“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the old heaven and the old earth had disappeared. And the sea was also gone. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven like a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.
I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, “Look, God’s home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them. He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.” (21.1-4)
The Bible begins in a Garden and ends in a City. This storyline represents the movement of human history. To take God’s “very good” start in creation and then use our creativity to make it even better! However, our sinfulness and selfishness often stalemate and subvert this process. Instead of using our creativity, our human potential for good, we use it selfishly and oppressively. The Garden, instead of becoming like the New Jerusalem, becomes Babylon – a city full of violence, oppression and injustice – a city where people live without reference to God.
But Babylon is destroyed in the end. And the New Jerusalem descends from heaven to earth, signifying that God’s presence will be with his people forever.
The kingdom that Jesus inaugurated, embodied in his ministry of preaching good news, healing the broken, and raising the dead comes in its fullness in Revelation 22.
The good news is preached: “God himself will be with his people.”
The broken are healed: “no more sorrow or crying or pain”
The dead are raised: “no more death.”
This is the kingdom we are living for, the kingdom that we work to embody now, carrying on the ministry of Jesus.
Now, if his kingdom is coming, a kingdom where there will be no hunger, no sickness, and where God will be in the midst of everything, then what does it look like for us to proclaim his kingdom here and now?
It means that we preach the good news about Jesus now. It means that we bring healing to the sick and the broken, food to the hungry, clean water to the thirsty, that we work against the culture of death that permeates our society. When we do, we are proclaiming his kingdom, till he comes.
Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus.
And until he does, let’s get to work in testifying to his kingdom.
I love the ending of Revelation. It's so beautiful. :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for putting these up. Revelation seems like it would a difficult book to commentate/blog on... it's hard to make heads or tails of it sometimes. these were really helpful. :)
thanks for keeping up with the blog, Jenn!
ReplyDelete