Revelation 21:10, 23, 27, 22:1-2 And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, 23And the city has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God has illumined it, and its lamp is the Lamb. 27and nothing unclean, and no one who practices abomination and lying, shall ever come into it, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life. 1Then he showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb, 2in the middle of its street On either side of the river was the tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.
Vacation has become an important part of life. A trip to the lake or to the beach for a time to get away from it all, away from the routine, the rut and responsibilities of life, a time to rest, reflect, and perhaps get some perspective on life.
It is as though those in the early church had no vacation, and life was hard and the world was weary. Into their world came a word, came a message that was like a fresh breeze from the ocean that lifted them to a mountainside and gave them new perspective on life.
The revelation from heaven is not a garden paradise removed from the stress and strain of everyday life. Heaven is formed out of dirty streets and murderous alleys and adulterous bedrooms and corrupt courts. Heaven is built out of the granite of entrenched power and the chaos of pushy people. The place that once deprived people and drained life from them has been changed. Heaven is a place where everyone has an abundance of water and food and the stuff they need for real life. In the heavenly city we do not mistake the luxuries of oil and wine for the necessities of life. We receive what we really need – living water for vitality and ripened fruit for zest and joy. To a people stuck in an evil world Revelation gives a kind of spiritual vacation.
What God will do is based on what God has done in Jesus Christ. Life in the new Jerusalem is based on what God did in a death and resurrection in the old Jerusalem. Life in the new Jerusalem is guaranteed by the work of the Lamb, beaten up and scarred by the power of evil but not defeated. Splotches of wool ripped off, the Lamb reigns triumphant having paid the cost, having broken by His forgiveness the cycle of violence and self-interest, having broken by His resurrection the chains of discouragement and despair. Revelation is not a call for us to do anything, except believe and trust the work of the Lamb.
From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope May 17, 1998
© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles
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