Road trips are great fun, when the highway is bare and dry, traffic is good, all aspects of your vehicle are working as they should, and everyone inside the vehicle is feeling fine. If even one of those factors goes sideways, your trip can change from an enjoyable trip to a high-anxiety, stress-filled marathon. And you don’t know how long that marathon will end or how long it will last.
Years ago, when my children were younger and I was pastoring in Saskatchewan, Susan, I and our kids would leave after the Christmas Day worship service for the four-hour drive back to Provost to have Christmas with our families. One year, as we were getting ready for our trip, I had to change a flat tire on the 15-passenger van that we had at the time. As I did that, I thought that it would be safe for us to make that trip without a functional spare tire because, for all the years that we had owned it, I never had to change a tire on that van before. That assumption turned out to be a mistake.
About an hour in our journey to Provost, one of our kids get sick all over the inside of the vehicle. When we stopped at a convenience store in Kindersley to get some medicine for them, I noticed that the spare tire that I had put on the van was going flat. We checked around at various tire shops to see if we could get it repaired, but none of them were open on Christmas Day.
As we headed to Kerrobert, I angled my side mirror to watch that tire as it got lower. Again, there were no tire shops open on Christmas Day, but I was able to buy a can of emergency tire repair foam at a convenience store. I put as much foam in that tire as I could and we headed out again. I was anxiously watching the tire go lower and lower as we went. By the time we got to Susan’s mom’s farm, the tire was almost entirely flat, but we made it. A couple of days later, I bought a used set of 4 tires in Provost and, when the time came, we were able to travel home without any incidents.
Life is like a Road Trip
Life is like a road trip. When everything is going well, it can be fun. But when something in our live starts going sideways, whether it is brokenness or betrayal in a relationship, a loved one who is ill or injured, financial challenges that we cannot overcome, or a breakdown in how our workplace, friend group, or home is functioning, and life can become a high-anxiety, stress-filled marathon. But the worst challenge we face is when death raises its ugly head and frightens us to our core. We become unmoored from all that gave us comfort and security. It’s as if we were dropped off in the middle of a barren wilderness. We are helpless and alone. We don’t know where to go and we don’t know what to do.
When you are travelling in the Prairies in the wintertime, you make sure you are prepared for what can happen. We would make sure that we had warm clothes, sleeping bags, a snow shovel, some extra food, plus matches and candles to keep warm. How can we be prepared for what can happen on our journey through life? That’s the question that we are thinking about today, and to guide our reflections, we will be looking at Revelation 22:1-13.
The River of Life
When we turn there, we find a garden, but this is no ordinary garden. This garden has a river of life which reminds us of Zechariah’s prophecy that, when the Day of the Lord comes, “…living water will flow out from Jerusalem…” (Zech. 14:8). It also takes us back to the vision God gave to Ezekiel of a glorious future temple. In that vision, water flows from the temple and “Swarms of living creatures will live wherever the river flows” (Ezekiel 47:9). That living water even brings life to the Dead Sea, a body of water where the salt levels are so high that nothing, at present, can live in it. While we are told that this stream of living water comes from Jerusalem, by Zechariah, and from the temple, by Ezekiel, in the vision that Jesus gives to John, the ultimate source is revealed. “Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb” (Rev. 22:1). God is the source of the river of life, and that river will flow with abundance when Jesus returns to make all things new.
Note that the river flows “down the middle of the great street of the city” (Rev. 22:2). This takes us back to the previous chapter of the Book of Revelation which introduced this beautiful vision of the fulfillment of all things with these words: Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.” (Revelation 21:1-3).
Throughout human history, various environments were described as places where God and humans met. Through much of Israel’s ancient history, the two main environments were the tabernacle and the temple. However, in both of those structures, there was a barrier between the room where God’s presence dwelt, the Holy of Holies, and where human beings could go. Only one human could enter the Holy of Holies, and that was the High Priest, and he could only enter that space once a year on the Day of Atonement to sprinkle the blood of a goat to atone for the moral failings and the ritual impurities of God’s people. On that same day, all the sins of God’s people were placed on a second goat, which was not sacrificed, but was instead sent out to the wilderness, taking the sins of the people with it.
God the Son changed all of that for us. By coming into this world and becoming one of us in the person of Jesus Christ and living a perfect human life for us, he took our place, went to the cross and became the one perfect sacrifice to pay the cost of forgiveness for all people forever. With his death, the thick heavy curtain in the Temple that cordoned off the Holy of Holies was split in two from top to bottom. The barrier between God and humans was removed. Because of Jesus, God is with us. Now the word pictures used to describe the relationship between God and humans have changed. The primary meeting place for God and humans, the Temple, transformed from a building in Jerusalem to the person of Jesus Christ to everyone who believes in Jesus as their Lord and Savior. As we read in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20,
Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; (1 Corinthians 6:19). Places where human beings normally dwell, like gardens and cities, are now where God also dwells. God has come down to live with us. We have that closeness, that intimacy, with God now through Jesus, but we will have it in absolute fullness one day in the future.
The writer of Hebrews the sense of “Now and Not Yet” in which we live with these words: The high priest carries the blood of animals into the Most Holy Place as a sin offering, but the bodies are burned outside the camp. And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood. Let us, then, go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore. For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come. (Hebrews 13:11-14).
The Tree of Life
The second thing that we notice in this passage is the tree of life has reappeared. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. (Revelation 22:2) Again, this was foretold in Ezekiel’s vision of a future, glorious temple: Fruit trees of all kinds will grow on both banks of the river [of life]. Their leaves will not wither, nor will their fruit fail. Every month they will bear fruit, because the water from the sanctuary flows to them. Their fruit will serve for food and their leaves for healing.” (Ezekiel 47:12) But the first time that the tree of life appeared was back when creation first began. Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. (Genesis 2:8-9) Humans beings were prohibited from accessing the tree of life when our first parents sinned and were cast out of the presence of God in the Garden of Eden. But now the Tree of Life is available to all who look to Jesus in faith. It stands on both banks of the River of Life and it watered by it, “and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations” (Rev. 22:2), thus fulfilling God’s promise to Abraham to bless all peoples on earth through him (cf. Gen. 12:3).
All this restoration will happen at the end of time because of a third Tree of Life that appears in the middle of human history, and that is the cross of Jesus Christ. This is explained for us in Galatians chapter 3: For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.” Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law,… Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”— so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith. (Galatians 3:10-11,13-14) The curse of condemnation and estrangement from God has been lifted from us by Jesus. He took the curse we deserve upon himself and destroyed it so that in him we can be cleansed and nourished by the River of Life and the Tree of Life forever.
Our Lives Need to be Defined by Hope
So what does this mean for us? Life is hard. The best-case scenario for life in this world is that we live a long and fruitful life. But even with the best possible life you could ever life, here is what is going to happen: You are going feel fear, anxiety, grief, and sorrow. You are going to experience loss, betrayal, suffering and failure. There are going to be some very high highs and some very low lows. And then, if you are fortunate, you will grow old, losing physical ability and mental acuity, and gaining aches, pains and impairments along the way. And then, at the very end, you and I will die. Keep in mind, this is the best-case scenario and an accident or illness could short-circuit this pattern at any time. Life is hard, and we need to learn to accept that truth.
But the second truth that needs to define our lives is that we have hope. In Jesus, our identity and our destiny has been radically transformed. We still live in this vale of tears with all its suffering and sorrow, but we are new people with new life from Jesus. We are beloved, forgiven children of God who carry the Holy Spirit within us as we go about our everyday lives. We partner with Jesus in his mission of redeeming and restoring all things by stepping into the opportunities he gives us to share his love with others. We trust in the love of our heavenly Father to provide all that we need for each day as we journey through this broken world.
And we know where we are going. Instead of being headed for an eternity separated from God and all his goodness, Jesus is taking us back to the Garden, where all wrongs will be made right, all brokenness will be healed, and we will get to live in the presence of God, loving, serving and praising him forever.
So we learn to embrace that tension of the Now and Not Yet. We live as God’s redeemed people in this world knowing that the fullness of that redemption is yet to come. We struggle with the brokenness in the world, the presence of sin in our own lives, and the sorrow, regret and shame we feel in our own heart, yet at the very same time we look forward to the day when the city of God will come down from heaven, and we know that Jesus has prepared a place in that city for us. On that day, 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.” (Revelation 21:4) We are like little kids who have already started the countdown for next Christmas, which is only 360 days away.
Hope is the Most Important Thing
In June 27 of this year, Rick Hansen marked the 50th anniversary of the accident that crushed his spinal cord. The key ingredient that helped Rick live a rich, full life even though he had lost the use of his legs was hope. In an interview with Sandy Rinaldo, he said, “Hope is the most important thing. And if you hang on to hope, and if you slowly start to repopulate this dark canvas of despair into lights of hope and possibility. And for me it was setting baby goals… those little goals really started to fill me with momentum, and then started to build a sense of confidence and a sense of wholeness in my life. It fired up that passion and kept me moving forward.”[1]
Your Person, Practice & Passion
As we close off the year that has been, and look ahead to the year before us, I want to set a three-fold challenge before you that involves your person, your practice and your passion. First, your person. Make a commitment to be a person of hope because of what Jesus has done, is doing and will do in this world. Second, your practice. Create, or continue, a habit or activity that brings you and Jesus closer together. Third, your passion. Pray that Jesus will increase your passion for him and what he is doing. Those three things are what you need to take with you for your journey through life. And all three are very important, because your identity, your habits and your passions will direct the trajectory of your life. Let Jesus be the source, direction, and inspiration for all three and you will thrive with Jesus, both now and forever. Amen.
[1] “’Big, dark canvas of despair’: Rick Hansen speaks on how his mindset changed after being paralyzed,” CTV News (Internet; available at: https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/big-dark-canvas-of-despair-rick-hansen-speaks-on-how-his-mindset-changed-after-being-paralyzed-1.6670267; accessed on December 29, 2023).
(This message was shared at Walnut Grove Lutheran Church in Langley BC on December 31, 2023. For more information about our church, please go to wglc.org.)
Farewell to Shadowlands 