The River and the Tree of Life

The old man who wrote all this was named John, and he was on a small rocky island called Patmos, out in the sea, because of the word of God. There is not much on Patmos — stone, and thin grass, and the water all round it. He was writing to seven churches on the mainland who were frightened, because people were being arrested and some of them were being killed. It had started with a voice like a trumpet behind him, telling him to write down what he saw. Those seven churches are the ones he sent the seven letters to — Ephesus and Smyrna and Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea — and everything he saw afterwards he wrote down for them as well. What he sent them was full of pictures, one after another. He said what he saw, and wrote it down, and went on to the next thing. And this is the last thing he saw.

“I saw a new heaven and a new earth,” John says. “The first heaven and the first earth had gone away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, ready like a bride dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice out of the throne.” “Look — God’s home is with people now. He will live with them, and they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them. And he will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death will be no more, and there will be no more crying or shouting or pain, because the first things have gone.”

And the one sitting on the throne said: “Look — I am making everything new.” And he said: “Write it down, because these words are faithful and true. It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To anybody who is thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life, freely.”

And he said who it is for, and who it is not for. “The one who wins will get all of this, and I will be God to him, and he will be a son to me. But the ones who were too afraid to stand, and the ones who would not trust, and the ones who did filthy things, and murderers, and people who could not let other people’s husbands and wives alone, and people who worked spells, and people who bowed down to idols, and everybody who loved a lie — their part is in the lake that burns. That is the second death.”

Then one of the seven messengers who had carried the seven bowls came over and spoke to him. “Come,” he said. “I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.”

“And he carried me away up onto a great high mountain,” John says, “and showed me the holy city coming down out of heaven from God, shining with the glory of God, clear as crystal. There is a high wall round it with twelve gates, three on every side, and the names of the twelve tribes on the gates, and twelve foundations under the wall with the names of the twelve apostles on them. The gates are pearls, one whole pearl each, and the street is gold you can see through, like glass. And I saw no temple in it, because the Lord God the Almighty is its temple, and the Lamb. And the city does not need the sun to shine on it, or the moon, because the glory of God is its light, and the Lamb is its lamp. The nations will walk by that light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, and its gates will never be shut all day — because there will not be any night there.

“And the one who was talking to me had a measuring rod made of gold,” John says, “to measure the city and its gates and its wall. The city is square. It is as wide as it is long, and as high as it is wide. He measured it with the rod, and it came to about fifteen hundred miles each way. Then he measured the wall, and it was about two hundred and sixteen feet. And at every one of the twelve gates there is a messenger standing. The wall is built of jasper, and the city inside it is pure gold, as clear as glass. And the twelve foundations underneath the wall are set with twelve precious stones, a different one for each: jasper first, then sapphire, then chalcedony, then emerald; then sardonyx, carnelian, chrysolite, beryl; then topaz, chrysoprase, hyacinth, and amethyst last of all.” Nothing common ever goes in there, and nobody who does filthy things or tells lies — only the ones whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.

“And he showed me a river of the water of life, bright as crystal, coming out from the throne of God and of the Lamb, down the middle of the street of the city. And on this side of the river and on that side, the tree of life, making twelve kinds of fruit, giving its fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. And nothing under a curse will be there any more. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will serve him, and they will see his face. And there will be no more night. They will not need a lamp, and they will not need the sun, because the Lord God will shine on them.”

“I am John,” he says. “I am the one who heard these things and saw them. And when I had heard them and seen them, I fell down at the feet of the messenger who was showing me, to bow to him.” “See that you do not!” the messenger said. “I am a servant like you, and like your brothers who spoke for God, and like everybody who keeps the words of this book. Bow down to God.” “These words are faithful and true,” he said. “Do not seal up the words of this scroll, because the time is near. Happy is the one who keeps the words of this book. And happy are the ones who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life, and go in through the gates into the city.”

And then John heard Jesus himself. “Look, I am coming quickly, and my pay is with me, to give back to each one what his work is worth. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end. I, Jesus, sent my messenger to tell you these things for the churches. I am the root and the branch of David, the bright morning star.” And John set a warning at the end of it: if anybody adds anything to the words of this book, God will add to him the blows written in it; and if anybody takes anything away, God will take away his share of the tree of life and of the holy city. “Yes, I am coming quickly.” And John wrote back: Amen. Come, Lord Jesus. And then he signed it off the way he signed off his letters, with a blessing for whoever was holding it: the favor of the Lord Jesus be with everybody.

And then, at the very end, the voice went past John altogether, and spoke to whoever was listening. “The Spirit and the bride say: Come. And let the one who hears say: Come. And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who wants it take the water of life freely.”

And that was the last thing he saw. It all began in a garden, with a river running through it to water everything, and a tree in the middle of it, and God walking there in the cool of the evening with the two people he had made. It ends in a city, with a river running down the middle of the street, and the tree growing on both banks of it, and God living with people, and every one of them able to look at his face. Come, the voice says. Let the one who is thirsty come.