REVELATION 22
REVELATION 22
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 forever and ever.
BACKGROUNDER
Everyone needs healing. This is the promise of the Bible, healing, and just for you or me, or of some of us, but healing of all the nations. All nations share a world where sin, death, sickness and suffering are ever-present possibilities. Eating the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil opens the door to this fallen world. The full weight of this curse fell on Jesus, hanging on the cross, crushed by sin and death.
As we near the end of our time with trees in the Bible, we look at the end of the story, in fact, the very last chapter, Revelation 22. There we see the return of the tree of life, the very first tree mentioned by name at the start of the story. The tree of life mentioned here has leaves for the healing of all the nations. God closes the circle, having worked through the course of evil by calling us back to him, and then giving us his own beloved son to share in our dismal fate.
The promise of eternal healing does more than offer us eternal hope. Even this hope has present meaning: we live differently when we know the outcome of the drama of good and evil. We can strive against evil, even against insurmountable odds, because the Bible assures us that good and evil are not simply equal and opposite forces. Creation is created good, as the first appearance of the tree of life indicates. And even the serpent who introduces evil is a creature, who had no independent authority or power.
There is more: the gift of healing comes to us now. Some people receive miracles by the power of God. These signs and wonders foreshadow God’s plan for complete healing. But all of those who come to Jesus, the source of life, can experience the gift of healing from within. The image of the tree of life in Revelation 22 is (literally) rooted in the river that flows out into the world, and this river is a sign of the Holy Spirit.
In John 4, Jesus promises all who come to him that they will drink from living water. Later in John 7, he adds that his followers will become sources of living water for all around him. To be a Christian is to both experience the healing that Jesus offers, and to share this eternal gift to those around us. Mission, the sharing of the message of Jesus, is not primarily our work, but the action of the Holy Spirit, sent by the Father, poured out for all.
More than once (2 Corinthians 5, Galatians 6) the Bible tells us that Jesus who died, rose from the dead, and ascended into heaven, has begun the New Creation. And we are all invited into this amazing reality.