The Christmas Tree

`The days are coming,' declares the LORD, `when I will fulfill the gracious promise I made to the house of Israel and to the house of Judah. In those days and at that time I will make a righteous Branch sprout from David's line; he will do what is just and right in the land. In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will live in safety. This is the name by which it will be called: The LORD Our Righteousness.' (Jeremiah 33:14-16)

Over the years, the trappings of Christmas have grown and grown. For many people, you can hardly picture Christmas without Santa Claus, Mrs. Claus, eight reindeer led by Rudolph, and a passel of elves (one of whom wants to be a dentist). Start playing White Christmas and the mind will start picturing snow, strings of lights, wreaths, and snowmen. Each year houses are decorated with scented candles, holiday banners, and Christmas villages made up of ceramic buildings and cotton snow. Thoughts of Christmas conjure images of oyster stew, hot apple cider, decorated cookies, and joyous parties. And it wouldn’t seem like Christmas without pestering loved ones for gift ideas, making lists, and dealing with busy streets and crowded stores as you do your holiday shopping. Christmas involves a lot of stuff.

But how many of these trappings of Christmas have to do with Jesus? True, gift-giving fits the theme of Christmas, because the Wise Men brought Jesus gifts and Jesus Himself is God’s gift to us. It is appropriate to make our homes look as nice as possible to welcome the arrival of our heavenly King. But what about Santa? Does an ornament of the jolly little elf praying at the side of the manger make him part of God’s plan of salvation that was set into motion on Christmas Eve? Do parties that end in drunkenness properly honor the Son of God who came to earth to die for our sins? Do we show good stewardship when we spend so much on decorations and presents that we have little left to give for feeding the poor, sheltering the homeless, and supporting mission work that brings the Good News of Christmas to those who live in ignorance? Not everything about Christmas is necessarily Christian.

One element of Christmas that almost every one of us treasures is the Christmas Tree. Those of you who were raised in German tradition probably have fond memories of the song Oh Tannenbaum—Oh Christmas Tree. Every year we have one in church. Most of you put up at least a small one in your home. Much time is taken in finding the best tree and decorating it just so. But what Christian message can we find in a Christmas Tree? Does it depend on Christian ornaments, or can the tree itself be given a Christian meaning?

Today’s Old Testament lesson offers a possibility. In those days and at that time I will make a righteous Branch sprout from David's line; he will do what is just and right in the land…This is the name by which it will be called: The LORD Our Righteousness.' Although this passage isn’t so familiar to us, it echoes the thought of Isaiah chapter 11 which we know much better: 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. He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes, or decide by what he hears with his ears; but with righteousness he will judge the needy, with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth. He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth; with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked. Righteousness will be his belt and faithfulness the sash around his waist.

Both Jeremiah and Isaiah speak of God’s chosen Messiah in terms of a branch. Jeremiah tells us that the branch would sprout from the descendants of King David, while Isaiah speaks of the branch growing out of the stump of Jesse—Jesse, who was King David’s father. These two prophets of God agreed that the One whom God was going to send would be the biological descendant of the house and line of David. This is an important truth—the Messiah who would bring God’s righteousness to us was to be a true human being, a man with parents and grandparents and ancestors going back to the time when God chose David to lead His people on earth as king. The Messiah was to be a man who was capable of suffering and dying.

Another important aspect of this prophecy is that the Messiah would have royal blood. God had promised David that rulership of God’s people would always belong to his descendents. The Savior sent by God would be of the house and line of David; He would be born with the earthly right to rule God’s nation as king. In our country, when the President grants a pardon, the criminal can never be punished or retried for his crime. So it is with a king. It is the king alone who has the authority to grant a pardon to a person sentenced to death. God’s Messiah was promised to have the authority to pardon His people for their wrongdoings, and overturn the sentence of death that their crimes have deserved.

But we must not overlook the third important testimony about the Savior found in our text. Speaking of the Branch, Jeremiah says: This is the name by which it will be called: The LORD Our Righteousness.' In this place, the word LORD is not a title of respect; this word stands in for the personal name of God—Yahweh in the Hebrew, I AM in literal English. This is the same name by which God identified Himself to Moses through the burning bush; in Exodus chapter 3 we read: Moses said to God, "Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, `The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they ask me, `What is his name?' Then what shall I tell them?" God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: `I AM has sent me to you.' "

Remarkable! The Branch that has its origins in the family of Jesse and David is at the same time God, who has existed from eternity; Jesus spoke of this truth when He said, "I tell you the truth…before Abraham was born, I AM!" (John 8:58) This Branch, who inherited the right of kingship from his forefathers, is simultaneously named Yahweh, LORD, the royal I AM who created the world and who appointed Moses as His representative to govern the Israelites. Jesus is both God and man, the eternally living Son of God, who as a man suffered and died for our sins. Jesus is both the God who made us and the man who inherited the right to pardon our sins because He comes from the family of God’s chosen kings. Jesus is the human branch that bears the very name of God.

Jesus carries the analogy of the branch even further in the Gospel of John. In chapter 15 our LORD tells us: I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful…Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. 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. If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples. Here, Jesus identifies the heavenly Father as the gardener who planted Him, and we in turn are branches that draw our lives from our LORD. In this teaching, Jesus shows us that we were given life for a reason. A farmer who plants an orchard expects to get a harvest; if a tree fails to produce fruit, eventually it will be cut down and burned, and the farmer will plant a new tree where the old one was. So it is with us. God did not create us so that we could just live our lives for ourselves, using up resources but producing nothing of value; such a life benefits no one, and God will cut such lives out of His orchard.

But we cannot produce good fruit on our own; Jesus says apart from me you can do nothing. Just as every branch must be attached to a tree to survive and bear fruit, so must we remain in Jesus in order to be invigorated with life and produce good works pleasing to God. Jesus promises to make our lives productive if we remain in Him and His words remain in us. This calls for two things. First of all, His words must remain in us; we must know what our LORD has said to us through Holy Scripture and believe that His message is true. This requires us to spend time with God’s holy Word, as we get to know it better through sermons, Bible study and devotional booklets. Second, we must remain in Him; we must make His priorities our priorities. Jesus said the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost (Luke 19:10). This is Jesus’ priority, and if we are to remain in Him by sharing in His priorities, we too must be dedicated to looking for those people who don’t know Jesus, and arranging an introduction. These are the good fruits that Jesus enables we the branches to produce—a closer relationship with our LORD, and an outstretched hand of welcome to those who are dying because they are not drawing life from the True Vine, the righteous Branch that has sprouted from David’s line.

What Christian meaning can we give to the Christmas tree? Let’s try this. Perhaps we can look at the tree and see it as representing a branch that has grown into something that brings great beauty into our lives. Perhaps we can see the tree as representing Jesus, the righteous Branch that God gave us as a gift on the first Christmas two millennia ago. Maybe we can look at each branch of the tree and be reminded that they draw their life from the trunk of the tree just as we are the branches that draw life from our connection to Jesus. Maybe we can look at the pinecones or the ornaments and see them as representing the good gifts that God holds out to others through the strength and life of the branches that He nourishes. It just might be that the Christmas tree could represent God’s work in giving us life through Christ, and our mission work of holding out God’s blessings to those whose lives are empty and lifeless.

Just a possibility.