As a boy growing up in the 1950s and early 60s I was expected to wear shorts, except in the most extreme of wintry conditions. Indeed my school – I’m talking about High School here – had a rule which was rigorously enforced: you had to be a certain age (perhaps 12 or 13) or have reached a certain height (probably 5 feet) before you were allowed to don longer trousers. There were several disadvantages in wearing shorts, quite apart from the embarrassment of exposing one’s knobbly knees. One was simply feeling a bit chilly on cooler days; another was getting onstant cuts and scrapes on one’s legs which never seemed to be in quite the right place as one grew taller.

But the biggest problem with shorts came with walking in woodland: that’s because woodland doesn’t just have trees, but other plants as well, in particular nettles. You’d try to be careful but, sooner or later you’d get stung. Then the cry would go up: “Search for a dock leaf to crush and place on the sting, that will soothe the pain”. The problem for me was that, although I was told that docks can always be found growing near nettles, I didn’t really know what they looked like!

Now it’s often claimed that dock leaves relieve the pain because their alkaline sap neutralises the nettle’s formic acid. Actually that’s not true, as dock leaf sap is also acidic – so why does this remedy seem to work? One answer is that the dock leaf juice evaporating from the skin may cool the burning sensation. Another possibility is that dock leaves contain natural antihistamines that reduce the irritation, although none have been identified. And finally there is the placebo effect: faith in the remedy being offered actually makes it work.

Of course plants (or extracts from them) have been used to treat diseases for many years. You probably know that aspirin is derived from the bark and leaves of a willow tree, but there are many more. Childhood leukaemia can be treated with two drugs, vincristine and vinblastine, which come from the Madagascan Periwinkle. It takes about 500 kilograms of dried leaves to produce one gram of vinblastine, so scientists have been looking for ways to produce this artificially. Only in 2018 did they discover the enzymes that build te;is pave the way for a synthetic version of the drug,

Then there’s Indian Aloe: allegedly the leaves’ pulp is good for treating abdominal tumours, dropsy, carbuncles, piles, sciatica, rheumatism and urine retention; a salad of the leaves helps with indigestion, constipation and flatulence; the leaf juice works as a remedy for intestinal worms in children; while (finally!) it’s beneficial to apply a poultice of the leaves to tumours, cysts, inflamed parts and scalds.

Why am I telling you all this? – after all, I’m no herbalist! Well, our reading from Revelation, John’s vision of the New Jerusalem coming down which we began to look at last week, included these verses: “The angel showed me the river of the water of life … flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city. On either side of the river is the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, producing its fruit each month; and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations”. At the start of the Bible, in Genesis, we have the eating of a forbidden fruit leading to death, separation and chaos; here at  its end we the tree’s leaves bringing healing.

Now John isn’t actually being original here: we might even accuse him of plagiarism as he seems to have filched his imagery from an Old Testament prophet who had a very similar vision. Listen to these verses from Ezekiel 47: “He brought me back to the entrance of the temple; water was flowing from below its threshold towards the east (for the temple faced east); and the water was also flowing down from below the south end … Then he led me back along the bank of the river … On the banks on both sides of the river there will grow all kinds of trees for food. Their leaves will not wither nor their fruit fail, but they will bear fresh fruit every month, because the water for them flows from the temple. Their fruit will be for food, and their leaves for healing”. Does that sound familiar? I think it does! John in following a path that has been trodden before, and wants his Jewish readers to realise that Christianity stands foursquare in their tradition.

There are two questions we now need to ask. One is, “What does John mean by healing?” The other is, “What does he mean when he talks about ‘healing of the nations’”? Well, the Greek word that’s used here is “therapeía” and you’ll recognise that as it’s come into English in the words “therapy” and “therapeutic”. This word in ancient Greek does focus on physical healing, the curing of illnesses or diseases, often using natural medicines or remedies. It’s used in exactly this way elsewhere in the New Testament: for instance Matthew 4:23 tells us that “Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in the synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people”. It’s an ordinary word although it does carry the hint that healed people will go on to serve God.

Interestingly, though, this isn’t the word which Jesus uses when, having performed a miracle, he tells people that they’ve been healed. This is actually an occasion when the old Authorised Version Bible serves us better than the modern translations, as Jesus actually says that the healed people have been “saved” or “made whole”: saved from the consequences of their condition and able to function properly in human society, perhaps even washed clean of sin so they can stand erect before God. Now I certainly don’t want to suggest that illnesses are caused by sin or wrongdoing (although we all know that there are health consequences for smoking, heavy drinking or over-eating). But I do want to suggest that, just as peace implies more than simply a stop to armed combat, health implies more than having a body with no obvious physical ailments (mind you, that’s a good start!).

So the World Health Organisation has this definition: “Health is not merely the absence of disease or infirmity but a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being”; it goes on to say that enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health is a basic human right. I’d therefore contend that John isn’t just saying that there will be no sickness and disease in the Celestial City – although we’d certainly welcome life without smallpox, malaria, typhoid, cholera, flu, Covid and even the snuffles of hay fever!  He’s saying that everyone there will be living in a state of physical and mental wholeness and balance.

Well, that’s great news; and, if achieved for all nations, it would mean that the WHO had reached its noble goals. But I have to say – here I come to my second question – that I think John’s notion of “healing of the nations” includes much more than bodily or mental well-being, however widespread. Surely he is thinking of the total health of nations where people are well-housed, well-fed, and living happily beside their neighbours; where there is no hate or injustice or slavery or racial prejudice; where the air is clear and the waters are unpolluted – in short, nations where people are totally contented and happy, at peace within themselves, with their leaders and their fellow-citizens.

I’m afraid that there are many nations in our world – perhaps all of them – which are a long way from this ideal state: not just war-torn countries such as Ukraine or failed states such as Somalia, but so-called developed nations where the rich are getting richer and living in luxury while the poor struggle to balance the demands of low-paid jobs and raising a family, where good housing, education, justice, nice food and health care are available to those who can afford it but not to those who can’t, where race, religion and politics lead to division rather than tolerance and healthy debate. Are such countries healthy? I would say, “no”. Do they need healing? I must say, “yes”. And if that sounds political, if I’m raising memories of the 1942 Beveridge Report with its Five Giants of Want, Disease, Ignorance, Squalor and Idleness that had to be slain in post-war Britain, so be it – and let me remind you that the Report was firmly based on the Christian principles championed by the Archbishop of Canterbury, William Temple.

But perhaps John goes further still. For he may not just be thinking of healing within nations but also of health between them. That’s an idea which gains force when we realise that the word John uses for “nations” may not mean countries as we understand them today but ethnic or racial groups. He may even have had at the back of his mind Jesus’ commission to take the Gospel “to all nations”. Well, we only have to think of Ukraine to know that aggression between nations has not ceased; and there are many places in the world where conflict or the threat of it continues, Israel/Palestine being a prime example but by no means the only one. About 3 years ago an American statistician predicted that the promise of ongoing peace was an illusion and that a major war was overdue; he was pooh-poohed at the time but history has proved him correct. For the sake of humanity, for the sake of God’s world, we desperately need healing between the nations.

Can such healing be achieved in the “here and now”? Back in the 1920s the League of Nations aimed “to promote international cooperation and to achieve international peace and security” but it failed, partly because the USA refused to get involved. More recently the United Nations organisation has put forward loftier aims: not just the maintenance of international peace and security but also improving the well-being of the world’s peoples by using international cooperation. To a degree it has succeeded: some of its agencies such as Unicef, the World Health Organisation and the World Food Programme have done sterling work. But it has so often proved toothless in the face of violence and war. Human greed, ethnic pride, mistrust and the natural desire to protect one’s own corner have been a constant frustration.

It’s clear that there’s no tree whose leaves have the power to ease our world’s suffering and pain. We may search for one but, deep down, we know that we won’t find it; we yearn for healing and wholeness but we know that we won’t see them in the current era of creation – although we must do all we can to improve the lot of people for whom life is a daily struggle, seek to upgrade resources for health and well-being, and work towards peace and an unpolluted planet – all these issues very much on Christian Aid’s ‘radar’ this week, of course. And, as I said last week when we were thinking about cities, perhaps John’s vision, at first sight improbable but also glorious, can inspire us to “do our bit” in making our world a better place. For while it may be divine leaves that bring healing in the Celestial City; it is only we humans, serving God, who can bring it to the earthly world of today.