Three times a year TEAR Fund NZ puts out a publication called the Correspondent, which you can read online. In each of those I write a piece that we call a Biblical Snapshot. The aim of it is to expand on and explain some of the thinking behind the passages of scripture we use to underpin each of our major seasonal campaigns. This is what I wrote for our last Correspondent to share some of the link between the story of God presented in Revelation 21 and our Wipe Away Their Tears campaign.
Biblical Snapshot: Revelation 21:3-5
One of the biggest times in the Christian calendar is the lead up to Christmas. It’s known as Advent and when we engage with it, it reminds us of whom we are and retells our story as followers of Jesus.
The key theme of Advent is hope and that hope is wrapped up in Jesus. Advent is about reminding ourselves that our Saviour, the King, has come (Christmas) and that he is coming again to make all things right. That sense of his coming brings with it the understanding that things are not right – we are still in need of a Saviour. That’s evident in things like human trafficking and slavery. It’s also evident in the vulnerability of so many children around the world who lack access to basic needs and safety. So we live in a tension, God, in the form of Jesus, has moved into the neighbourhood (John 1:14 MSG) and given us a glimpse and the start of a renewed world in his Resurrection, but that movement isn’t complete. Advent renews our desire for his return and for the world to be made new.
The book of Revelation connects to this. It takes us on an amazing journey through pain, suffering, triumph, glory, good, evil, warnings and assurances. It gives us maidens, villains, heroes and epic cosmic battles, and it culminates in the writer reflecting the visions and words of the prophet Isaiah, closing out with an image of the returned Saviour and God’s new heavens and new earth.
Revelation 21:3-5 paints a succinct picture of that renewal. God’s home is made amongst his people and “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There will be no more mourning or death or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” (v4 NIV). From his throne God says “I am making everything new.” The truth of the matter is affirmed in the second half of verse 5.
While the completion of this promise is something for the future, glimpses of that Kingdom are not relegated to only then. Jesus said, “repent, for the Kingdom of heaven has come near.” Through the arrival of Jesus, his life, death, resurrection and ascension, that world broke into the one we know so well.
If we see the Kingdom as the reign of God and the Church as the realm of God then the Church has the responsibility to give the world glimpses of God’s reality now, amidst the brokenness. I love that line “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes…” That’s a reality of the renewal to come that we can give glimpses of in the world now. One very real way to do it is to tackle the issue of human trafficking; to protect children and free young girls from sexual slavery where tears are all too well known amidst life-breaking abuse. Let’s be people who wipe away their tears. Let’s be people who celebrate that our Saviour has come and is to come not just with our words, but with our actions that demonstrate the very real hope inherent in Advent.