The Two Trees - Lenten Thoughts

With Lent coming around I began to focus my personal Bible study readings again on the creation and fall narratives in Genesis.  They are staple texts for the Lenten season as we are reminded of the need for repentance before coming to the celebration of Easter.  As I read these passages I could not help but be moved by the ties and symmetry provided within the Bible by this image of two trees.  Allow me to explain…

“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth…”  So begins story of creation and the beginning of the most compelling and most circulated compilation of books of all time, the Bible.  In the creation account, we are told that in six days, God, through his word fashioned and ordered all of creation.  At each step of the creation God surveys his workmanship and declares this creation to be good.  

At the height of the creation, God forms man out of the dust of the earth, and breathes life into his nostrils, and makes a helper fit for him.  We are told that God created the first of mankind, Adam and Eve, in his own image, and that they were very good.  

We are further told, that God placed Adam and Eve in a garden that he created named Eden.  And within this garden he made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, for their use.  And that in the middle of this garden flowed a river that watered the garden, and that in the middle of this garden, God placed two trees.  God placed the Tree of Life, and near it he placed the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.  Remember that image, because God isn’t finished with it. 

God spoke to Adam and commanded him thus, “You may eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”  We all know the end of that particular story.  The serpent tempts Adam and Eve, and the two of them disobey God and eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.  Rather than trust the Lord as their God, Adam and Eve chose to act in His place.  And as a result, Adam and Eve are banished from the garden, and death enters the world.  Death enters, not just for them, but for all the world with them.  

As a result, we live in a world that isn’t quite what it was designed to be.  It isn’t “very good” as God originally declared it to be.  We see this decay and degradation of all things due to man’s sin throughout scripture.  We see that nature itself is out of harmony with Adam, causing him to exert great toil just to survive.  We see brother kill brother with Cain and Abel.  We see that when Seth is born, he isn’t created in God’s own image as Adam was, but he is created in the likeness of Adam.  We see the decreasing lifespan of mankind.  We see the increasing wickedness of men, culminating with the cataclysmic flood, graciously survived by Noah and his family.  Once again, we see a world that isn’t quite what it was intended to be.  

And yet in all this disappointment and heartbreak, God initiates a plan to reclaim all of creation from the sin and death that was imposed upon the world during the Fall.  After the Fall, even in the midst of delivering a curse for our sin, God also provides a promise.  God says to the serpent who tempted Adam and Eve, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”  

From Eve’s offspring, a man named Abraham was chosen to be the Father of a great nation, and through Abraham all the nations would be blessed.  We see that God has a plan to reverse the curse, not only for us, but for all of creation.  

The weight of history carries on as Moses delivers the offspring of Abraham from Egypt, this nation of Israel enters into covenant with God at Mount Sinai.  We see Israel carve out a nation in the land promised by God to Israel.  We see a kingdom created under a man named Saul, and later passed to David.  We see God make a promise to David that He will set up an everlasting kingdom, and that a member of David’s line will always sit on the throne of this kingdom that will never end.  Yet during this time we see a faithless people fail to keep covenant with God, and are routinely disciplined for their disobedience.  We see a nation that is nearly destroyed, the earthly kingdom is ended, and the people are yet again left waiting for the fulfillment of the promises delivered to them.  

And then, finally, the time comes when the promise is about to be fulfilled.  An angel of God visits a man named Joseph, a carpenter descended from David’s line.  He is told that the Holy Spirit will cause the woman betrothed to him to bear the Son of God.  He is told that his name will be Jesus because he will save his people from their sins.  

It is this Jesus, the Son of God, innocent yet wrongfully arrested and executed, who dies for our sins.  As the scripture says, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”  

And then, after paying for our sins, Jesus was raised from the grave after three days, victorious over sin and death.  He then ascended into heaven where he takes his place as the king over all of creation, just as was promised to David.  

Upon this resurrection, God sent his Holy Spirit that the good news of Jesus Christ might be preached to all nations so that all who believe might be saved, just as was promised to Abraham.

And now, we have the new promise that through faith, we too will be raised with him.  As the scripture says, “We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in the newness of life.”  We are told that Christ will return and all things will be renewed.  

“For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God.  For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.  For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.  And not only creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.  For in this hope we were saved.”  

Right now, we see a glimpse of the glory that is to come.  We have seen Jesus on the cross, and we have seen the empty tomb he left behind.  The promise is guaranteed.  History moves unceasingly toward that moment when he will return and all of creation will be redeemed and set back once again.  And as we see in the Revelation of John, at the end of all of history, Jesus will return, we will be raised from the dead with him, sin and death will be destroyed.  Satan, the ancient serpent, also will be destroyed, just as was promised during the Fall.  

There will be a new heaven and a new earth.  Those whose names are written in the book of Life will be revealed.  And at the end of it we will see, once again, a river and a tree.  

“Then the angel showed me the river of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month.  The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.  No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him.  They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads.  And night will be no more.  They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.”  

This image of the two trees has helped me to realize that all of creation is in the process of being redeemed and set aright.  This is the promise that we have, and this is the hope that I bear.  Jesus, the Lamb of God, is faithful and will carry it out to completion.  Amen, let it be so.