to work” has the idea of working for it. Adam was to serve the garden. To “keep” the garden means to guard or watch over or protect the garden. To use the phrase made popular by the Los Angeles Police Department, Adam’s role was to serve and protect.

Eden was a perfect place. There was no sin in the world when Adam and Eve were placed there for the work God gave them to do. There were no storms that threatened to harm or destroy. There were no roving bands of enemies who threatened to overrun God’s garden. There was no sickness or disease; no pandemics were even possible. God placed Adam and his wife into that garden to serve the garden and to watch over it, to protect it, but protect it from what? The serpent was present, yet Adam was given dominion over all other creatures in the garden—which means Adam had authority over the serpent. While the serpent was evil, having been empowered in some way by the enemy of God, the serpent was not the real danger. The serpent could not act unless permission were granted to it. The real danger in the garden was not the serpent, but Adam. Only Adam could bring death and destruction and ruin into God’s good world. Eve was deceived, but Adam willfully and deliberately and consciously chose to rebel against God and thus brought death and destruction and ruin into the world God had declared was very good. Rather than use his power and authority for its intended purpose, Adam used it to bring harm.

We see this misuse of power on full display in Genesis 6. In a strange and long-debated text we see power being used for selfish purposes rather than to serve and protect the world and its inhabitants.

When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose.

Genesis 6:1–2 ESV

Some believe these were fallen angels who took human women as wives. Others claim these were powerful kings or men. Others believe this was a mixing of godly and ungodly family lines. The latter of these is untenable for it is clear from anyone’s family tree that godliness is not inherited (and for exegetical reasons). The best solution is likely that we combine the first two; the “sons of God” were great and powerful men who gave themselves over to demonic influence and used their power to oppress by taking any woman(-en) they saw fit. Thus they were powerful men driven by lust rather than by a desire to serve and protect. God’s response was swift and fierce:

The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the LORD regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. So the LORD said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.” But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD.

And God said to Noah, “I have determined to make an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy them with the earth.”

Genesis 6:5–8, 13 ESV

The result of this incredible abuse of power was the flood that destroyed all but eight people. In God’s mercy he saved Noah and his wife and their three sons and their wives. In his divine justice he brought judgment for this: the abuse of power. The root of the evil of abusing power is that abusing power is the spirit of antichrist. It is contrary to the very nature of God. The apostle Paul indicated this in his letter to the Philippians when he told them they must have the mind of Christ, that they must think and act—and love—like Christ in that Jesus, though he was God in every way, did not cling to his rights and privileges as God, which of course includes the infinite power that is God’s, but instead chose to embrace suffering and death that he might protect his people and save them from sin and death. Whereas the first Adam was the only real danger in the garden, the second Adam was the only real protection from danger in that very different garden where he was arrested.

In today’s latest version of anti-Asian violence a man brutally attacked an elderly Asian woman right outside the open door of a business. In the video another man watches, but does nothing to intervene. The video ends with yet another man walking over to the door as this woman lay on the sidewalk, helpless, and simply closes the door. All three of these men failed to serve and protect, and thus furthered the violence in this world.

The flood was God’s response to violence and evil in the world, yet it came after God said this:

Then the LORD said, “My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years.”

Genesis 6:3 ESV

This 120 years is not a proclamation of the ideal human lifespan. God warns that judgment in the form of the flood would come in 120 years. Why God would delay judgment for so long is beyond my ability to comprehend, yet it is clear that God’s offering of mercy and forgiveness has always been a true offer to any who would repent and believe. He gave the world 120 years to do this.

As we are confronted with injustice and violence and corruption in the world, we must speak prophetically to the culture, calling men and women to faith and repentance. We must intervene as we are able, fulfilling our God-given role to serve and protect. We must continually remember that this world belongs to God, and evil has an expiration date. One day the Second Adam will return to his world and will once and for all end all evil and suffering. This is what Holy Week is about. The Lord took on human form that he might suffer and die, and on that Easter morning rise from the dead and thus conquer sin and death. It is only a matter of time before his victory is total.

My wife has a friend who lives near Chicago. They don’t see each other all that often, but they connect somewhat regularly over text and email. There are definitely no Zoom meetings and absolutely no phone calls—I have trouble getting my wife to answer my calls. (Apparently introverts don’t like talking to people. Weird.) Occasionally we’re able to visit and every time we do we are reminded that being with a person physically is different from “seeing” a person electronically through some sort of screen. Some things cannot be communicated fully except through a physical presence together. You can certainly share information with a text or email or phone call but some things cannot be communicated electronically.

Have you wondered why we did not have communion together for three months last spring when we were in quarantine? It would have been simple to do. One of the elders could have spoken the words of institution over Zoom while each of our households sat on our couches, staring at a table or computer screen or phone, and consumed some bread and wine at roughly the same time everyone else did. Well, it seems as though it would have been simple. The truth is far more complicated than that.

The apostle Paul had never been to Rome when he wrote his letter to the Christians in Rome. He did not plant the church there, though he knew several believers in the city (see Romans 16 for a list!) as he had worked with many of them elsewhere. He had wanted to visit Rome for some time but had been prevented from doing so for various reasons. His aim in visiting was, in part, to receive their support for his missionary activities in Spain and he would visit after first stopping by Jerusalem with the financial resources he had been collecting for the church there (Romans 15:24–25).

There has been a lot (no, really, I mean A LOT) of scholarly debate as to the real purpose of Paul’s letter to the Romans, but some things are clear. For example, he really wanted to visit them. He wrote this in chapter 1:

First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed in all the world. For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I mention you always in my prayers, asking that somehow by God’s will I may now at last succeed in coming to you. For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you—that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine. I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that I have often intended to come to you (but thus far have been prevented), in order that I may reap some harvest among you as well as among the rest of the Gentiles. I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.

Romans 1:8–15 ESV

Paul’s desire to visit Rome is clear, and it wasn’t because he wanted to see the sights or taste the gelato and espresso! He says very clearly that he wants to give them “some spiritual gift” to strengthen them. Paul’s use of the word “some” may suggest uncertainty on Paul’s part, as if he did not know exactly what gift they needed, but more likely Paul is being humble and gentle with them, not wishing to assert that he, “the mighty apostle”, has all the answers. He indicates this is not a one-way bestowing of a spiritual gift, as if the apostle were the only one gifted and they were to be the recipients of his spiritual gift(s). He tells them that his intent in sharing with them some spiritual gift is a mutual sharing of gifts, that both he and they may be mutually encouraged by one another and built up in their—his and the Roman believers’—faith.

What strikes me about this assertion from Paul is that he seems to suggest that in order to impart some spiritual gift to them he must be present with them. This seems odd. Through this letter he exercises the gift of teaching, of exhortation, of encouragement, of discernment, of wisdom, and numerous others. (Yes, the apostles seem to have been gifted extraordinarily, beyond what “ordinary” followers of Christ are, given their role in establishing the church of Jesus around the world.) Why can’t Paul simply share his spiritual gift(s) with them through his letter? He teaches in all of his letters. He exhorts. He encourages. All sorts of gifts are on display in his letters, so why does he say that he longs to visit them in order to impart a spiritual gift to them? Some gifts require presence. To say it another way, some presents require presence.

There was much Paul could do for them, and they for him, from afar. As mentioned, he could teach and he could encourage and he could exhort. Who hasn’t prayed for and with someone over the phone? There are lots of things that can be done for the good of others from a distance. There are spiritual gifts that do not require physical presence. It appears, however, that some gifts do. I don’t think Paul has in mind a specific gift. I think he recognizes that while many spiritual gifts can operate from a distance (the gift of faith, for example, is often exercised in one’s private prayer closet), physical presence provides a more powerful experience of the Spirit’s power. This isn’t because God’s Spirit is limited by distance, but because God desires his people to live in community with one another and real community requires physical presence.

This is the reason we all felt disconnected and so very isolated while in quarantine this last year. This is why those who are shut-ins and unable to assemble together with the church suffer. We are communal beings, which means we require real, genuine community. The so-called “Zoom fatigue” is not merely an exhaustion that comes from having to see yourself on screen during a meeting (though this is exhausting) or of constantly starting and stopping and interrupting others and trying to remember how to unmute yourself or forgetting to turn off your camera while you use a tissue. Engaging with others solely through a camera and a screen is exhausting because it is a poor replacement for physical presence. It is a stop-gap. It is amazing that those who are shut-in, for example, can still participate in some way with the gathered assembly, but I promise you that if you ask one, he or she would greatly prefer to be physically present. Some gifts require presence.

When we observe communion together, what is it that we are doing? We are consuming physical bread and wine (read “Welch’s”) as we proclaim the Lord’s death for our salvation. There is a reason we do not simply imagine we’re eating something. If it were merely a reminder, words can evoke memory, yet that is not what happens when we observe the Lord’s Supper. It is a physical, tangible thing we do to recognize the physical embodiment of God when he became one of us and bled and died for us. Because it is representing the very real presence of the Lord, both on earth during his ministry with his disciples and in his gathered assembly, it is—necessarily—a physical experience. This means it cannot be accomplished virtually.

The Lord’s Supper is not merely a recollection of something that happened in the past. It is not the recitation of facts, like a middle-school student reciting all the US presidents in order. The Lord shares a meal with us when we assemble together in his name and he is present in that unique and powerful way that he promised when we gather in his name. Communion is not something we can do privately. When we participate in this meal together we mysteriously and spiritually yet truly participate in Christ, and this event shared together has a real effect on us and our spirits. Communion is a physical, tangible experience of our union with Christ—our corporate union with Christ. It simply cannot be done alone or separated from one another.

On a basic, very fundamental level we all understand that certain things cannot be replicated over a video call. Your family’s Thanksgiving meal, for example, cannot truly take place via Zoom—even if each person were eating turkey and gobbling down green bean casserole. Can your family connect over Zoom? Sure. Can you catch up and encourage one another and show love for one another? Absolutely. Can you share a meal over the internet? No. A shared meal is necessarily an embodied experience. Communion is a shared meal, one in which the Lord himself is really present, and his presence is most powerfully experienced when we assemble in his name.