The Tree for Him, and He for the Tree

Each year, families around the United States pack into a car. Then they drive, sometimes for a few minutes, other times for a few hours, some for even longer. Their car pulls up to a forest or a farm, and the family piles out of the car to beholden the world of evergreen trees in front of them. Some of the trees are taller, stiffer. Others are more scraggly and have personality. Some are called Fraser. Others are called Noble. But at the end of the day the family selects one of these trees, chops it down, and straps it to the top of their car. Then they pile back into the car and return home where they set it up as a centerpiece and decorate it during some event known as “Christmas”.

This tree, the Christmas Tree as it’s more commonly known, has taken an important position of symbolism with our culture. Why is it that such a tree has a place during a holiday that marks the birth of the Lord Jesus?

Well, let me tell you.

The Tree was destined for Jesus, and Jesus destined for the tree.

Long ago, when God made the world and everything in it, he made Adam and Eve and placed them in a garden. In this garden we’re told of two special trees … the tree of life, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Only of the tree of knowledge of good and evil were Adam and Eve to refrain from eating the forbidden fruit. The tree of life was with them, and they with it. But we all know how the story unfolds. Adam and Eve disobey God, choose to sin against him, and eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The consequences are disastrous: pain in childbearing, strife with one another, enmity with nature, death … and distance from God.

And God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—” and he expelled Adam and Eve from the garden, and set cherubim and a flaming sword to guard the way to the tree of life.

The result of choosing sin was distance from the tree of life. You see, one can not have sin and have eternal life.

Romans 6:23 ESV

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

“For the wages, the payment, of sin is death.”

So because of sin mankind was distanced from God and from the tree of life.

But that’s not all there is to that verse is there?

Romans 6:23, “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord”.

The one thing that separated us from God was sin. And God knew that, and that’s why he had a master plan to come into creation through the lineage of Eve, through the family of Noah, from the line of Abraham, in the tribe of Judah, Descended from David. Because God is so loving and gracious and kind, he had his free gift of redemption prepared. If you read the Old Testament, it all points forward to this one thing, the arrival of the one who would solve the problem of sin for mankind and re-bridge the gap between us and God, bringing us away from death and uniting humans with the tree of life.

But that was only possible through one way: Jesus was destined for the cross, to die upon the tree.

Galatians 3:13 ESV

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”—

When Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane, he prayed desperately knowing full well what lay in store for him, “Lord, if it be your will, take this cup from me.” But it was the will of the Lord for the Son to be crucified. And the son, out of love for me, for you, followed through on that.

He carried the tree, or did part of the way, until Simon of Cyrene was forced to carry it for him because he was near death. The wooden beams were bound together and erected. And Christ was nailed to that tree and died in the worst way man could think of to kill someone.

Jesus, the babe that was born in a manger, the innocent child, the blameless man, the one who healed the sick, who broke through people’s walls and fears and cut to the heart of the issue of all that was at hand, took claim for your sins and died cruelly upon that tree and experienced the wrath of God, so much so that the Father turned his face away. The Father could not bear to look at the Son because of how foul and repugnant he was in that moment.

But in that moment, as Christ died, as the wrath of God was poured out against Christ, something special occurred. The burden of sin that has afflicted mankind since Adam and Eve was lifted. The temple veil was torn in two, and the divide that existed between man and God, between man and eternal life, was lifted. You see, Christ didn’t just take our sins upon himself, he also gave us his own righteousness, so that when the Father looks at us he sees the very lawful satisfaction of Christ.

It was on that tree that Jesus became a curse for us, so that we might inherit the heavenly blessing.

But that’s not the end of the story. We know from scripture that God was faithful to his son, that he rose from the dead on the third day.

Acts 2:24 ESV

God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.

Jesus overcame death and promises the same for those who believe in him and follow in his stead, putting their sin to death on the tree and being raised to life.

That’s what the Christmas tree symbolizes. Life because of Christ’s death.

Christ was raised because God saw that he was faithful. That’s why death could not hold him. Now if it were God looking at our lives … would we be raised because of our own faithfulness? No. Not a chance. We have failed and we continue to fail, again and again and again. We would all be down there in the grave, suffering for eternity, a failure for all of time.

But because of Jesus, because of what he did on the tree, we have eternal life. We are given his righteousness, we are given his right to eternal life, being adopted as sons and daughters of God.

Revelation 22:1-3

Revelation 22:1–3 ESV

Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 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, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him.

Tell me … what is the meaning of the Christmas tree, if not to point to the tree on which Christ died, and to not show it broken and tattered, in the shape of a cross, but green and vibrant even in the midst of dark days? Even in the midst of winter? The Christmas Tree is evergreen. It points to the life we have through Jesus. It points to the life we have everlasting.

Let us remember why the Christmas tree is such an important symbol for the believer … not because it’s worthy of worship or praise, but because of the one who came and died, for you and for me, that we might be dead to sin and alive in Christ. As we gather together this year, let us not forget this valuable lesson of Christ and what he has done by distracting ourselves with the beauty of the tree or in its décor or the feeling we get when it’s around, but remember Christ the Lord and his work of salvation for you and for me.

Let’s now sing to the one who was destined for the tree.