SEEDS, PLANTS and SOULS

2 A TREE OF DEATH

We must finish setting the scene.
Having had to put us out of Eden,
how could God let us regain paradise?

Well, for a start
He ensured that we had consciences
to enable us to know what is right and what is wrong -
to still have the potential to recognise God in his creation.

For since the creation of the world
God's invisible qualities -
his eternal power and divine nature -
have been clearly seen,
being understood from what has been made,
so that men are without excuse.
(Romans 1:20)

Paul wrote that to the Romans at a time
when they probably represented the epitomy of a depraved society.
They had no excuse for being like that -
both creation and their consciences
showed them that their choice was wrong.

But even if we do follow our consciences
And choose to go God's way again,
can we get back to Him?
Not all of mankind has chosen to ignore God,
and those who haven't
have been trying ever since to find a way back.

That is the origin
of all the religions we now have -
our attempts to understand God
from his creation and our consciences,
and to find some way to be reconciled to Him.

Sadly, none of them work -
all our thinking is twisted by the original sin
that Adam brought into the world.
Nothing we do can get us out of the thistles and thorns
and back into Paradise,
and anyway the Garden of Eden is securely guarded!
God's perfection can never be married to man's imperfection.
Humanly speaking, it is just impossible.

However,
God himself has made a way possible.
He revealed his plan to man
through a special race of people - the Jews -
starting with their forefather Abraham.

To show them
what their relationship to God should be,
God gave the Jews special rules to follow.
Of course, like Adam,
they could never keep them all,
so God also prescribed sacrifices
to make up for all the times they broke the law.

Now -
God knew that no sacrifice made by man
could ever make him perfect -
so this was all a precursor
to eventually providing the Jews
(and everyone else)
with one sacrifice that would be sufficient,
and with one law that could be followed
(with God's help).

Here another tree plays a lead role in the drama of mankind.
In what seems foolishness to our material and scientific minds,
God became man, while at the same time remaining God,
and let himself become killed -
nailed to a tree and crowned with thorns.

How ironic!
The God who created the tree of life is crucified on a tree of death.
But -
because this sacrifice was by nature perfect,
the curse of sin and death was broken
and the way back to God opened.

Paul went to great lengths
to explain this strange and amazing fact of life
in his letter to the Christian Galatians who, quite naturally,
had difficulty understanding it all.
In part of his explanation, Paul wrote:

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law
by becoming a curse for us, for it is written:
Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree".
(Galatians 3:13)

The reference is to one of the rules
that the Jews had to follow:
that any man guilty of a capital offence
had to be put to death and hung on a tree,
symbolising divine judgement and rejection by God.

This was all very confusing to the Galatians.
Why was the law a curse?
Surely it was blessing in providing a standard of behaviour?
Paul had to go on and explain that since they couldn't keep the law,
It condemned them and so became a curse.

But let me stop here -
I am not writing a theological treatise.
There are libraries of those, and I don't know enough!
I will finish by quoting part of Paul's  continuing explanation of this paradox,
since it provides a lead into the parables.
Paul went on:

" What, then, was the purpose of the law?
It was added because of transgressions
until the Seed to whom the promise referred to
had come".
(Galations 3:16)

That Seed was Jesus - God made flesh -
Who after being sacrificed as the Son of God,
inevitably came to life again
and was restored to God.
Two passages from the Gospel of St John,
probably the most well known in the Bible,
sum up Jesus' purpose:

In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God.
He was with God in the beginning.
Through him all things were made;
without him was not anything made
that has been made.
(John 1:1-3)

Here the Word is Jesus,
through whom we were created,
and by whom we, as God's son, are recreated.

"For God so loved the world
that he gave his one and only Son,
that whoever believes in him shall not perish
but have eternal life".
(John 3:16)

Jesus:
the Son of God;
the Word of God;
the Seed of God.
Now the scene is set.

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