God builds a city. It isn’t small, in fact is large beyond comprehension. Go!
John 14:23-29; Revelation 21:10,21:22-22:5; Psalm 67; Acts 16:9-15
Today we continue the theme from last week and look at the book of Revelation. Last week we heard that, in the new Creation, “there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” This week we get a little better picture of what this will look like.
John starts out by reminding his readers that the Holy City, Jerusalem, was coming down from heaven to earth. Then we skip a bit, but I want to talk about what we skipped. So the city comes down, and it’s described as glowing with the glory of god, shining like jasper. It had twelve gates, with twelve angels at the gates, and each gate was named after the twelve tribes of Israel. The wall had twelve foundations, each with the name of one of the twelve apostles.
Now we’re also given the measurements of the city, in somewhat unhelpful units. The city is 12,000 stadia long, and as wide and tall as it is long. If y’all are anything like me before working on this sermon, you have no idea what a stadion is or how long it is. Apparently it’s a Greek unit of measurement equal to 600 pous, or feet. Of course, just to be cute, there are around 8 different pous measurements, depending on the culture. Long story short, one stadion is anywhere between 582′ 8” and 637′ 9”. This makes 12,000 stadia anywhere between 1,200 and 1,450 miles. On the short side, that’s the direct distance between here and Chicago; on the long side, it’s the distance between here and New Orleans. Oh, and by the way, the walls are 200 feet thick. For reference, the Great Wall of China averages 25 feet thick. This is one big city.
I can’t even imagine something this huge. I mean, it’s about half of the United States, and a perfect cube. Then John reminds us that there isn’t a temple, because there is no need for a place to worship God when God is all around. There isn’t a sun or moon, because God is the light of the city; there won’t even be a night! The river of the water of life flows down the city’s main street, and the tree of life grows across the river. God’s people will reign forever with Him.
Thinking about this really kind of makes me feel a little stupid. Between the size of the city, and the absolute otherness of it all, I almost don’t know what to do. It’s hard enough imagining a living in a place where there is no sin, and being able to go on an afternoon stroll with God. It’s even crazier when you imagine a city half the size of our nation (which isn’t particularly small) and 2000 times taller than the tallest thing we’ve ever built.
Just goes to show that when God does something, He doesn’t just do it a little bit. But then the sheer size of the city got me thinking, Just how many people can live in this city? No I didn’t run any math on this, but it makes me think of how prepared God is, and how much He wants all of humanity to know Him. Sometimes we forget that about God – he wants everyone to be saved, not just a few.
I find it interesting, then, that our lectionary readings were designed with this reading from Revelation just before Ascension Sunday (which is next week) and Pentecost (two weeks from now). At the Ascension, and we’ll talk about this more next week, Jesus says, “You are going to tell people about me and everything you’ve seen in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the whole world, but wait until the Holy Spirit comes.”
I love when things like this happen, because it just reminds me that the Holy Spirit will sometimes work in weird ways. It seems like our Scripture readings are preparing us to see just how much room God has as we listen to Jesus’ charge to go out and share Him with others. It reminds us that heaven doesn’t have an occupancy limit; the “vacancy” sign is always lit. When it comes to God, there is always room for one more person in eternity, and it’s our job to let people know it’s there for them.