Last week’s look into Revelation 6 made it hard to walk away comforted and hopeful. We read about the Lamb opening the sealed scrolls and calling horsemen to come and bring such horrifying things such as death and famine. We were left with a full picture of God’s wrath at the end of chapter 6, reading of men running under falling rocks and begging to die. It ended with the cliffhanger question, “Who can stand?”

I honestly have been somewhat fearful to come back each week and read another chapter of Revelation only to hear more about God’s wrath and the things coming to those who reject Him. But chapter 7 answers the cliffhanger question, and can give us, believers, a deep comfort and hope.

Daniel gave an illustration as context for interpreting this chapter. He described a scenario in which you need to hire two artists to paint portraits of a bride to be gifted to her groom. The two artists you hire are Rembrandt and Picasso, and so the end result is obviously quite differing. Rembrandt’s portrait holds such incredible expertise through the paintbrush, with realistic details in the lighting, colors, shading, and shape. Picasso’s painting is completed in his cubist style with funny proportions and dramatic coloring. Each artist has created a portrait of the bride, but in two contrasting perspectives. Josh and I had the privilege to spend some time in Barcelona, Spain back in the spring of 2014.

The Picasso museum is in Barcelona, and is one of my top recommendations of things to see/places to visit when I hear of someone travelling to Barcelona. The museum sits hidden in one of the tight alleyway-like streets that prohibits cars. Without the signage present, you would never find it, and you would never know it was a museum.

Upon entering the museum, you are pushed to view artwork right away. It starts with Picasso’s early work because it is curated chronologically. Have you seen Picasso’s early work? It looks a lot like Rembrandt’s work – realistic, detailed, an image of perfect mimesis. And yet, there’s only one small room with work like this. You then snake around the corner to the next room and notice that the work is morphing. It’s becoming a little more smudgy, a little more interpretive. You pass the blue period and the rose period, watching as color seeps into lines and the realistic nature of his forms have almost disappeared. And finally, for the bulk of the work remaining in the last rooms of the museum, you see cubist rendered works with their geometric shapes and surrealistic views.

Chapter 7 gives us this take on the Church. We get the “Rembrandt Image” of the Church triumphant, washed in white, with every nation standing before the Lamb. It is easy for us to take in this image because it’s absolutely awestriking, and the image we want to have of the church - in full glory and beauty. But we also get what Daniel called the “Picasso Image”, or the Church militant. We see the brothers and sisters that faced persecution; they lived through times of death and famine like we read of in chapter 6. They are still depicted as a bride, but in a different light because of the struggle it was to walk in faith and the hardship they faced.

After walking through the Picasso Museum in Barcelona, I had this renewed perspective on Picasso’s life and work. His early work was beautiful, and was the most appreciated part to the average tourist, but I found his later work in his disproportionate, kid-like cubist style to be so much more appreciable because that work contained much more depth. 

Although unappreciated by the average tourist, we can look at Picasso’s late work bridal portrait as an extremely accurate picture of the Church militant. Not just because she looks a little rough around the edges, but because of the character produced in that image. Daniel’s use and explanation of Picasso’s work has made me think of Romans 5:3-5: “Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”

In the end, I know my bridal portrait will be like that of Picasso’s. My trials and suffering feel like the squashing of color and blurring of lines to the point that my portrait isn’t the perfect and skilled mimesis of what the world expects. Yet, there is so much more depth, so much more character. And I know that my King has sealed me. He has guaranteed my delivery. There is no fear in the wrath of God, because He has washed me white and will make His Church into the shining, radiant “Rembrandt Image” of the Church triumphant.