Friday, June 22, 2007

Never-ending growth

This is what the Sovereign LORD says: I myself will take a shoot from the very top of a cedar and plant it; I will break off a tender sprig from its topmost shoots and plant it on a high and lofty mountain. On the mountain heights of Israel I will plant it; it will produce branches and bear fruit and become a splendid cedar. Birds of every kind will nest in it; they will find shelter in the shade of its branches. All the trees of the field will know that I the LORD bring down the tall tree and make the low tree grow tall. I dry up the green tree and make the dry tree flourish. I the LORD have spoken, and I will do it (Ezekiel 17:22-24).

Ezekiel was called to be God’s prophet during the 70 years that the Israelites were held captive in Babylon. Israel had been a great nation under King David, and God had promised David that one of his descendants would be the greatest of all Israel’s kings. But David’s son Solomon eventually turned away from the Lord and began worshipping false gods, a pattern that was tragically followed by most of the kings and commoners that followed him. Eventually, God had had enough—He allowed King Nebuchadnezzar to sack Jerusalem and take the majority of the Israelites into captivity in his Babylonian Empire.

This captivity was to last for 70 years. During this time, the Jews eventually repented of ignoring God and rededicated themselves to His worship. But as the years dragged on in captivity, the Jews began to despair of ever seeing their home again. It was to address this fear that God raised up Ezekiel as a prophet. The words of today’s Old Testament lesson were spoken to the Jews as words of reassurance.

In this prophecy, God refers to a cedar tree. Cedars were considered noble, magnificent trees, and the cedar of this prediction refers to the kingdom of David, the kingdom as it was before apostasy corrupted the Israelites and brought dry rot into the great cedar. The top of a tree is where the potential for future growth lies; cut off the top of a tree and it will still grow, but it will grow more to the sides and lose it’s potential to reach the highest height. King Nebuchadnezzar had boasted that he had clipped the top from the tree of Israel when he deported the best and brightest citizens of the kingdom into his own empire to be planted among his people; in this prophecy, God counters Nebuchadnezzar’s boast by asserting that God had control of the true ‘tender sprig’ from the topmost shoots. Ezekiel reassured God’s people that the Lord was going to make a new planting from this tender sprig on a high and lofty mountain back home in Israel. This new planting from the cedar of King David would become a splendid cedar, bearing fruit and offering shelter to birds of every kind. The tree it was cut from, while once great, was drying up—but this new tree would far surpass every tree on earth.

Ezekiel was speaking of Jesus. Jesus is the tender sprig taken from the uppermost limits of King David’s descendants. Jesse was father to King David, and Isaiah said of him "A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit. The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him--the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD--and he will delight in the fear of the LORD" (Isaiah 11:1-3). In this prophecy, Isaiah also compares Jesus to a branch growing from the family of David.

God said that this tender shoot would be planted on a high and lofty mountain, part of the mountain heights of Israel—this is a reference to Mount Zion, the mountain upon which was built Jerusalem, the Temple, and which was the location of Calvary; Jesus would be rooted in the place where God accepted sacrifice in order to atone for human sin. It was at the Temple that God promised to forgive anyone who was sorry for disobeying Him, and offered the life of a sacrificial bird or animal in place of their own life for their guilt. But these small sacrifices of life were merely foreshadows of the great offering that was yet to come, when the Son of God Himself would allow His holy blood to be poured out to make restitution before God for every human act of disobedience. When Jesus suffered and died on the cross of Calvary, He became the ultimate living sacrifice for human sin.

Jesus was put to death by sinful men so that our sins might be forgiven. When Jesus lay dead in the tomb over the course of three dark days, this new planting of the cedar tree seemed to have gone dry. But Jesus rose from the dead alive once more on Easter morning; He rose to prove that His power to forgive and bestow life is much greater than human sin and the curse of death that sin brings into our lives. Jesus is the Son of God—He has the power to remove the guilt of our rebellion from us, and He has the power to bring us back from the icy grip of death itself. The formerly green tree of Israel as God’s nation on earth has dried up and become history, but His new planting from the tip of that tree, the planting of Jesus on Mount Zion, has resulted in the flourishing of a new, greater tree.

Shortly before His crucifixion Jesus told His disciples, "I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds" (John 12:24). This is precisely what happened to Jesus. In life He was a single kernel of wheat; but through His death and resurrection, He has produced many seeds. It was Jesus’ death that that gives us freedom from the curse of sin and death—that is why we call the day He died Good Friday. It was Jesus’ love for us that motivated Him to make this ultimate sacrifice, and it is this love that draws us to Him in grateful joy. No act of love in our lives is greater than Jesus’ act of love that gave us His inheritance in heaven in place of our sentence in hell. It is through the loving sacrifice of Jesus, in giving us life through His death, that many cold and stony hearts are warmed and drawn to Him in love.

God promised that this planting of the tender shoot from the cedar of David would grow into a splendid cedar, a cedar that would bear fruit and provide a place of shelter for birds of every type. Jesus is the root, and the holy Christian Church on earth is the splendid cedar that is growing from it. Jesus said, "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing" (John 15:5). Jesus was planted on Mount Zion, the final sacrifice for all human sin; but His Church has grown to spread it’s branches all over the world, a much more influential tree than the Kingdom of Israel ever was. Wherever there are Christians, there is fruit and shelter for birds of all kinds.

What is the fruit that we the branches are producing with the help of Christ? When we are in Christ, we bear the fruits of the Spirit. Paul tells us that these include "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control" (Galatians 5:22-23). These are fruits that give us comfort, and enable us to be a comfort to those in our lives who are experiencing troubles. The fruit of love is a fruit that compels us to action; just as Jesus’ love compelled Him to sacrifice His life for us, so does love for others compel us to care for their souls by speaking of Christ with them, and to care for their bodies by sharing our possessions with those in need. The fruit of joy keeps us from getting depressed when we weaken in the face of temptation and let sin get control of us, because we know that Jesus has died to forgive every sin and has promised to forgive us when we turn to Him in genuine sorrow. The fruit of peace keeps us from becoming irritable when we are going through hard times, because we know that Jesus has endured far worse for us and is alive now to hold our hand and lead us to safety. The fruit of patience helps us to put up with those people in our lives who are difficult to get along with, but who need a Christian friend to show them that there is a better way to live. The fruit of kindness helps us to set aside our selfishness and do those little things for others that show them the reality of God’s love in their daily lives. The fruit of goodness helps us to recognize evil for what it is, and to reject it as something repugnant and unworthy of a child of God. The fruit of faithfulness draws us into God’s Word again and again through worship, Bible study and prayer, because it is only by continuing in God’s presence that we remain connected to the Vine that gives us true life. The fruit of gentleness helps us to be persuasive witnesses for Christ—not pushy or demanding or condemning, but inviting, reassuring, and comforting. And finally, the fruit of self-control helps us to withstand the temptation to abandon God’s way of doing things in exchange for doing things the fastest, cheapest, easiest way possible, regardless of the moral consequences.

What about the birds? The birds of every kind that come to nest in the branches of the splendid cedar of the Church are the people of the world in all their varieties—white, indian, hispanic, black, near-eastern, oriental. These are the people who don’t know Christ, but who see something welcoming among the branches of His great tree—acceptance, support, shelter from the troubles of life, and most importantly, salvation by the sharing of Jesus’ promise of forgiveness and rebirth. These birds of every type shelter from the storms of the world among our branches and grow strong, feeding on the fruits of the spirit that they find growing here.

Ezekiel promised the Jews that all the trees of the field will know that He dries out and brings down the green tree, only to replace it by causing the low dried out tree to grow tall and flourish. The growth of Christ’s Church on earth has not been a small, insignificant event—Jesus has changed human history through the influence of His Church. Christ’s Church is large and potent and effective in changing lives—it has done great things among all kinds of people, because Jesus is the Vine and He produces good fruits through we who are His branches. This is a message of hope, not only for the ancient Jews, but for you as well. God promised to make His Church great through Jesus, and you are part of that work. As a member of that Church, you are involved in the most important work happening in the world—the sheltering, feeding, and saving of souls. You are a vital part of God’s splendid cedar tree.

God promised, "I the LORD have spoken, and I will do it." God has kept and is keeping His promise. Never doubt it.

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