Tree of Life

On American Idol a few years ago Miley Cyrus was wearing a cross and on another channel, a famous preacher also had a cross around his neck. The cross has become cool a fashion statement. Rappers, Madonna and gangsters with crosses around their neck.  I noticed no one had a cross on their back. Jesus’ death on the cross is important to Christians and central to the Christian faith. Jesus could have died another way as the cross wasn’t the only way for people to be killed in Roman times, after all Jesus cousin John the Baptist was beheaded and He could he have been stabbed like Julius Caesar or Caligula. What’s the deal with the cross and why a wooden cross?  We can recognise the need for a wooden cross, as it was in fact a tree.  Jesus was hanged on the tree and bore our sins on the tree. Every tree is known by its fruit. There were two trees in the garden. There was the tree of life and tree of death. The fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil was death. We went from life to death at the first tree by our choice and will and we can go from death to life because of the second tree on Calvary.  The cross is the tree of life. It brings healing and life to all.   Everything was wrong in the universe after man sinned at the tree of death. But God put right every wrong thing right, through the cross; the tree of life.  We became the enemies of God because of what the first Adam did at the tree. We become the friends of God by what the last Adam did on the tree.  Sin and death gain authority over us at the first tree. Sin and death, lost its sting and power over us, through Christ on His tree.

Friend,if we're under the tree of failure like Elijah saying "It is enough" think on Him who stayed on the tree till He could say "It is finished!"