Excerpts from my Red Rock News Religion Column May 16, 2025
- Rev. Dona Johnson |May 18, 2025
The Yad Vashem Holocaust History Museum’s exit faces north for a good reason. As visitors complete the somber and soul-searching journey through the museum, the tunnel-like prism walls open up to a panoramic view of Israel. As one stands on the balcony to catch their breath from all the harsh reality of evil, one looks out at the sunlit Jerusalem forests and urbanized hills beyond. The architects wanted to reinforce that no matter how dark and horrific evil can be in this life, and it can be horrendously dark, new life and the goodness of God will always prevail.
In Revelation 21, the Spirit gives John an image of a new future with a Christian conviction that at the end of time, God promises a new heaven and a new earth, and a new holy city, a new Jerusalem will come down from heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. The end we meet will not be an event, but a Person. In the new Jerusalem, unlike Moses who never got to see God’s face, only his backside, God’s people will finally get to see him fact to face.
In this new creation, there will be no more tears, death, mourning, crying and pain. In the end, the light which is Christ himself will absorb the darkness of human suffering. For many of us have experienced more than our share of tears in this life. For those who have cried themselves asleep, tears aroused by death and deep sighs of grief for the abuse of animals and the natural world, tears stirred up by painful persecution, discrimination, poverty, disease, betrayal and abandonment, all of this suffering will pass away to make room for something new to be born. Then God will fill this vacuum with things that make a glorious new creation. All that now robs life from being fulfilled, from being a vibrant joyful life will be replaced with something beyond our imagination.
God will dwell, make his tabernacle with his people forever. This is what formed the dreams and laments of the early prophets. We hear this longing from the Prophet Isaiah, who heard God say, “Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing.” Paul also declares, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation” (2 Cor 5:17). Over and over again, we hear throughout Scripture Christ’s promise to restore what is broken, and redeem the relationship between God and humanity. This is the powerful mystery of faith found only in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Yes, God can take any man or woman and re-create him or her, and will someday create a new universe.
With God’s banishment of death, the last enemy as Paul declares, all God’s people will experience eternal life. And that is what every Christian sees waiting for them on the horizon. Although death is still a reality for us and all creation, a painful and sad reality, we no longer have to fear death. For in death we will not die, but move from life to life. Each and every day, God’s love prevails for “all” people, raising up people who are spiritually dead, into the promise of eternal life with him. Shabbat Shalom.
- Rev. Dona Johnson |May 18, 2025