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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 and enslaved and most of those were made gladiators to fight in arenas throughout the empire. 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. We have to ask where God was in all this. Was he or was he not in his Temple? Apparently, he wasn’t. An interesting bit of trivia is that 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 according to prophesy and God’s direction a remnant began to return to Jerusalem. But, 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?” Closer to Jesus’ day, there were chief Rabbis who wrote that there was no mention made anywhere of the Presence of God at returning to the Temple any time since the return from exile. The Presence God did not return to the temple after the Exile. It was not until Jesus that the presence of the LORD God of Israel again dwells among his people. God wasn’t in the temple. God was somewhere else and we’ll get to that in a moment.
If we read the Book of Revelation from with an ear to how those who first heard it would have heard it, Rome’s destruction of Jerusalem and the Jewish Temple is huge. Though it may have felt like it, God’s people were not, are not, and will never be God-forsaken. Even Jerusalem will be raised from the dead and at the center of God’s reign in a new creation, a new Heaven and a new Earth. The old had passed. Jerusalem, the centerpiece of the identity of the people of God that John knew was gone, destroyed, never to be again. The old was gone yet here John sees it made new and coming again. There in the midst of this utterly new creation where heaven and earth are now openly joined as one, where it finally is on earth as it is in heaven, John sees the New Jerusalem coming from God from heaven. Don’t miss the magnitude of that. The heart of John the Jew must have leapt for joy. “Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
Then, 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. 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 the cries of injustice, and toilsome suffering will be no more. This is far from being God-forsaken.
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. In the midst of all the destruction, God was, is, will be making all things new. The outcome of all that destruction is that God has made things new. John sees what is and what is to be. It is God making all things new.
This is the way we should see our world, our lives right now. 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 and presence 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 as were the people of Jerusalem by the Romans 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 then forget until they come about. The new heaven and the new earth are as much present realities as they are future. God has made us alive in Christ Jesus by giving the Holy Spirit to dwell in us with the new life of Christ so that we know ourselves as beloved by God, God’s own children. This new sense of God’s presence and love is our small taste now of heaven and earth being made new. The full meal is what we’ve got to look forward to.
Let me tell you a secret, you know, since the Book of Revelation is all about revealing something secret, something hidden. Since God dwells in us now, what we are as a gathering of believers is the New Jerusalem. Ever since the Day of 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 the New Jerusalem in terms of the institution called the church. Think of it in terms of a relational network of people and peoples 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 in Christ, through our unity, through our love for one another. The light of Christ shines through us. The light of God’s glory shines through our God-glorifying, other-centered, self-sacrificing love. No matter how small and insignificant we may appear we are part of 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. Our faithful, loving, generous, hospitable participation in our congregation matters. Even in this present time when the communities around us have little regard for us, our continuing to worship and to reach out in love matters for it is a glimpse of how God is and finally will make all things new.
Therefore, follow the impulse God has given us to love one another. Comfort one another in grief. It’s important. 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 things here on earth as they are in heaven. We are the New Jerusalem. You can go ahead and say “Wow!” Amen.
