Wiped Away
The past few weeks have brought pain and tragedy to the lives of many of my friends, and countless others in my community and beyond. Everywhere I turn, I encounter someone who is broken, wounded, or grieving. These days, it seems like the whole world is hurting.
Jesus was no stranger to sorrow, weeping, and mourning. Isaiah 53:3 says Jesus was “a man of suffering, and familiar with pain” (Is. 53:3, NIV). Jesus felt grief, mourned, and shed tears. Now, because of His glorious resurrection and victory over death, our risen King holds a glorious promise for us.
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” Revelation 21:1-4 (NIV)
This heavenly scene that John the Revelator observed is a touching picture of God’s tender care for us. God not only sees our pain, but He also acknowledges our tears and grief. He stretches out His hand to wipe our tears from our faces and brings our mourning to a permanent end.
However, the language used to describe God’s loving action toward faithful believers describes more than a caring gesture. The Greek word exaleifo is what is translated as wipe away. This verb is the same one used in Acts 3:19, referring to blotting out of sins. It is also used in Colossians 2:14, where Paul says God canceled the record of our sins. And it is the same word used in Revelation 3:5, when God declares He will not blot out the names from His book of life of those who follow Him. Exaleifo implies a complete wiping away, erasing, or obliterating. To exaleifo is to wipe away something along with all evidence that it ever existed.
To deepen our understanding of this promise, the same word used to describe God wiping away our tears is also used to describe the flood that completely blotted out every living thing from the face of the earth (Gen. 7:4, 23). The Hebrew word machah was translated to exaleifo in the earliest Greek translation of the Old Testament—a word that conveys total obliteration. When our victorious King ultimately wipes away our tears, it will be with love that overwhelms us in His presence, and with sovereign totality that ends and erases all evidence of pain and sorrow for all eternity.
I don’t know of anyone or anything else to ever make this claim. No one else has promised to obliterate our sorrow, replacing all evidence of past pain with the joy of a new creation ordered according to His perfect will. No one else has promised this, because God alone is able to do it. This is yet another way God is exceedingly good and provides perfectly for us. Our savior, who lived as a man and is fully familiar with sorrow and grief, knows that we will cry tears. There will be tears from emotional and physical pain, tears of frustration and anger, and tears of sadness and mourning. Tears are part of this life. But, make no mistake, there will come a day when this life ends, and all of heaven and earth pass away … and that will be just the beginning of something brand new.
He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” Revelation 21:5 (NIV)
Yes, our God knows there will be tears, but He promises they will not be forever. Jesus cares for us so gently that He will touch our faces and wipe away our tears; and we can stand on the authority and power of His word, in confident expectation that He will obliterate every trace, erase every stain, heal every wound, and declare the end of every tear. In His presence, we will be made new along with all of creation.
I pray that God’s promise to exaleifo every tear brings new hope to you today. Jesus remains with us in our deepest grief, our most painful experiences, and our most intense hurt and says, “Trust in me.” One day, He will make all things new—what a glorious day that will be!