Three Trees

Three Trees

The inspiration for this piece of writing probably came to me while visiting a church in New York City on Easter Sunday of 2010. The message the minister gave on that Sunday made references to two of the trees I will mention.

The First Tree
In Genesis 2:9, the Holy Scriptures read as follows:

“And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil ( JPS Tanakh ).”

In Genesis 2:16-17, the Holy Scriptures read as follows:

“And the LORD God commanded the man, saying: 'Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it; for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die’ (JPS Tanakh ).”

Whether you know the story or not, man ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, although man could eat from every other tree in the garden except that one, and the result was death. Time passed on....

The Second Tree

The second tree in this writing is the cross, Jesus Christ was crucified on wood from a tree. The following account is taken from the book of John 19: 16-37:

“16 ...So they took Jesus,
17 and he went out, bearing his own cross, to the place called The Place of a Skull, which in Aramaic is called Golgotha.
18 There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, and Jesus between them.
19 Pilate also wrote an inscription and put it on the cross. It read, "Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews."
20 Many of the Jews read this inscription, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and it was written in Aramaic, in Latin, and in Greek.
21 So the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, "Do not write, 'The King of the Jews,' but rather, 'This man said, I am King of the Jews.'"
22 Pilate answered, "What I have written I have written."
23 When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his garments and divided them into four parts, one part for each soldier; also his tunic. But the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom,
24 so they said to one another, "Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it to see whose it shall be." This was to fulfill the Scripture which says, "They divided my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots." So the soldiers did these things,
25 but standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene.
26 When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, "Woman, behold, your son!"
27 Then he said to the disciple, "Behold, your mother!" And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home.
28 After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), "I thirst."
29 A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth.
30 When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, "It is finished," and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
31 Since it was the day of Preparation, and so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away.
32 So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first, and of the other who had been crucified with him.
33 But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs.
34 But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water.
35 He who saw it has borne witness--his testimony is true, and he knows that he is telling the truth--that you also may believe.
36 For these things took place that the Scripture might be fulfilled: "Not one of his bones will be broken."
37 And again another Scripture says, "They will look on him whom they have pierced (Holy Bible, ESV)."

The foregoing account shows us the crucifixion of Christ, He died and was buried; however, the important part of this account is found just a few verses ahead.

John 20:1 reads:

“Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb.”

Well to make a long story short, after three days being dead Jesus comes back to life and we find Him having a conversation with Mary.

In John 20:15-17 it reads:

“Jesus said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?" Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away." Jesus said to her, "Mary." She turned and said to him in Aramaic, "Rabboni!" (which means Teacher). Jesus said to her, "Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brothers and say to them, 'I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'"

A few days after the previous event, we find Jesus still on Earth speaking to His disciples.

In Acts 1:6-11, the scriptures read as follows:

“So when they had come together, they asked him, "Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?" He said to them, "It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth." And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, and said, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven."

The important part in the previous passage I underlined, and it is what the two men in white robes said, and it is that “This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven."

The foregoing event seems to offer eternal hope because it means that everything Jesus said that is spoken of in the Gospels must be true since He is the only one that has done any thing as miraculous as this which was the resurrection after His death on a tree (the cross).

The Third Tree

The book of Revelation 22: 2-3 reads as follows:

“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.”

The previous two verses reveal the third tree which I decided to write about which is the Tree of Life. The leaves of this tree were for “the healing of the nations.” Moreover, the second verse says: “No longer will there be anything accursed.”

I do not know if any of this makes sense to you, but back in Genesis 2:9 this tree was there in the garden and I am sure that this tree had the same function which we see in Revelation 22. What does it all mean? It means hopefully that in the end, what was lost in the garden will be restored. The reason we needed the second tree (the cross) is perhaps found in the following verses, but only if our spiritual eyes are open will we perhaps understand God's entire plan from the very beginning it seems.

John 1:1-5 reads:

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”

John 3:11-21 reads:

“Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony.
If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God."


References:

Holy Bible, ESV

JPS Tanakh