In Revelation we have a compressed form of the drama of the destruction of the Great City - Rome, the seat of persecution for John's Church. In order to remind his readers that evil will not always triumph, he reaches back into the Old Testament and reapplies the oracles against Babylon in a new situation (cf. Is. 21:9, 13:20-22; Jer. 51:6-9). Destruction will be total, and not just of political power and unjust oppression. Even the features of simple everyday life symbolized here by music, craft work, love, will feel the weight of judgement. It is chilling in its simplicity, yet an eloquent parable of our involvement in the sin of our society.

The Gospel gives another scene of the destruction of a great city. In both cases, they are the fall not just of a city but of a whole culture. The fall of Jerusalem and the horrors accompanying it are seen as forerunners of the inevitable collapse of our world expressed in apocalyptic terms, not to be taken literally. Yet, for the Christian these signs are not of the end but of the beginning of final deliverance from all pain and evil. "Come, you blessed of my Father, to the kingdom prepared for you."