One afternoon while coming out of the Jerusalem
temple one of Jesus’ disciples remarked how beautiful the temple was saying, “Look,
Teacher, what wonderful stones and what wonderful buildings!" And then Jesus dropped a bomb. He prophesied saying, "Do you see these
great buildings? There will not be left here one stone upon another that will
not be thrown down." In 70 AD that
prophecy came to pass.
Flavius Josephus was a Jewish historian in the first
century AD. In his book The Jewish Wars
he recounts how the Romans destroyed Jerusalem in the year 70 AD. He writes: “Now as soon as the army had no
more people to slay or to plunder, because there remained none to be the
objects of their fury, Titus Caesar gave orders that they should now demolish
the entire city and Temple, but should leave the towers standing as they were
of the greatest eminence as well as the wall on the west side…in order to
demonstrate to posterity what kind of city it was, and how well fortified,
which the Roman valour had subdued; but for all the rest of the wall
surrounding Jerusalem, it was so thoroughly laid even with the ground by those
that dug it up to the foundation, that there was left nothing to make those
that came there believe Jerusalem had ever been inhabited. This was the end which Jerusalem came to; a
city otherwise of great magnificence, and of mighty fame among all mankind.”
Josephus claims that 1,100,000 people
were killed during the siege, of which the majority were Jews, and that 97,000
were captured, enslaved, and most were made gladiators. The Jews that were left mostly fled to areas
around the Mediterranean. Josephus
reported that Titus refused to accept a wreath of victory for his routing of Jerusalem, as there is
"no merit in vanquishing a people forsaken by their own God".
Building further on that note, the God
forsaken note, the Romans destroyed the temple in Jerusalem on the last day of
the Jewish month of Av (our July), a day Jews call the Day of Five Calamities. On that same date in 586 BC, the Babylonians
destroyed the first temple, the temple Solomon built. In those days the prophet Ezekiel had a
vision in which he saw the glory of the Lord leaving the temple in Jerusalem
and heading east to be with the exiles in Babylon. A very touching message proclaiming that God
had not abandoned his people even though he had cast them off of the land. Seventy years later when a remnant returned
none of the prophets in that day claim a vision of the glory of the Lord ever returning
to the temple. In fact, Isaiah 65:1
which dates to this time indicates that God didn’t want to live in a temple
anymore. God said to Isaiah, “Heaven is my throne, earth is my
footstool. What is this house that you
would build for me?” The Lord God did
not return to the temple. It was not
until Jesus that the presence of the LORD God of Israel again dwells among his
people.
It is into this context of Jerusalem’s destruction
that we must place this climatic vision of John’s in the Book of Revelation. He saw a new creation, a new Heaven and a new
Earth. The old had passed. Jerusalem and the Temple, the
centerpieces of the identity of the people of God, were gone, never to be again.
The old was gone yet the new had come. There in the midst of this utterly new
creation where heaven and earth are openly now joined as one, where it finally
is on earth as it is in heaven, John sees the New Jerusalem coming from God from Heaven to Earth. The heart of John the Jew must have leapt for
joy.
As John watches the New Jerusalem descend, he hears a
voice. For the very first time in the
Revelation a voice comes from the throne of God saying that God himself is with
his people and he himself will comfort them.
Not only would a new esteem be given to his people, Jew and Gentile
alike, but God would once again be with his people and this time personally. He was going to intimately involve himself
with each of his people to heal and comfort them. God himself will wipe away their tears. Moreover, death will be no more and mourning,
crying out, and toilsome suffering will be no more.
Then, God himself speaks, the one seated on the
throne declares, “Behold, I am making all things new. Write this down. It is trustworthy and the Truth.” This is the most important word spoken in the
entire book, indeed in history. God is
making all things new. Time in the Book
of Revelation is two faceted. John sees
what is and what is to be. Sometimes,
it’s skewed to one side more than the other, but in this passage John is seeing
both what God is doing now and what will be in the future. In this world that is a mess, God is
presently working to make all things new until the day comes when the old is
utterly gone and everything is made utterly new with the glory of God. It may not seem like it to us, but behind the
scenes of history God is making all things new.
That’s the Truth; capital “T”.
Then God speaks directly to John and it is a message
for John to give to his churches in Turkey who are about to undergo great
persecution for refusing to call Emperor Domitian Lord as if he were a god. God says, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning
and the end.” This means the buck stops with God. God has the final word in every matter and
his final word is that all things are being made new; all things on earth will
be as they are in heaven. He says to
those Christians about to suffer and some even to be martyred that the one who
conquers, which means who keeps the faith even unto death, will be given freely
of the gift of the Holy Spirit, the Living Water.
Well, breaking
into the code-like imagery of the Book of Revelation, the New Jerusalem, the
new heaven and new earth are not things we should simply ascribe to the future
and forget them until they come about. The new heaven and the new
earth are as much present realities as they are future. As God has
made us alive in Christ Jesus by giving the Holy Spirit to dwell in us we experience
heaven and earth now being made new as if they are the new heaven and the new
earth.
Moreover, since
God dwells in us now what we are as the church is the New Jerusalem. Ever since Pentecost the New Jerusalem has
been coming from God from heaven to earth. God has come to dwell
with his people. We are the New
Jerusalem you and I, this congregation, all congregations, the church all over
the world is the New Jerusalem. Yet, don't think about it in terms
of the institution called the church. Think of it in terms of a
relational network, of people's bonded together in the new humanity in Jesus
Christ formed by means of the “communioning” work of the Hoy
Spirit. The glory of God shines through us, through our relational
bond. The light of Christ shines through us. The light of
God-glorifying, other-centered, self-sacrificing love shines through
us. No matter how small and insignificant we may appear we are the
New Jerusalem coming from God from heaven to earth. In us and among
us is the place on earth where God dwells among the nations, where he wipes
away every tear.
For now, we, the church, the New
Jerusalem, are a signpost of God’s working to make all things new. Love one another. Comfort one another in grief. It’s
important. It proves God is making all
things new. Feed the hungry. Give drink
to the thirsty. Give home to the
homeless. Clothe the naked. Visit the prisoner. Care for the orphaned and the widowed. Make things just and beautiful. These things prove God is making all things
new. We are a vital part of what God is
doing to heal his Creation of sin and death and to make it here on earth as it
is in heaven. We are the New Jerusalem.
Amen.
