No More Tears: Revelation 21:1-6, 22:1-5 - Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost

It’s sad how many people go through life without ever knowing Jesus Christ. 

I do not believe that my God would send such people to hell. Nevertheless, it is tragic that people suffered hardships and faced death without knowing how much Jesus loves them.

If I didn’t have Jesus and I didn’t have my church, I’d be dead inside. 

But faith is a complicated thing. We do not all believe in God in the same way, because our minds are different. Our life experiences are different. We don’t choose our beliefs as much as we inherit them, absorb them, and adopt them as we go through life.

Photo credit: churchart.com

It’s not unusual for someone who has spent years in the church to walk away, for any number of reasons: perhaps something so devastating happened to them that it was impossible to go on believing. Those who have never been exposed to Christian faith or fellowship have no idea what they’re missing. Some, when they see the way certain Christians behave, may decide they want no part of any of it. 

Faith is a complicated thing. Any way you look at it, there are a lot of things happening in the world, and a lot of things a person can experience, which make it very hard to believe in a loving God.

Revelation was written to help Christians make sense of a world where chaos and evil appear to be winning. It encourages patience and steadfast endurance amid trials, tribulations, and persecutions. It gives assurance to those who keep the faith and remain steadfast in their witness that they will be victorious, whereas the unrighteous will be condemned.

But what about those who struggled to believe amid bitter suffering and unanswered prayers? What about those denied Jesus because they didn’t want to see themselves or their loved ones killed? What about those whose faith succumbed to the pressures of the world around them?

Faith is a very complicated thing. Not everyone rejoices in suffering. Not everyone faces death unafraid. Not everyone marches off bravely to martyrdom for the sake of Christ. 

Look at Peter, who denied Jesus three times to save his own skin while Jesus was led off to be crucified. Look at Thomas who refused to believe the news of Jesus’s resurrection. Look at Jesus, who wept at the tomb of Lazarus, and who later, cried out from the cross, “my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” No one’s faith is bulletproof when there is mourning, crying, and pain. 

Throughout the book of Revelation, we encounter those who cry out in agony because their spirits have been broken by all that they have suffered. 

We are no different. Life is unfair. Not everyone is given an equal share of health, an equal share of happiness, and an equal length of life. Some will coast through life quite easily and others will endure nothing but suffering. We’re all struggle with sin, but some fall deeper into it than others. No matter how many prayers God may answer, prayer will not spare you from death. We will all leave this world as helplessly as we came into it—and we may be just as helpless at times in between. 

But there is a place in heaven for every broken spirit because God’s power to save is not limited by the choices you made (good or bad), nor is God’s power limited to your span of life.

Therefore, there must also be a place in the church for every broken spirit, and a shared understanding that this is a safe place not to be okay. Otherwise, no one can experience God’s comfort or God’s healing. The beauty of belonging to each other in Christ is that we can bear one another’s burdens by sharing in one another’s tears. And then we can do whatever we can to meet the needs and ease the pains.

I don’t think that we can show people how much we care until we know how badly they hurt. Has there ever been so much poverty, so much domestic abuse, so much addiction, and so much despair as there is now? Our society is sick with a pandemic of uncaring, as we are too wrapped up in our own lives to care about others. Compassion rarely extends beyond our political and social divides. Anymore, we would rather shame or punish the less fortunate than go out of our way to help. 

But God has given us the gifts to heal broken lives and restore broken communities. What is hope but people who truly care? Hope is our commitment to each other so that no one suffers alone. Where there is hope, there is transformation. Hope is what lifts you out of despair and self-centeredness to a more purposeful life that is lived for others.

Indeed, the Spirit will inspire faith and love in you, which will inspire faith in others. My faith has been built up and strengthened by the love and witness of otherwise ordinary people, including each of you. 

The way we get to God’s promised future is together. Today, there is a place for your tears, a place for your pain, but also a place for your gifts and a place for your love. 

Why? Because Christ the Lamb has conquered. And onward, he leads us, until “Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more,” and he wipes the tears from every face, including yours.

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. ² And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. ³ And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,

“See, the home of God is among mortals.

He will dwell with them;

they will be his peoples,

and God himself will be with them and be their God;

⁴ he will wipe every tear from their eyes.

Death will be no more;

mourning and crying and pain will be no more,

for the first things have passed away.”

⁵ And the one who was seated on the throne said, “See, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true.” ⁶ Then he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give water as a gift from the spring of the water of life.

22 Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb ² through the middle of the street of the city. On either side of the river is the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, producing its fruit each month, and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. ³ Nothing accursed will be found there any more. But the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him; ⁴ they will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. ⁵ And there will be no more night; they need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever. (NRSV)