Then the angel showed me the river of life-giving water, shining like crystal, flowing from the throne of God and the Lamb through the middle of the city’s main street. On each side of the river is the tree of life, which produces twelve crops of fruit, bearing its fruit each month. The tree’s leaves are for the healing of the nations. There will no longer be any curse. The throne of God and the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. Night will be no more. They won’t need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will shine on them, and they will rule forever and always.
Then he said to me, “These words are trustworthy and true. The Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, sent his angel to show his servants what must soon take place.
“Look! I’m coming soon. Favored is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy contained in this scroll.”
I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. When I heard and saw them, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who had shown them to me. But he said to me, “Don’t do that! I’m a servant just like you and your brothers and sisters, the prophets, and those who keep the words of this scroll. Worship God!” Then he said to me, “Don’t seal up the words of the prophecy contained in this scroll, because the time is near. Let those who do wrong keep doing what is wrong. Let the filthy still be filthy. Let those who are righteous keep doing what is right. Let those who are holy still be holy.
“Look! I’m coming soon. My reward is with me, to repay all people as their actions deserve. I am the alpha and the omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end. Favored are those who wash their robes so that they may have the right of access to the tree of life and may enter the city by the gates. Outside are the dogs, the drug users and spell-casters, those who commit sexual immorality, the murderers, the idolaters, and all who love and practice deception.
“I, Jesus, have sent my angel to bear witness to all of you about these things for the churches. I’m the root and descendant of David, the bright morning star. The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come!’ Let the one who hears say, ‘Come!’ And let the one who is thirsty come! Let the one who wishes receive life-giving water as a gift.”
Now I bear witness to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy contained in this scroll: If anyone adds to them, God will add to that person the plagues that are written in this scroll. If anyone takes away from the words of this scroll of prophecy, God will take away that person’s share in the tree of life and the holy city, which are described in this scroll.
The one who bears witness to these things says, “Yes, I’m coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!
The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all.
Commentary
The concluding words of theRevelationevidently belong to Christ: ‘He which testifieth these things saith, surely I come quickly.’ The words ‘I come quickly’ occur seven times in theRevelationand are repeated three times in the last chapter. They conclude it with a special solemn confirmation,nai erchomai taxu, which is equivalent to ‘yea, truly, amen’. These words are the main burden of theRevelation, the force of its promise. It was this promise that sounded so victoriously in the first preaching of Christianity—that set it aglow with fire, that comforted the martyrs and strengthened the confessors (e.g. Stephen’s vision of Christ)? It expresses the world’s brightest hope, and this is the secret of its victory in the world. It is impossible to state in human words all that it contains.
TheRevelationbegins and ends with the good news of the speedy coming of Christ. To whom then is the promise given? Is it only to the first generations of Christians, to the seer’s contemporaries who in their simplicity and inexperience daily expected Christ’s promised coming? They were very different from us, the sobered and disillusioned, who, tired of waiting, began as early as the second century to pray pro mora finis and later simply ceased to think about the parousia. The fiery Christian hope gave way to a lukewarm certainty that through being in the Church we already possess all fullness and need no dénouement…. This has eventually led to a secret or open, passive or active struggle against theBook of Revelation: it was not read in church, and everything was done to neutralize it, either by a spiritualistic interpretation or by the critical method of the history of religions. In any case the thunder from heaven, ‘Surely I come quickly’, ceased to reach the Christian’s spiritual hearing and indeed began to appear as a kind of misunderstanding, to be explained by the history of the Church.
We fear theApocalypse, hide it from ourselves in various ways and hide ourselves from it, because it calls us to that last and awesome prayer,Maranatha! Even so, may the Lord come! Once again it must be emphasized that this prayer and the call to make it are addressed not only to those early Christian communities which were to receive theApocalypseas a pastoral epistle (to seven particular churches, but through them to the whole Church). It is addressed with equal force to all churches, and to all of us now, to every last one of us. St John the Divine utters for us and together with us the great ‘amen’, and the resounding prayer: ‘Even so, come!’ And this must be not only a spoken but a living, burning prayer, giving us a lively hope and certain knowledge of him who is to come. But the fire of faith which this prayer expresses has completely gone out in us. We never use this prayer of prayers. It is not in our Prayer Books. We pray to the Holy Spirit to ‘Come and dwell in us’. We are up to that, because we understand this as his partial coming, as his gracious help in our infirmity—which help, however, leaves us essentially as we were before. But by the prayer to our Lord Jesus, ‘Even so, come!’, nothing half-way can be meant. Things will not be left as they were, life will not be left unchanged.
But now the time is coming, indeed is already at hand, when these words of our present Saviour and coming Lord shall begin to glow for us with a new fire. They shine with a new inspiration and demand from us a living ‘amen.' TheRevelationshows the figure of Christ, whom we know from the gospel, in a light which shines nowhere else; this ‘view from the way to martyrdom’ is marked too in the last occurrence of the apocalyptic prayer of prayers: ‘Come, Lord Jesus. Amen.’ This is the last word of Revelation. It is followed only by the apostolic blessing, usual in all apostolic epistles. The Book of Revelation was one of them. The blessing, which is differently worded in the various epistles, is here given in its shortest form. It is bestowed in the name of Jesus only: ‘The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen’ (Rev. 22,21)(Apocalypse)
Musical Selection
He is the root and the offspring of David,andthe bright and morning star.
And the Spirit and bride say, “Come.”
And let him who heareth say, “Come.”
And let him who is athirst, come.
And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.
He which testifieth these things saith, “Surely I come quickly.”
Even so, “Come, Lord Jesus.”(Robert Cundick)
Collect
Who are we, Lord God,
that you should come to us?
Yet you have visited your people
and redeemed us in your Son.
As we prepare to celebrate his birth,
make our hearts leap for joy at the sound of your Word,
and move us by your Spirit to bless your wonderful works.
We ask this through him whose coming is certain,
whose day draws near:
your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
