Revelation 21:1-4

Brothers and sisters in Christ,

The Bible passage for this evening is Revelation 21:1-4:

¹ 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. ² And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.³ And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. ⁴ He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

This is good news indeed in the midst of a pandemic! However bad things may be now, there will be a time when everything—yes, everything—will be perfect. We don’t know when that time will be, but we can be sure that in Christ we’ll finally enjoy a renewed and repaired creation, where God himself will wipe away all tears. I don’t suppose I’m entitled to take this literally, but it helps me to grasp the wonder of what’s being promised to imagine God with a handkerchief (not a tissue: that dates me, doesn’t it?) wiping the tears from my once-again-child-like eyes. And not just tears, but death, too, “shall be no more.” All mourning, crying, and pain will have passed away forever, never to be part of our experience again.

This is not merely an end to “stay safe at home,” although we look forward to that if it’s handled wisely. This is not a matter of restarting the world’s economies or being able to fly in a plane again (when will we dare to do that, even if we are allowed to leave our homes?). It’s not a question of life being “back to normal.” Normal, if we’re honest, is broken, fallen, tainted by human sin and foolishness, even if, by God’s loving grace, it’s also flavored by beauty, kindness, and love. Normal means that those who survive the pandemic will still die sooner or later, unless Jesus returns first. Normal means greed and exploitation will again battle kindness and generosity for a place at the global table.

The promise here is not of a return to “normal,” but of a final return to what life truly should be, to how God intended it from the beginning, a joyous and exuberant life from which all pain, all death, all tears, all grief will have vanished forever, never to reappear.

Christ’s resurrection is not the happy ending to history. It’s the beginning, the “firstfruits” (1 Cor. 15:20) of that final, everlasting happy ending. The resurrection of Christ has made this happy ending possible.

Your brother in Christ,

Max