The Tree

                                                                                   

Joyce Kilmer was one of the lesser-known American poets of early twentieth century. Even though he was a prolific writer, it was his short poem called “The Tree” that earned him admirers. I reproduce it here in whole:

I think that I shall never see 

A poem lovely as a tree. 

A tree whose hungry mouth is prest 

Against the earth’s sweet flowing breast; 

A tree that looks at God all day, 

And lifts her leafy arms to pray; 

A tree that may in Summer wear 

A nest of robins in her hair; 

Upon whose bosom snow has lain; 

Who intimately lives with rain. 

Poems are made by fools like me, 

But only God can make a tree.

The tree looks at God all day, And lifts her leafy arms to pray; it is attached to the ground as firmly as baby’s mouth would be attached to mother’s breast! What an astounding imagery! What rich imagination!  Kilmer goes on to describe a tree as a poetry written by God. Today his poetry would be considered maudlin, even silly.

I like to think that among the vast array of His creations, God has a soft corner for the tree. The tree was the first life to spring off the earth (third day of creation). It stood as a silent spectator as God went about His work of creation, work that culminated in the creation of His most magnificent of creatures, man, on the sixth day.

It is under their shadow that God walked about, in the cool breeze.  Sadly, it is among the trees that Adam and Eve hid themselves in their futile attempt to conceal their nudity.

The first three chapters of Genesis mention the tree 18 times –

The tree witnessed the entire story of man’s innocent status, his close fellowship with God and eventual fall from grace - and was associated with them. The tree dominates Biblical account from Genesis to Revelations. The concept, in its various manifestations, is found in more than 500 places in the Bible. The predominant roll the tree plays in scriptures renders itself to an interesting analysis.

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I. CHRIST SEEN AS A TREE – The tree is a type of the Saviour. God rescued the Israelites powerfully and spectacularly from the slavery in Egypt and put them on their way to Canaan under the leadership of Moses. The fugitives’ first stop was Marah and there was a shock waiting for them. The water there was unfit for human consumption. The people complained against Moses bitterly. Moses cried out to the LORD, and the LORD showed him a tree, which he threw into the water, and the water became sweet (Exodus 15:24, 25). Discerning students of the Bible see the tree trunk as a type of the Saviour and changing the bitter water into sweet one as His work of salvation. After all, all of the Old Testament is meant to foretell and point to the Messiah.

It is at Marah God presented to them a statute and an ordinance, and there he tested them. He made it clear to them, "If you will carefully obey the LORD your God, do what is right in his eyes, listen to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, then I won't inflict on you all the diseases that I inflicted on the Egyptians, because I am the LORD your healer” (Exodus 15:26). There is nothing ‘far-fetched’ in comparing the Saviour to a tree.

In John 15:1 Jesus says ‘’I am the True Vine’’ and again in 15:5, ‘’I am the vine, you are the branches’’. In Luke 23:21, as He was carrying His cross up Calvary mountain, He compares Himself   to a green tree: “And if they do this when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?". The well-known prophecy about the Messiah (Isaiah 11:1) goes about like this: "A shoot will come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch will bear fruit from his roots’’.

II. THE CROSS IS CALLED A TREE

Acts 5:30  “The  God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you killed and hanged on a tree’’ says St. Peter.

Acts 10:39 ‘’ ………They killed Him and hanged Him on a tree’’.Peter again.

Acts 13:29 ‘’….they took him down from the tree and laid him in a tomb’’.

Reports St. Paul.

Galatians 3:13 According to Old Testament law, anyone left to hang on a tree was cursed. The enormity of Jesus’ sacrifice is manifest in His hanging on the cross (tree) through which He secured mankind’s salvation. The Messiah, the Anointed One becomes the Accursed One when He hung on a tree. See Deuteronomy 21:23. He who never knew sin, became sin for us and again it was a ‘tree’ (the cross) that was instrumental to this.

III. TREE IN BIBLICAL TEACHINGS:

The Bible uses the tree analogy liberally to teach important lessons:

Mathew  7:17  In the same way, every good tree produces good fruit, but a rotten tree produces bad fruit.

Mathew  12:33  Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree rotten and its fruit rotten, because a tree is known by its fruit.

Luke 21:29-31 Then he gave them this illustration: “Notice the fig tree, or any other tree.  When the leaves come out, you know without being told that summer is near.  In the same way, when you see all these things taking place, you can know that the Kingdom of God is near.

Luke 13:6-9 The parable of the unproductive tree and the patient Gardner tells us about intercessory roll Jesus plays in our lives. It also warns us God will not tolerate forever our unproductivity.

James 3:12 on controlling tongue - Does the fig tree bear olive berries; or a vine, figs? – With same tongue you can’t bless and praise God and curse man who is made in God’s image.

Romans 11:7, 24  After comparing the Jews to the natural olive trees, Paul  accuses them for having lost their salvation due to the hardness of their hearts, and says the non-Jews, branches cut off from  wild olive trees  have been patched to the natural tree and have become part takers of the grace of the Lord. Eventually Jews also will be saved – this will be easy.

In John 15 Jesus tells His disciples ‘’Just as no branch can bear fruit by itself unless it remains in the vine, neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in Me” emphasizing the importance of being united in Him. This brings to mind the baby-mother allegory of Kilmer.

IV. TREE AS WARNING  

Jews have been brought up to believe that all Abraham’s decedents will be automatically saved. Jesus countered this argument.

Luke 3:9 Even now the axe of God's judgment is poised, ready to sever the roots of the trees. Yes, every tree that does not produce good fruit will be chopped down and thrown into the fire

Luke 13:6, 7 We already saw the parable about how God warns us He  will not tolerate forever our unproductivity.

Matthew 15:13 Jesus  said, “Every plant which My heavenly Father has not planted shall be rooted up’’ – referring to the Pharisees’ hypocrisy.

Matthew 21:19 Jesus curses an unproductive fig trees and it dies instantly. The tree appeared to be healthy, covered with luxuriant green leaves, but no fruit was found in it. This was the condition of Israel in His days, Jesus demonstrated for the benefits of His disciples.

John 15:6 After declaring He was the true vine, Jesus warns fruitless tree would be removed, withered, burnt.

V. TREE AS A BLESSING – frequently the tree is used to pronounce blessings in spite of the edict in Deuteronomy 21:23.

Bevelations 2:7  ………. To him who overcomes I will give to eat of the Tree of Life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.

Psalms  1:3  And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivulets of water that brings forth its fruit in its seasons, and its leaf shall not wither, and all which he does shall be blessed. Jeremiah who lived centuries after the Psalms were written must have read Psalms. He reflects the similar sentiments in Jeremiah  17:8  - only more graphically.

Psalms 92:12  The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree;

Revelations 22:14  Blessed are they who do His commandments, that their authority will be over the Tree of Life, and they may enter in by the gates into the city - an amazing privilege available to God’s children!

VI. CONCLUSION

The last two chapters of the New Testament gives us a glimpse of the believers’ life in New Jerusalem. The paradise lost during the man’s fall is regained and in the midst of the garden is the tree of life, a perennially fruitful tree with healing property in its leaves! Mankind has come a full circle – man stands rehabilitated. Unlike Adam and Eve, we are not forbidden access to the tree of life as we enjoy  eternal life – brought about through  the redemptive work Jesus did when He hung on a tree.

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