The Tale of Two Trees:

I was thinking how Eve didn’t know that God loved her enough to die for her and I was thinking how having an accurate view of God’s Love is vital. I’m sure it’s one way the new earth will be different. 

I was also thinking good and evil were both inside of Adam and Eve from the beginning and their disobedience made them aware of what had been there the whole time. 

Up until they disobeyed, no one had ever told them, “badly done,” or “no” before. (Except that they shouldn’t eat from a certain tree.) They could have done all kinds of inappropriate things in Eden and even though God was Holy, He still walked with them and had a relationship with them and their innocence was a covering over their sin and nakedness.

The Knowledge of Good and Evil was the central point of Eden (the tree grew in the middle of the garden)  because free will is the central focus of relationship. God never made an angel or human that wasn’t free to attempt mutney if they so desired.

He could have made Heaven and Earth His puppet show, where nothing had cause and effect outside of Him pulling the strings. It certainly would have been easier for Him but God wasn’t interested in an arranged relationship with us. If He had a need at all it was to be loved for who He was. The relationship of servant and master is nothing compared to when two people fall in love. There is something about choosing to love a person that the world and God can’t get enough of. Choice is everything and so the Tree of Choice changed everything.

When Eve disobeyed she felt shame.

Not because eating the fruit was evil but because the action had betrayed God’s trust in her. 

She had never betrayed Him before because this was the only thing she had the knowledge of that was evil.

Her small act of rebellion told her she was guilty and shameful and that she had failed God. God didn’t have to tell her she had broken fellowship with Him, she was acutely aware of that all on her own. In her loneliness she ran to Adam because she needed someone else to feel the pain of regret with her.

In an instant two humans who had nothing to hide now had everything to hide. With this new understanding that they were both good (God had called them, “very good.”) AND evil, Adam and Eve embraced disappointment, fear, shame, guilt and death just as God warned they would. 

However at the same time this knowledge (the knowledge of good and evil) was essential to their redemption. Eve and Adam had only just begun the journey that mankind would make up a cruel hill called “suffering” (which is what Calvary means by the way) and at the top of this hill we expect to find Hell, after all the path has been gory and drenched in Old Testament blood. (Just as God had said it would have to be). 

Every evil choice coming from the same darkness. Whether the darkness bred murder or only hurtful lies. No evil ever worse than another to God because all evil comes from the same exact place inside of all of us. 

But no matter what form the darkness took in man’s heart, at the end of the day the human race continued to echo what Adam and Eve began: we don’t need God. We only need ourselves. 

And there is where this violent path of suffering ends. On top of the Hill we see we have accomplished the evil we set out to do. We have done away with God. He hangs on the cross His creation made for Him. 

And yet just as we were free to commit this outrageous crime, there is a silent understanding that no one could have really forced God to die. 

So why is God allowing us to drag Him up our suffering and be the ultimate death we thought was coming to us? Why doesn’t He for a mere moment take away our freedom to choose...at least to spare His life?!

The answer is of course love. 

With our freedom we chose self love but God in a human body, chose selfless love. He could have chosen evil...yet He chose goodness and as the One who made us like Him and then made Himself like us dies in our place...there is a powerful retelling of history: 

Now we see two trees of choice. 

The first is where we chose equality with God over trust and simultaneously chose death.

The second, the Cross, is where Jesus laid aside His equality with God and chose us. 

Like a sunrise or a flashlight in a power outage… this kind of Love sends our shadows running. Now our guilt and fear look for a place to hide from Him but we are free to be seen as we are. When He calls our name, as He called Adam’s, we can run toward Him and though we are still naked and helpless...yet we understand we are known for who we are and deeply loved as we are. The difference this time it that it’s not our innocence that allows us to share space with God’s holiness but His goodness that makes two Spirits ( God’s and our’s) family. 

Now we live in the Shadow of the Cross not the Shadow of the Old Testament Tree. This means we live free from the old laws and the burdens and punishments they brought. 

Our focus is on making the liberty and love of Jesus a lifestyle not a religion. This is a relationship that everyone can experience! Every single soul no matter their race, sexual orientation, political party or family history gets to have Jesus. And if the building or people keep you from Him...won’t you join me on the roof?

We will make a skylight.