The Tree of Rebellion
Genesis 3:1-15 Now the serpent was more clever than any wild animal which the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Has God really said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree in the garden’?” 2The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees of the garden, 3but not from the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden. God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it. You shall not touch it, or else you will die.’”
4The serpent said to the woman, “You certainly will not die. 5In fact, God knows that the day you eat from it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was appealing to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took some of its fruit and ate. She gave some also to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7The eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized that they were naked. They sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for their waists. 8They heard the voice of the LORD God, who was walking around in the garden during the cooler part of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.
9The LORD God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” 10The man said, “I heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, so I hid myself.” 11God said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree from which I commanded you not to eat?” 12The man said, “The woman you gave to be with me—she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate it.” 13The LORD God said to the woman, “What have you done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
14The LORD God said to the serpent: Because you have done this, you are cursed more than all the livestock, and more than every wild animal. You shall crawl on your belly, and you shall eat dust all the days of your life. 15I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. He will crush your head, and you will crush his heel.
I have some relatives who wrote in a group text that their Christmas tree is up and decorated. I received that text on November 3! Their tree has been up for a month already!
I immediately texted a picture of a shed with the caption: “Here is a picture of my Christmas tree. It’s still in the shed … because it’s November!”
We are now in the season of Advent. This is the normal time to put up your Christmas tree and other decorations. Whether your Christmas tree is a real one you cut down yourself or an artificial one you pulled out of the shed, the Christmas tree is a special part of the Christmas celebration.
In our midweek Advent services, we will be looking at some Christmas trees. They are not evergreens, nor are they artificial, nor are they decorated with lights or ornaments. Instead, we will look at three trees in Scripture that point us to the Christ. These Christmas trees remind us why the birth of Jesus Christ is so important … and so worthy of celebration. Tonight, we examine the tree of rebellion.
From the very beginning, trees were an important part of God’s creation. God created a garden paradise filled with a variety of trees for his two children. In the middle of this garden, God put two special trees – the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
God gave his children the opportunity to love and obey him by not eating of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. It’s like how you tell your children not to eat the Christmas cookies. So, when they pass by the cookies and grab a piece of fruit, they are showing you love and obedience.
Why is Christmas necessary? Satan had led a rebellion of angels in heaven. Satan was then cast down to earth. Satan slithered into the garden to lead God’s children in a rebellion.
Satan led God’s children into questioning God’s words asking, “Has God really said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree in the garden’” (Genesis 3:1)? He led the children to believe that God was holding out on them by saying, “You certainly will not die. In fact, God knows that the day you eat from it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:4-5). Satan tempted them to believe that he was good, and God was evil. Though God said, “You will surely die,” they believed the serpent when he spoke, “You certainly will not die.” Instead of listening to their Creator, they listened to one of the fallen creation and ate the forbidden fruit.
Satan had successfully made Adam and Eve God’s enemies. There was hostility between them and God. The effects of sin were instantaneous. Like the flip of a light switch, the world that God had filled with the light of his perfect touch turned dark.
God had placed trees, animals, and nature into the hands of the crown of his creation. But now the crown was broken and tarnished. They had plunged themselves and their new world into the darkness of sin and death.
Before they had the knowledge of good. They didn’t know evil. Now they did. Before they were in harmony with God. Now they were hostile to God, hiding from him, blaming each other, even having the audacity to blame God for their predicament. Before they had a perfect relationship with their Creator and Father. Now they had rebelled against their God and made friends with the devil.
We think of evil as selling drugs to kids, kidnapping, and terrorism. We think of heinous crimes like mass murder and child abuse. We think of rebellion as violent protests with casualties.
Eating fruit doesn’t seem evil, does it? It doesn’t seem heinous. Maybe it seems a little naughty … but not rebellion. If your kids ate Christmas cookies, you wouldn’t kick them out of the house. But Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit and God kicked them out of their paradise home.
That’s because evil in the eyes of God is loving anything more than him. Evil is listening to fallen creation – either the devil, the culture, or our sinful selves. Evil is putting anything ahead of worshiping God – kids’ practices, sleep, work, or whatever.
The evil inside of humanity led to the heinous crime of killing the Son of God. This evil leads us to daily rebel against God and his holy will – to do what we want, when we want, and as many times as we want.
Evil is so much more than just eating some fruit from a tree. Eating the fruit made the sacred tree into the tree of rebellion.
To call us back from the side of Satan, God made a promise to the serpent, “I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. He will crush your head, and you will crush his heel” (Genesis 3:15).
Did you notice that the first promise of a Savior wasn’t spoken to Adam and Eve but to Satan? This was a threat to the devil and a promise to us. God promises to put a wall of hostility between us and Satan. We had become friends with the devil. God promises to break up that friendship. We had become enemies with God. God promised to send his Son to restore the relationship of children with their Father.
Why did there need to be a Christmas? Because God promised there would be so he could restore everything we had lost. The Son of God was born as the Seed of the Woman on Christmas so he could die on a tree on Good Friday.
Our Christmas trees – real or artificial – are beautiful when decorated. The tree of the cross was ugly and bloody. It was cursed. St. Paul referenced Deuteronomy 21:23 when he wrote to the Christians in Galatia, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. As it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree” (Galatians 3:13). Jesus took on himself the curse of dying a criminal’s death. The curse of humiliation and shame of being crucified. The curse of a painful and torturous death.
But the worst curse is that Jesus was innocent of any wrongdoing. Yet Jesus willingly took on himself the curse of the cross so he can make the cross the tree of life for us.
St. Peter, who didn’t see Jesus on the cross, nevertheless tells us what Christ on the cross means: “He himself carried our sins in his body on the tree so that we would be dead to sins and alive to righteousness” (1 Peter 2:24). Jesus bore our sins in his body on the tree of the cross so we might be free of our sins and be saved.
The wages of sin is death, but Jesus died in your place.
He was numbered with the transgressors so you could be counted with the saints.
He was found guilty so you might be found innocent.
He was covered in the filth of your sin so you might be covered with his righteousness.
He was stripped of his clothes so you might wear your white baptismal gown.
He was abandoned so you might be adopted.
He was forsaken so you would be forgiven.
He endured our evil so we might be made good in God’s eyes.
He took our heinous crimes and made us in harmony with our Father.
People can put up their Christmas decorations whenever they want. Although, I thought it was a little odd for my relative to have her Christmas tree up on the inside of her house with her Halloween decorations still up on the outside of her house.
Why is there a need for Christmas? Because at Christmas we can look back at the tree of rebellion in the Garden of Eden. We can look back at how the Babe in Bethlehem came to be the crucified Christ on the tree of the cross. The tree of the cross now makes your Christmas tree a tree of reconciliation. Amen.