Revelation 21:10, 22-22:5; John's Imaginative Journey

"10 And in the spirit he carried me away to a great, high mountain and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God....22
I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. 23 And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb. 24 The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. 25 Its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there. 26 People will bring into it the glory and the honour of the nations. 27 But nothing unclean will enter it, nor anyone who practises abomination or falsehood, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life."

"22:1 Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2 through the middle of the street of the city. On either side of the river is the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, producing its fruit each month; and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. 3 Nothing accursed will be found there any more. But the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him; 4 they will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. 5 And there will be no more night; they need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign for ever and ever."

Introduction

This brilliant passage brings us nearly to the end of John's heavenly vision. So vivid is John's thought and so powerful his imagination that it is as if we have to don some kind of spiritual spectacles so that our eyes are not blinded by the light.

I have mentioned in a previous exposition of Revelation that many of us were brought up in a theological environment which looked at this book skeptically. After all, it has few of the doctrinal riches of Paul or the parables/teachings of Jesus; its language isn't particularly clear; its images are not the images we use today; and, finally, its interpretation had been hijacked by various Christians who were seemingly more concerned with trying to figure out the order of end times events than in living in the world of the 20th/21st centuries. But as I am aging I gladly admit that the Book of Revelation is growing on me. Perhaps this is because of the efflorescence and discovery of imaginative literature in our day (e.g., CS Lewis, JRR Tolkien). Perhaps it is because of my realization that doctrine and stories need to be supplemented by imaginative flights of fancy in order to fill out our mental spaces. In any case, I now love to trace the words of Revelation, pausing on every verse to try to re-imagine, with the author, the brilliance of his vision.

Three aspects of this vision from today's text should be mentioned: (1) the abolition of a sacred/secular distinction; (2) the transformation of the nations and kings of the earth; (3) the final reign of peace and light, in the context of the elimination of unclean things.

I. Eliminating the Sacred/Secular Distinction

In his vision John sees the holy city, the New Jeruslaem, descending from heaven (21:10). Actually, he has already seen that city in 21:2, but there were several intervening verses where the focus was on God before our attention is turned back to the city. It is an arresting portrait that he gives. Dominating the portrait is John's number theology, or his focus on the number 12 and multiples of it. Twelve is one of the Greek numbers representing perfection, and so the 12 stones, the 12 (apostolic) foundations, the 12 (patriarchal) gates, the 12,000 stadia (1500 miles) square of the city, the 144 cubits of the walls, etc. are all signs that this New Jerusalem not only catches the eye but also is a perfect expression of God's glory.

Beginning in 21:22 John then describes the city itself. The first thing to notice is that the holy city seems to be missing the central part--the Temple.

"I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb."

This omission is significant because it points to the reality that some day there won't be a need to mark off and label holy places because the entire city will partake of that temple holiness. In Habakkuk's vision he sees a time when the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord; here John sees the holy city so filled with the divine presence that no distinct holy place is needed. Finally there will be the integration of secular and sacred, of holy and profane, for which every person of faith years. No longer will there be the divisions between flesh and spirit, between the old and new Adam, between the forces of death and the forces of life, because all these distinctions have been removed in the life-affirming city. An indication of this reality is the elimination of the clearest distinction which characterizes our everyday existence--that between day and night. The gates of the holy city will never be shut by day and, since there is no night, we infer that the gates of the city are always open.

We live in a world in 2007 where sacred and secular are not simply distinguished in practice but are even legally distinct. The whole legal doctrine behind the First Amendment religion clauses is built on the notion that no religious organization or ecclesiastical body should control the mechanisms of government. Thus, our society is built on the notion of a sacred/secular distinction. Eradicating it will be the glory of the New Jerusalem. And, speaking as a lawyer now, that means that all of us lawyers who have thrived on the distinction will be out of work! Truly that will be a heavenly situation!

II. The Transformation of the Nations

Not only will the city itself be a transformed place, but the people who enter therein will be changed. I never noticed v. 26 previously, but it says it all:

"People will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations."

Another translation of "glory and the honor" is the "treasures and wealth." In a previous verse we have: "the kings of the earth will bring their glory (i.e., treasures) into it" (v. 24). This will representat a transformation of the role of the kings, since the previous descriptions of them in Revelation had them attacking the people of God or being instruments of the Great Whore. Earlier, for example, we had mention of John's measuring of the temple of God, but the angel told John not to measure the court outside the temple because it would be trampled down by the nations for forty-two months (11:2). The kings of the earth which will now come into the New Jerusalem, bringing their wealth with them, are those who "have committed fornication" with Babylon (18:3). It is as if the New Jerusalem is a great magnet, drawing to itself the kings and people of the earth who formerly were enchanted with so many other things. Such a picture is reminiscent of Jesus' words in John's Gospel:

"And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself" (John 12:32).

The picture in Rev. 21 is also reminiscent of Paul's statement in Col. 2 about the effect of Christ's redemption:

"He disarmed the rulers and authorities and made a public example of them, triumphing over them in it" (Col. 2:15).

The final triumph of God is the drawing and transforming of nations and peoples in the New Jerusalem.

III. Peace, Light and Elmination of the Unclean

But John's vision, though broad in scope, also recognizes its limits. In two verses (21:27 and 22:3) we have an indication of the limits of divine tolerance. Nothing accursed will be found there, nor will anyone who practices falsehood. Does this tarnish the brilliance of John's ultimate vision? No more than the presence of Malvolio corrupts the final scene of Twelfth Night; no more than the angry stomping away of Jacques taints the happy ending of As You Like It. Indeed, John never says how many or who is among the accursed ones and those who practice falsehood; it is a warning, however, that now everything will be transformed in the heavenly vision.

Yet, in closing, the vision that continues in 22:1-5 is one of the most powerful and memorable in Western literature. A tree of life overarches the river, a river which bisects the holy city. The twelve kinds of fruit of the tree suggest that a new fruit is produced each month; an ever-flourishing tree is the result. And the leaves are not just there for shade or ornamentation. They are there "for the healing of the nations." This memorable word is both a hope and a prayer. If there is one thing needed in 2007 it is the application of the soothing leaves of the tree to the hurts of our world. Perhaps that will have to await the realization of John's vision, but those who work for it today are called, by Jesus, the children of God.

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