Lighting Up the Apocalypse 38: The River, The Tree, and The Face

Rev. 22:1-7, Genesis 1-3, Psalm 1, Psalm 35/36, Daniel 7

Finally, we reach our goal in reading the Apocalypse. Some will say that we find ourselves “back in the garden.”  But that would be to simplify the final vision.  Yes, the garden of Eden has returned, for there is no longer a curse on things, because the effects of the Fall have been removed, and health restored.  And there is water, and a tree, and the returned immediate presence of God who “walked” with our first parents.

Here are the glorious first seven verses of chapter 22:

Then he showed me the river of the water of life, shining like crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on each side of the river, I saw the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, bearing its fruit each month.  And the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. There shall be no curse any more.  And the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in the city, and His servants shall worship Him; they shall behold His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads. And there shall be no night, nor will they need the light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they shall reign for ever and ever.

And he said to me, “These words are trustworthy and true. And the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, has sent his angel to show His servants what must soon take place. And behold, I am coming soon.”

Blessed is the one who holds to the words of the prophecy of this book.

The book of Revelation ends with a blessing for us, for those who believe and guard its words, prophetic words given by the angel and by John on behalf of God Himself. It helps to remember that the word “pro-phet” means literally “to speak on behalf of,” and does not always deal in the future.  Of course, before us we have a vision of the glorious city to come, and so we are given a prophetic word of anticipation.  But throughout this book, let us remember, there are true interpretations of the past—of the fall of Satan, of Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension, of what God has done for His people throughout the ages.  And there are also true words concerning our present day, when we must disentangle ourselves from Babylon, and hold fast to Christ and to our siblings in Christ.  The prophetic word speaks to all of reality, and blesses us, if we will hold to it.  So it is that the final word of this passage is spoken directly to each one of us, even though we together make up the body of Christ.  We are reminded that God deals with us both as the Church, and personally, for each one of us is precious to Him.  What we see in this final vision, then, is a promise for us all and for each of us.

Before our eyes is a picture, a picture to delight and comfort the heart.  God places our first parents in a beautiful habitat, which was not simply a backdrop for their pleasure, but a world to which they were physically joined.  They were, after all, made of earth, and Adam named the animals.  Like the animals, they were made male and female;  but more than the animals, they were made to have communion with God.  Like the animals, they needed the water of the rivers in that place, and the fruit of the trees that bloomed there; but more than the animals, they knew God’s will that they should fast from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  God dignified them by engaging them in terms of their free obedience, and demonstrating by this that they had growing to accomplish.

In this renewed City-garden in Rev. 22, we see some continuity, but also transformation. In Genesis, a river flowed out of the garden, breaking into four, two of which were the famous Tigris and Euphrates.  But now we see a transcendent river that no longer divides, flowing from the throne of God and the Lamb. As this is a vision, the presence of the river may suggest various things.  Several fathers, though, have related it to the water that never ends, which our Lord Jesus spoke about to Photini at the well, and which He connected both with His divine life and the gift of the Holy Spirit. (“The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life;” “Whoever believes in me…‘out of his heart will flow rivers of living water,’” Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive.…” (John 4:14, John 7:38) Both Jerome in the west, and St. Andrew of Caesarea in the east, thus see the river as an indication of the Holy Spirit Himself, present in the life of believers now, but dramatically present to all on that day.  Here is St. Andrew: “the river that flows from the Church in the present life indicates the baptism of regeneration that is made effective through the Spirit and makes those who are washed more clean than snow and crystal. But the river of God, filled up with waters, namely, the Holy Spirit, flows through the Jerusalem above, flowing from God the Father through the Son” (Comm. on the Apocalypse 22:1-2).  As with the symbolism of the rainbow, the presence of the great and never-ending river complete our understanding of God as triune, granting life to all. God, the Lamb, and the life-giving river of the Holy Spirit command our attention.

The water in Eden was sufficient;  the water in the New Jerusalem is overwhelming and abundant beyond imagination.  So, too, with the fruit of the tree (or 12 trees).  In that heavenly city, it is called, singularly, “the tree of Life”:  just as God is one, so it is one.  But this tree of life meets every need, adapting itself to twelve different situations, and growing on both sides of the river.  Its fruit is perennially good to eat, and its leaves “heal” all the various peoples who come to it. Adam and Eve sought to heal their nakedness by making aprons of fig-leaves;  God gives the leaves of this transcendent tree to meet every need, and to bring wholeness.  And so every vestige of the curse on the land, on humanity, on the animals, will be gone! The theologian Primasius calls out the words that we hear every matins from Psalm 35LXX/36:10: “With you is the fountain of life; in your light shall we see light.”

Moreover, some of the fathers have read this vision in terms of a present, and not just a future reality.  For example, Jerome sees this image as fulfilling what we also can read in Psalm 1 about the tree planted by river that brings forth fruit, who is Christ.  He thus has this to say, and is echoed by other fathers, east and west: “This river, moreover, has two banks, the Old Testament and the New Testament, and the tree planted on both sides is Christ. During the year, this tree yields twelve fruits, one for each month, but we are unable to receive the fruits except through the apostles. If one approaches the tree through the apostles, he must receive the fruit; he gathers the fruit from the sacred Scriptures; he grasps the divine meaning abiding within the words. If, therefore, one comes to this tree through the apostles, he gathers its fruit” (Homilies on the Psalms, Psalm 1).  And, of course, that tree might also be seen as the cross itself, which bears fruit and gives life to all who come to trust in Him.  The picture of the nations being healed gives to us some assurance that God’s work of healing does not cease in this life, but continues!  And so the vision can give us not only hope for the future, but also confidence in God’s present provision for us by the Holy Spirit and the bounty of God.

After this sight of the throne, the water, and the tree, there is something even more bewildering. In reading the text sequentially, we get the sense of the throne above, with the water cascading down.  But now we hear that the throne of the Father and the Son, a single throne, is actually IN the purified City-garden, among the blessed who are worshipping. We are reminded of chapter 5 of Revelation, where the Lamb is both seated on the throne and standing in the midst of the elders.  Here the vision leads us to see the transcendence of God’s throne, from which tumbles life-giving water, but also His immanence, His royal presence among us.  This immediate presence of God becomes possible because of all that Christ has accomplished in the Incarnation, Crucifixion, Resurrection, and Ascension.  He has become what we are that He may lift us up.  So then, under the law, the “throne” of God, the Ark of the Covenant, was in the Holiest Place, could only be approached very carefully by the high-priest, and was obscured from the view of the people by curtains and walls.  Now, in the New Jerusalem, everyone can gaze at the throne, and—wonder of wonders—see the very face of God.  What was impossible in the past—for one cannot see the face of God and live, say the prophets—has now been made possible.  As 1 John 3:2 promises, “We shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.”  As St. Andrew of Caesarea puts it, “Those who become the throne of God because of the rest of the Lord among them will be the inhabitants of that city. They will see him no longer in shadows but face-to-face, even as the holy apostles saw him on the holy mount, as the great Dionysius says”  (Comm. on the Apocalypse 22:3).  The apostles, we remember, saw the glory of Christ as much as they could bear it; cleansed, healed, and illumined, we hope to see more and more clearly on that day!  St. Andrew perceptively goes on to explain the engraved name in terms of the names of the tribes that the high-priest bore upon his chest when entering into the Holy Presence. The high priest-bore the names of the tribes on his chest, and the name of the LORD on his forehead; each of us will have the name of the LORD on our forehead, and on our heart.

We are all, then, to be like the high priest, standing in God’s presence, worshipping the LORD, and bearing His very name. But that is not all!  We are pictured here as royalty, reigning forever.  We are taken back to Daniel 7:27, when the picture of the Son of Man ascending to the Ancient of Days is interpreted by the angel in this way:

 And the kingdom and the dominion

and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven

shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High;

His kingdom shall be an everlasting kingdom,

and all dominions shall serve and obey Him.

Because of the Father and the Lamb, they shall reign unto ages of ages—that is, forever!  And this rule will take place in a kingdom with no darkness or ignorance whatsoever, a life in the unmediated, direct presence of God Himself. Yet, mediation continues to take place for now.  For the vision comes to us “through the spirit of the prophets,” which is explained by the sixth century Oecumenius scholar in this way:

By “spirits of the prophets” he means the prophetic gifts, as we learn from the all-wise Paul, who said, “and the spirits of the prophets are subject to prophets,” and from the holy prophet Isaiah: “We have conceived, O Lord, because of fear of you, and we have been in birth pangs and have brought forth the breath of your salvation that you have wrought upon the earth.” “To show his servants what must soon take place,” it says. By means of John and his writings, all have learned what he saw. And appropriately he says “soon,” for as we have noted earlier, in comparison with the everlasting ages that are coming, all time is short, even if someone might think it a very long while. (Commentary on the Apocalypse 22:6-9, TEG 8:282-283)

Appropriately, Oecumenius leads us to a question that is even more acute for the twenty-first century.  We are assured that He is coming soon, and that all this will take place soon.  But we are many more centuries advanced than this scholar was, and still Christ has not yet come again.  In one breath, we hear the assurance of the angel that these words are trustworthy.  But in the same breath, we are reminded that much time has passed since he spoke to John.  The ancient commentator reminds us that we are measuring by human time.  And there is something more—some of these promises make their immediate impact upon us even now, in our present life.  When we pray the Liturgy, we are caught up to the heavens.  When we receive from the chalice, this is the river of life, the fruit of the twelve-fold tree, and its healing leaves.  When we gather together, it is already with the host of angels, the twelve tribes and the apostles of the Lamb.  We do not know, but He could come and fulfill all things tonight. Or each of us could go to be with Him, gathered with the spirits of those made perfect.  And yet for those of us who remain here, He comes to us, again and again, as we pray, worship, and meet with His people. For Him, all times are soon!  He has given us living water, fed us by His own sacrifice, and shown us His face; here, or there, we have the assurance that we will see Him more and more clearly.