Last Tuesday (2 September 2025) was the 52nd anniversary of the death of one of my favourite authors, John Ronald Reuel Tolkien. Near the end of Tolkien’s masterpiece, The Lord of the Rings, the kind and humble character Sam Gamgee says to Gandalf, “I thought you were dead! But I thought I was dead myself.”
And then he asks, “Is everything sad going to come untrue?”
For Sam, it’s a moment of revelation and deep relief, the realisation that a new age is dawning where the shadow of moral darkness and malignant purpose will be no more.
Will everything sad come untrue? Can all that has been broken truly be healed? Can every tear be dried? Can every injustice be made right? Question like these echo in our hearts as we stand at the graveside of a loved one, as we read the headlines of war and famine and displacement, as we hear the cries of the poor, and the groaning of our polluted and exploited planet.
Revelation 22:1–5 is God’s ultimate response to our questions. Yes, everything sad will come untrue. But a genuine social and personal utopia will not arrive through the triumph of science and technology. It will come through God’s unique plan of salvation, through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ.
God is not in the business of erasing the past, but reframing and renewal of all that is through the mercy and love of God. Salvation is not defined by escape from this world, but by the world’s transformation through the wisdom and power of God.
Yes, we encounter suffering large and small in this world. Yes, we experience loss after loss in this life. Yes, life is frequently unfair, and unkind, and some days are almost unbearably dark for some of us. But these unwanted and uninvited experiences, shared with billions of our fellow human beings, are not the final word.
Through his word and Spirit, Jesus offers us an eternal hope that transcends the darkness, and breaks the injustice, and fills our horizon with healing, restoration, reconciliation, freedom, peace, and love. Here’s how John describes how the narrative of the world ends:
Then he showed me the river of the water of life, clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the city’s main street.
The tree of life was on each side of the river, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, producing its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree are for healing the nations, and there will no longer be any curse.
The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will worship him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads.
Night will be no more; people will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, because the Lord God will give them light, and they will reign forever and ever (Rev 22:1-5).
John begins with a vision of the river of life. It flows freely, abundantly, and eternally. It is not stagnant, poisoned, or dammed.
In Scripture, rivers often symbolise God’s life-giving presence. In Ezekiel’s vision, a river flows from the temple bringing life to the desert. In the Psalms, the river makes glad the city of God. In Revelation 22, the river represents God’s abundant blessing. It represents victory over death, drought, and despair; victory over evil and injustice; victory over all that is opposed to God. The victory of God is not exclusive but universal. It is not tribal or sectional, but generous and communal. It is pure grace.
Is everything sad going to come untrue? The testimony of the river of life whispers “yes.” Every thirst will be quenched, every desert irrigated, every thirsty soul refreshed, every community revitalised by grace.
Beside the river stands the tree of life, bearing fruit for all seasons. John tells us that the leaves of the tree are for “the healing of the nations.” There are no flags in heaven. There is no nationalism in heaven, no elite privilege, no unjustly allocated resources.
The tree of life supports and celebrates every people group, every culture, every tribe. The tree of life provides shade and sustenance for all who have suffered violence and exploitation and suppression.
There was another archetypal tree of life. We hear word of it in Genesis 2:9, a glorious tree at the centre of the Garden of Eden. The disobedience of our first parents denied access to that tree, but here access has been restored. Evil has been conquered. Everything sad is coming untrue.
Think of what this means: nations, so often at war, put down their weapons and find healing. The traumas of colonisation, the scars of racism, the tears of refugees, the wounds of poverty – God remembers them all. God applies his healing with the leaves of the tree, a divine balm that upholds justice and brings restoration.
This nudges us beyond private and personal salvation. God is not content to heal individuals while leaving systems broken. God is in the business of dismantling evil and injustice at every level: personal, structural, and cosmic.
Is everything sad going to come untrue? The tree whispers: “yes.” Every division will be healed, every evil reversed, every injustice overturned.
John then hears a promise: “there will no longer be any curse.” This is astonishing. The curse that entered the world through sin is undone by the mercy and grace of God.And in its place comes freedom, worship, light, and love. The servants of God see God’s face. God’s name is on their foreheads. And there will be no night, for God’s light will be sufficient and sustaining for all.
This is not a vision of escape from earth, but of earth renewed. Justice is not abstract; it is embodied in a community where there is no curse, no oppression, no exclusion. Peace is not mere silence but wholeness – what Scripture describes in the beautiful Hebrew word shalom – where every relationship, with God, with one another, and with creation, is restored.
We hold this hope with humility and courage. It is not a license to sit back and wait for heaven. It is not a time to be smug and saintly. It is a call to live now as citizens of this promised city, as heralds of healing, as bearers of light, as defenders of justice, as agents of reconciliation.
Is everything sad going to come untrue? Yes, because God will not rest until justice rolls down like waters, and peace covers the earth as the waters cover the sea (Amos 5:24).
Here is the challenge for us today: how do we live in the meantime, in the now-and-not-yet of God’s cosmic plans for humankind? I’ll have more to say on this theme next week, but for now let me suggest that the Book of Revelation is not written to lull us into passivity but to galvanise us into faithfulness.
If the river is flowing from the throne of God, we are called to be streams of living water in dry places, working to provide clean water for the poor, and education, and compassion, and care. We are called to stand with those in despair, and to be a voice on behalf of asylum seekers, and to advocate for climate justice.
If the tree of life offers healing for the nations, God is calling us to participate in God’s healing work, seeking reconciliation, opposing racism, practicing restorative justice, offering shelter and welcome to the stranger.
God is calling us to resist every form of curse that still afflicts our world – poverty, violence, ecological devastation – and to embody the inbreaking kingdom of God, here and now in our communities.
Our calling is not to manufacture a New Jerusalem, but to bear witness to the reality that is on its way, living as signs of God’s promised future.
Is everything sad going to come untrue? In Revelation 22:1–5, God’s answer is a resounding yes. Yes, because the river flows. Yes, because the tree heals. Yes, because the curse is undone. Yes, because God’s face shines upon us.
Tolkien’s hopeful phrase reminds us that God does not merely make new things but makes everything new. Every sadness is met with comfort. Every injustice with justice. Every wound with healing. Every death with resurrection.
And so, we wait in hope, and work in love, and worship in anticipation of the day that is on the way. When the victory of the Lamb is complete, we will stand together in that glorious city, and say with blessed assurance and joyful finality: “Everything sad has indeed come untrue.”
Sermon 825 copyright © 2025 Rod Benson. Preached at North Rocks Community Church, Sydney, Australia, on Sunday 7 September 2025. Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are from The Christian Standard Bible (Nashville: Holman Bible Publishers, 2020).
Image source: Wenzel Peter, Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, oil on canvas.
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