two trees - a good friday meditation 2002

Two trees stand centuries apart
Both trees demanding a choice
Both trees unleashing gods saving power
Both trees ending the curse
Both trees ending the power of death
Both trees vehicles of forgiveness and grace

On this day we stand in the shadow of one tree, the cross
And we are confronted with the choice, to look at the cross or to turn away

But to understand this tree
we must look at another tree
In another time To end another curse

Because Jesus said

John 3:14-18
Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. "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. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son.

Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.

It was about 1290 B.C.
One thousand two hundred and ninety years before Jesus was born in a Bethlehem stable

The people of Israel, about three million of them had walked away from slavery
Saved by the mighty acts of God
Ten plagues
Crossing the red sea on dry ground
Water from the Rock
Manna and quail for a diet

And God led them
A pillar of could by day
A pillar of fire by night

The promise land was just around the corner but the attitudes of their heart kept the people of God wandering in the desert for 40 years
A storied journey
But miserable

A misery of their own design
Along the way it says
the people grew impatient;
they spoke against God and against Moses, and said, "Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the desert? There is no bread! There is no water! And we detest this miserable food!"

Then the LORD sent venomous snakes among them; they bit the people and many Israelites died.

The people came to Moses and said, "We sinned when we spoke against the LORD and against you. Pray that the LORD will take the snakes away from us." So Moses prayed for the people.

The LORD said to Moses, "Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live." So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, he lived.

And Jesus said

Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.

2 trees separated by a thousand years

So what was it that God did with these two trees?
Was the serpent some magical charm that cured diseases?
Is Jesus some quick fix to our sin?

No, God is not much interested in magic or quick fixes
God is concerned with faith, with belief

So what was it that God did with these two trees?

It’s quite simple really

God has given us an opportunity to believe
We become participants in God’s saving activity when we look at what we have done and believe in a God who can save
look and believe

What an irony
the wandering people of God had to look at the cause of their suffering
They had to name, to admit their sin
They had to again believe in God who saves

You and I find ourselves having the same sin sick souls
We have to look honestly at our sin
We have to admit that we are not victims of circumstance but rather we are the makers of circumstance.

We have lifted up our voices against God
And the darkness in our lives it the darkness of our design
We must come to terms with the part we have played

and Jesus said

Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.

And so God has placed himself on the cross
God was the only one who could gather up our sinfulness
We must look at destructive power of our sin
And believe

Jesus did not invite us into a court of condemnation
Jesus did not play the shame game
Jesus did not demand a price for freedom

Instead

1 Pet 2:22-24
"He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth."
23 When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.

Can you look at the tree?
Can you recognize your sin
Can you accept that God did for you and for me what we where powerless to do for ourselves

Can you entrust yourself to the god who judges justly?
To the god who saves?
Can you look at the cross?