The Healing of the Nations

Dear DJAN Friends,

It seems appropriate to end this series with a passage from the last chapter of the final book in the Christian Bible. It is a reminder that the vision of a renewed world permeates scripture from beginning to end.

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "See the home [Greek: tabernacle] of God is among mortals. He will dwell [Greek: tabernacle] with them; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them." . . . 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 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 (Revelation 21:1-3 and 22:1-2).  

Our scripture ends with this vision of what human life will be like when God's rule, celebrated in heaven, is fully established on earth–and, in this way, reflects the prayer Christians say together each week: "thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." It is hard to imagine, for example, that God is at home in our world of warfare and greed; but in this vision, the day will come when God will be at home among us. The author of Revelation echoes Isaiah (65:17) by speaking of God's re-creation in terms of a new Jerusalem, in contrast to the superficial glitter of Babylon or Rome or Washington, DC. And the vision culminates, in chapter 22–a description reminiscent of the Garden of Eden–with a tree of life. Notice, especially, that the leaves of this tree are for the healing of the nations. This is not a vision of Christianity's triumph (the church is never mentioned)–and certainly not of America's triumph–but of the fulfillment of God's promises for all humanity. None of us expects this in our lifetime. It is, rather, a reminder that the world is not as God would have it, a declaration that the Creator is at work redeeming creation, and a call for us to participate in this healing ministry of God.

May God grant us understanding and commitment.