With His words of
white clothing, Jesus produces a sharp contrast between His white clothing that
is on offer, and the clothing made from black wool that was productive of wealth
in this city. That wealth is creating an insidious problem in the church,
and that problem need not exist. Again, the crux of the issue is not the
wealth but rather the response to the wealth by those that are calling Jesus
Lord, yet denying Him by their actions.
Having made reference
to Laodicea’s place in the world of finance (buying gold), as well as their
position in the fashion world (white clothing in contrast to the black wool),
mention is then made of one more source of wealth that has a hand in
contributing to that which is happening within this church in Laodicea, and is
displeasing to Jesus. John reports Jesus saying, “buy eye salve to put on
your eyes so you can see!” (Revelation 3:18c)
While this could be
thought of as an allusion to Jesus’ healing of the blind, and specifically to
the instance of record in which Jesus spits on the eyes of the man whose sight
is restored (Mark 8:23), or to the time when Jesus spit on the ground to make
some mud and smeared the mud into the eyes of a man that had been born blind
(John 9:6)---both of which were interesting types of eye salve to be sure, it
is far more likely that the reference hits much closer to home for those that
made up this particular congregation.
This reference to eye
salve, or to some type of eye medication, is more than likely yet another
reflection of the historical situation in Laodicea. So once again, these
words have an important contextual setting that, when recognized, will keep an
observer from running off the tracks into strictly spiritual (and possibly
incorrect) interpretations. At the risk of being overly repetitive
(though this is not truly a risk), spiritual applications (for lack of a better
term) can best be accomplished and are most effective when steps are taken to
hear the words as they would have been heard by the original hearers, to be
understood and applied in that context so as to grasp the underlying truths
that are being communicated, and then translated through time for personal
application.
That said, the
historical situation in regards to the eye salve has to do with the fact that
the region in which Laodicea is located is Phrygia. There is some debate
as to whether or not this is actually the case, as Laodicea is sometimes said
to have been a part of other regions, such as Caria. Contributing to the
inability to pin down exact locations is the fact that territorial limitations
were often very poorly defined and always changing. The region of Phrygia
was famous in the ancient world because of the “Phrygian powder” produced
there. This powder was an ingredient in various eye medications.
To go along with the
fact of the Phrygian powder, an ancient historian by the name of Strabo reports
that there was a medical school in Laodicea, and that this was the location of
the practice of a renowned eye doctor. When coupling the statement about
eye salve in the letter to Laodicea with the fact of the Phrygian powder, it
becomes reasonable to presume that Laodicea was located within this territory,
at the very least at the time of the penning of Revelation. Putting that
aside, this is a clear indication that the Laodicean church had become blind to
something in particular, that it must be corrected, and that the issue that
must be corrected must be identifiable for the church.
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