Scripture Notes: A Message to Pergamum (Revelation 2:12-17)

Pergamum, a city in Asia Minor, was a center of pagan worship at the time John received the prophetic vision he recorded in the Book of Revelation. And Jesus had a very forceful message for the Church at Pergamum, a message with good news and bad news.

The Christians in Pergamum lived in the city “where Satan’s throne” was. Pergamum was home to a massive temple of Zeus (the “father” of the Greco-Roman “gods) and the cult of a snake-god, and it took an active role in promoting emperor worship. Yet, Jesus said, many of the city’s Christians remained faithful, all the way to death if necessary. That’s the good news.

However, there was a bit of bad news, too, more than a bit. Some Christians were compromising their faith. It was a struggle to be a Christian in a pagan world. Pagan worship dominated social life, and those who refused to participate were treated as outcasts or worse. Families turned their backs on Jesus’ faithful. Christian artisans lost business because they could not participate in the rites of the pagan guilds that regulated trade. Even Christians’ lives were at risk if someone denounced them to the government officials and they were commanded to worship the emperor or else.

So it became easy to backslide, especially when some people in the Church (probably the Nicolaitans mentioned in the text) were telling their fellow Christians that it was okay to participate in some level pagan worship, particularly to eat food sacrificed to idols. This would have allowed Christians to participate in guild rituals and family gatherings.

But there was a problem with it. It was backsliding. It was compromising. It was disobeying Jesus’ words. And therefore, Jesus told the Christians who were doing it and teaching it to repent, literally to go beyond their minds, to let go of their own thoughts and embrace His will. Otherwise, there would be consequences, possibly eternal consequences.

Jesus, however, held out a beautiful promise, an amazing promise, to those Christians who were victorious in Him, holding fast to their faith and refusing to compromise. He would give them some of the hidden manna. What is this hidden manna? The Eucharist. Jesus’ very self, Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. The Eucharist is our ultimate intimacy with Jesus in this life and a foretaste of Heaven, when we will see Him face to face.

Jesus did not end there, though. He also said that He would give of the faithful a white stone with a new name on it. In pagan culture, people needed an admission ticket of sorts to enter into the festivals and rites. Often it was a small stone. Jesus would one-up that. He would give a white stone, a pure stone, as an admission ticket, not to a pagan feast but to the Heavenly feast, the eternal banquet of divine love. And that stone would have a new name written on it, a name known only to the Giver and the recipient, a name symbolizing a new life and a new, even greater intimacy with God, eternally.