STATION 5

(participant reads)
A summary of Jesus’ resurrection:
Three days after Jesus is buried, His tomb is found to be empty.
The boulder is pushed aside.  
The body is missing. 

People start to say that Jesus has been brought back to life.  
Two men recount an interaction they had on the road from Jerusalem to Emmaus, saying to a stranger : "We have been waiting so long for ‘The Messiah’.  Instead, He was sentenced to death.  We watched Him die.  It wasn’t supposed to be like that. Now, we’re hearing a story that He could be alive!”
Then, when the stranger speaks, they recognise Him as Jesus: “Don’t you see, these things had to happen.  It is written - ‘The Messiah’ would have to suffer and then return to God. I had to die — it is the death for everyone’s sin.  I choose to take on the weight of everyone else’s sin — and guilt and shame are completely wiped away.”  
Everything makes sense now.  
The two men hurry back to where Jesus’ followers are.  They share the news that Jesus is in fact alive. 
Over the next few weeks, the resurrected Jesus appears to many of His followers — reassuring them He is back from the dead; and calling them to tell others what they have seen.

A summary of Revelation 21& 22:
A number of decades after Jesus' resurrection, his good friend, John, experiences a mysterious vision, and in it he sees a tree which gives twelve different kinds of fruit. 
Its leaves are used for medicine to heal the nations. 
There will no longer be a curse on anything, because Jesus will be right there in the city of God for all to see and worship. The city does not need the sun or the moon, because the light of God will shine upon it. 
In his vision, an angel tells John that everything he has been shown is true and is going to happen.  “Everyone should have the chance to know what I have shown you, John”, says the angel.  “Don’t hide your words away. Don’t put them on a shelf somewhere.  Time is almost up, John.  Let the evil-doers do their worst, but let all the Jesus-followers walk a straight path, doing what God says is good.”  
Jesus says, “Yes, I am on my way! I’ll be there soon! I’ll bring a reward with me.  I’ll reward all the people for their life’s work. I’m A to Z, the First and the Final, Beginning and Conclusion”
God is restoring His creation.  Restoring intimate relationship —  with God;  with others;  with all of the cosmos.
Everything is being made completely new again.  
 
(guide reads)
I am invited to participate in the hope that God is moving the world toward — where everything will be made new again.
 
When Adam and Eve lived in the garden they ate well, lived in peace, and enjoyed complete physical, emotional, and relational wholeness. At the centre of the garden stood the tree of life, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. God instructed them that they may eat freely from all the trees, except the tree of knowledge of good and evil. When they chose to disobey God and eat from this tree, God had no choice but to expel Adam and Eve from the garden so they could not eat from the tree of life and live forever in broken relationship with God and each other.
 
When Jesus returns to make all things new, I will once again be given access to the Tree of life. I will eat of the tree’s fruit (Revelation 2:7), and it’s leaves will provide healing. 
Humans will once again eat well, live in peace, and enjoy complete physical, emotional, and relational wholeness.
 
What does healing and renewal look like for you?  
 
For the world?
 
A grapevine is a type of tree whose imagery is seen all through the story of God, and some have said that the Tree of Life may also be a type of vine as it stood “on each bank of the river”. The imagery of a grapevine was familiar to the people of Israel, it was often used to refer to them as a nation. 
 
(participant reads)
“You took us like a grapevine dug from the soil of Egypt… and transplanted it in Your land.” (Psalms 80:8)
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As a nation, Israel was to be different to the nations around them. God longed for them to bear the fruits of right living where He had planted them, to be people that bring about renewal in the lives of others. 
 
When Jesus walked towards the garden of Gethsemane after what would be His last Passover supper with His disciples, He shared these words:
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“I am the true vine, and My Father is the keeper of the vineyard.” (John 15:1)
 
Jesus said to His disciples that He is the true vine. He is the One who brings healing to the nations, it is in Him that we find our healing.
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Jesus continued, saying to His disciples, “Abide in Me, and I will abide in you… I am the vine, and you are the branches… I have loved you as the Father has loved Me. Abide in My love… I want you to know the delight I experience, to find ultimate satisfaction, which is why I am telling you all of this.”
(John 15:4-5, 9 & 11)
 
(guide reads)
Look at the leaves before you, they represent the soothing leaves from the tree of life, the leaves that provide healing. 
Collect a paper ‘leaf’.  You might like to write a prayer inviting God to do a work of specific renewal.
 
In what way do you want Jesus to bring renewal in your life?
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How might God work through you to bring renewal in someone else’s life?
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You may like to take a few minutes to ask Jesus to bring healing, to make you whole.
Or perhaps how he might bring healing for someone else through you. 
 
When you are ready, attach your leaf to the vine.