NOTES for Rev 21:9-22:5

In the picture of the heavenly Jerusalem that we find in Revelation, there is much in common with the prophetic tradition and prophetic symbolism. Thus the fullness of the heavenly Church is opened to the apostle, manifested to the transfigured world, a fullness becoming the spiritual center of the universe which, like a magnet, draws to itself all who seek living communion with God in all its fullness.

It is precisely the heavenly Jerusalem that becomes the source of the living water flowing from beneath the Throne. This is clearly the same river that Ezekiel saw flowing from beneath the gate of the Temple shown to him (Ezek. 47:1-12). In Ezekiel's vision it watered all Judea; in John's vision it waters the Kingdom, cleansing and giving life to it, freeing its very nature from everything unclean, everything "accursed." This is how the new world is opened to John: a world that has become the kingdom of the living God, a kingdom ruled by the Messiah sent by Him, a kingdom permeated by the breath of life that gives life to its nature, becoming for it a stream of living water flowing from the Throne into eternity.

As is known, the word "apocalypse" means in Greek "revelation". And, when we pronounce this word, we have in mind rather often the corresponding biblical book. But even more often - disasters, universal cataclysm, the end of everything and all. This point of view is spread today even among Christians, not talking of others. And however the book of Revelation ends with the description not of disasters, but of complete and definitive renovation of the world, the triumph of the Kingdom, about which the Christians of the first generation dreamed, hoping that it will occur during their life. And what about man in this renewed world? Physically he is obviously renewed in the same way as all the rest of the universe; and spiritually?

Here is, John speaks about this spiritual side, by describing a new spiritual quality of life of the faithful in the Kingdom revealed till the end. There is nothing "cursed" in the Kingdom. There is nothing and anybody opposing God there. In the current period, at the time of the Kingdom to come, opposition is present, and the more it is remarkable and the more it is lively, more the Kingdom reveals itself in the environment, which is hostile to it. But after the complete transformation of the world, as we see, there is no place in it for any strength hostile to God.

But it is the picture of the New World in general; what about man particularly? For man, as we see, change qualitatively, are renewed the relationships with God and with Christ (in John’s visions, Christ often appears in the form of the Lamb). Now they see the Savior face to face, see Him all the time, and not sometimes, as it was before when the world was transformed, but was not yet totally transformed, and see clearly, and not as it was often done before when His face appeared, as through a fog. And the problem here is of course not only in the change of the physical nature of the man.

The problem is above all, particularly in the renewal of the spiritual life, in the renewal of these relationships, which connect man with God and with Christ, in this renewal of the union-covenant, about which spoke again Jeremiah. Relationships new not darkened by any sin form the spiritual basis of this new union-covenant. And indeed, the Kingdom is based in particular on relationships - of its inhabitants with God and with one another, they with Christ, finally Christ with His Heavenly Father. And when these relationships become complete, then the Kingdom reveals itself to the world in all its transformative fullness.

God's presence in the yahvism revealed itself very often to the people of God and its particular representatives as the light or as the halo. The shining cloud indicated the place of God's presence already in the time of Moses, who saw it at Horeb, where he met for the first time with the God of his fathers. Moses from far took this halo for fire, but, having approached closer, he understood that he made a mistake: the real fire would have burned the bush, on which the cloud came down in no time. And later this shining cloud was seen over the Tabernacle, in the Holy of Holies of the Temple of Jerusalem, saw seen leaving the Temple, where there was already no more a place for God (as it was revealed in the vision of Ezekiel), was seen on the Ascension Day (exactly in such a shining cloud Jesus disappear from the eyes of His affected disciples).

And in the poem on the creation, in the first chapter of the Book of Genesis, in the description of the first day of the creation, is mentioned the world created this day by God, quite flooded with the light, penetrated by the halo of God's presence. It is not surprising that there is not a place for the darkness in this world shining by the light of God: God separates the light from darkness, putting the difference between light and darkness.

And here is, afterward, when the chaos will penetrate into the world, and God will stand the forces, which led this chaos into the world, afterward, when the creation of God will become such or almost such, as it will appear to us, day and night, the light and the darkness begin to alternate in the world. And it will be like that until its total transformation, until the day, when its nature itself will change qualitatively. Of course, it will not change by itself, it is God Who changes it with His breath, this breath of the Kingdom, that penetrated the world the day of the Pentecost. And when it will take place, the world will be penetrated again by the light of God's presence, as in the first day.

So the world becomes the Kingdom: because the Kingdom of God is not the world, where God hides behind the veil of nature, but the world, where He is seen from anywhere, seen clearly and distinctly. And the halo is only the consequence of this proximity. Without it there is no Kingdom, quite as there is no Kingdom without the breath of God penetrating into the Kingdom till the very limits. Because it is in particular it that gives to the Kingdom and light, and life. Beyond its limits, we have only what the Savior calls the external darkness.

The heavenly Jerusalem is shown to the apostle in a vision in considerable detail. And at the foundation of its architectural dimensions lies the number twelve, a number, of course, symbolic, connected both with the fullness of the people of God, consisting of twelve tribes, and with the fullness of the messianic community, consisting of twelve apostles.

The fullness of the Church is shown to John as the unity of the fullness of the people of God and the fullness of the messianic apostolic community that grew out of it. There can be no doubt that the heavenly Jerusalem is an image of the heavenly Church: it is called "the bride of the Lamb," and in the New Testament books this is precisely what the Church of Christ is called. The precious stones mentioned in the book, with which the foundation of the city is adorned, are the same sacred stones used to adorn the Tabernacle: thus the whole city is revealed to the apostle as one great sanctuary.

The river of living water mentioned in the book recalls Ezekiel's vision, in which he sees this river flowing from under the foundation of the Temple; in John's vision it flows through the city, sanctifying it and giving it life. The trees along the riverbanks are the same as in Ezekiel's vision. There is no uncleanness, "nothing accursed," in the city: the Kingdom and abiding in it are incompatible with any evil and any sin.

But purification and transfiguration are possible for everyone who wants them, and only those who are "devoted to abomination and falsehood," who have chosen them and do not want to part with them, remain outside the Kingdom. As for the Temple, the sanctuary, there is no sanctuary in the earthly sense in the Kingdom; it is not needed there. The sanctuary of the Kingdom is that very Throne of glory which some saw in the Temple during worship as if from afar and through a barrier. Now there is no barrier, and the Throne of glory as the spiritual center of the Kingdom is open to everyone. In this way, in the form of the Throne, the point in creation where God's will meets the world created by God, determining its being, is revealed to the inhabitants of the Kingdom.

This point is the spiritual center not only of the Kingdom, but of the whole universe. And the King of God's Kingdom becomes the Messiah risen from the dead - now, at last, no longer hidden, but manifest to everyone. And the light of the heavenly Jerusalem is not the physical light of the untransformed world, but the light of God's presence, the very light that permeated the world on the first day of creation. The world regains the fullness of being and is transfigured by the breath of the Kingdom, which has become the center and meaning of its existence.

In today’s reading the Apostle John tells us about the Kingdom of God. Yet it is fairly pointless to turn to this text for specific information: you will find almost nothing specific apart from the repeated number twelve. Almost nothing. But here is the most important and most precise information: the new city, the new and transfigured Jerusalem, comes down from heaven from God. This is what matters most. The answer to every question—“What will it be like there?”—is contained in these words: “From God.” And we can imagine it to the extent that we know Him—to the extent that He has succeeded in placing knowledge of Himself within our hearts, to the extent that we are open to Him.

The image of the heavenly Jerusalem first appears in the preaching of Isaiah of Babylon, who lived six centuries before Christ's coming. Even then it was like the description we find in the Book of Revelation: a shining city on the top of a mountain, to which earthly kings give glory and which becomes light not only for the people of God, but also for the pagans. The corresponding Greek verse speaks of "nations," that is, pagans, who will walk in "its," the city's, light; the word "saved" is a later insertion absent from early editions of the Book of Revelation.

What is greater here: reality or symbol? The earthly Jerusalem or a heavenly vision? The answer is not as simple as it may appear. Of course, when one reads of the glory of God that replaces both sunlight and moonlight here, only heaven comes to mind, and certainly not our sinful world. Meanwhile, the glory of God, as the biblical books call that radiant presence of God first seen by Moses when he approached the burning bush, accompanied the Jewish people throughout all their history, although before the full transfiguration of the world it could not be revealed to people in the fullness in which Isaiah of Babylon and the apostle John contemplate it.

The difference between earth and heaven in this case is not absolute. God's presence was revealed both before the Messiah's coming and before the full transfiguration of creation, only not in the fullness in which it appears at the end of times. What, then, about Jerusalem? Where is it located: in heaven or on earth? It is impossible to answer this question unequivocally, not because the text is unclear, but because there is no answer.

There would be one if God from the beginning had created heaven and earth as two different worlds with different laws that were not supposed to intersect with each other. However, in the text of the creation poem from the first chapter of Genesis, "heaven and earth," whatever is meant by this, are still one single world, not two different worlds.

A two-world order is not God's design; it is a consequence of the fall, the result of the action in the world of a will opposed to God. This will did not manage to subject the world completely to itself, but it did manage to tear away from it a part that fell under its power.

God, transfiguring the world, frees it from division, so that everything is preserved in it except evil and sin, for which there can be no place in the Kingdom. The Jerusalem we see in the Book of Revelation is heavenly no less than earthly, and earthly no more than heavenly. Only heaven and earth are no longer the same: the transfigured Jerusalem stands on the new earth under the new heaven.