Midweek Advent One – Pr. Anderson sermon
Genesis 2:8-9, 3:15, Jeremiah 23:5-6 “Two Trees in the Garden and The Righteous Branch”
December 4, 2024 | Christ Lutheran Church
In Nomine Iesu
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Heavenly Father, we thank and bless you for the wonders of your creation. You brought us into being out of the dust of the earth. You have formed us and you know us by name. While we enjoy the wonders, we also see our faults, trials, and pains that originate from that fateful day in the Garden. We ask that you would give us strength to fight off the temptation to take control of our lives absent your grace and restore us with the righteousness that was won for us from the cross. As we grow in our knowledge of you, continue to point us to this righteousness that clothes us, the righteous branch grown from the stump of Jesse. We ask this in Jesus’ name, who is the righteous branch grown for us and our salvation. Amen.
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. (Rom. 1:7, etc.)
When we think back to the days of our youth, there are so many days we were looking forward to when we would grow up. It might have been because we were told by our parents, we couldn’t do something until we were older. Maybe we saw the fun our older friends had on the day they received their license to drive a car. Whatever the case may be, we thought we weren’t getting older fast enough. Now looking back, maybe you wish God would roll the time back to the good days of youth. This is life, we thankfully grow. We are not the only thing growing. All of creation grows. It is in creation we find the themes for our Advent services, “The Trees of Christmas.” Whether they are physical trees, or a prophetical sign of One to come, we see time is involved. We will look at these trees that grew in our Scripture texts, two of them that grew in the Garden, and the growth of the righteous branch.
The first two trees like in our days of youth, were created with the youth of the world. Of course, God made many perfect plants and trees, but Scripture zeroes in on a special place God had created on the earth. And the LORD God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground the LORD God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. God was caring. He knew what the man would need for his growth and nourishment. For some of you who have a garden, you know that it needs to be taken care of for it to grow. So, the man would have the job of taking care of it. Now as God planted all of these great trees in the Garden for the man, there are two that are highlighted.
The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. As you know the account of creation vividly, you might be wondering, how do these trees fit in as “Trees of Christmas?” Aren’t we here for joy not to remember why we have pain and suffering? This is the account as to why you are here today and why you are counting down the days to December 25th. It is a tale as old as time, yet it is the youth of man that put us into this predicament. He had so much good, everything was perfect, and for it to stay just like that, he simply had to obey what God told him. There was the tree of life which he could eat from. God loved him so much that he wanted the man to live with Him forever. Then there was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. It is this tree which the man is to use to show his reverence and worship of God.
We know we are to show reverence and worship to God as well. With the first transgression, our reverence and worship are now tainted. Even after the debacle with the two trees in the Garden, we sometimes can believe that we have grown up, we have learned from our mistakes. Whether we are still young in years or have witnessed many returns of our day, when it comes to the first sin on that day, we have more to learn. We always have more to learn and hear because we are no longer perfect. We sin against God’s law, ultimately always looking back at the first sin thinking we can make life better for ourselves without God’s help, and the tree of life has been taken away from us. Like the man in the Garden, we stand condemned. As those trees stood tall, always a reminder of what we have done, God would then utter a promise that would grow throughout the ages. It began with Him saying, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”
As this promise would go down through generations, He would also grow it by revealing more about this promised heir. Like the trees that could never be forgotten, God would tell His people of a branch that would come and grow. “Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely.” Here is the promise in greater detail. A branch that would grow out of the cut down tree of His line. The sin of eating the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil had the people thinking that only evil would remain. A great question was asked of God because when you look at the people of the earth, the stump can’t grow. “Who can bring a clean thing out of unclean? There is not one” (Job 14:4). Just as the trees were created on a perfect earth, God alone creates life and a righteous branch spring’s out of David’s line. The two trees from the Garden aren’t irrelevant. It is because of them, the righteous branch springs up for you.
The branch that would grow, was given a name that fit the promise. “And this is the name by which he will be called: ‘The LORD is our righteousness.’” One of the things that makes this name special is there was a king with this same name. He was an evil king and did not live a life like his name. This promised branch, that grows out of the stump, He is able to undue the sin from the garden. Like the tree’s names, He would know what was right and wrong, perfectly listening to the command of God, and this branch brings life. With new life comes His righteousness as St. Paul writes, “Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith” (Philippians 3:8-9). He is right, there has been loss since the fateful day the fruit was ate, but it is through the growth of the branch that all is restored.
The growth of this branch in the world is now so well known that many will sit down with their families and celebrate being together. You know how much more this holiday is. You can look back at the trees in the Garden and even though you see the pain that has come into the world, pain you deal with, and pain you create, you see the promise that God gave right after. The righteous branch grows from His humble beginning to crush the head of the serpent. He does so knowing His heel would be bitten, enduring excruciating pain, the torments of hell, and death on the cross. He doesn’t try to usurp the Father; He understand the Father and Him are One. As Satan is defeated by Jesus’ death on the cross, it is this defeat you can now look forward too. The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet (Romans 16:20a). This will happen when the judge looks at you an instead of seeing your rebellion, He sees the righteousness that comes from the righteous branch.
This righteousness is not just there only for your taking. The history of these trees has shaped all of world history. The tree of life was created and it was lost for all. Everyone knows the punishment of death that is deserved because of the fruit that was eaten from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. While it looks like the pains of life will be too much to bear, it is through the promised righteous branch that anyone can survive. Like the trees in the Garden, the work of the branch is for all. Now as we do have joy in the date that is fast approaching, the fruit that was eaten will try to sour our taste buds. When it does, we turn and realize we grow by looking on to the righteous branch. We see His work that took away our transgressions with the blood of the cross. As we continue to grow, we know it is only because of the branch and in His righteousness, we see why these are the trees of Christmas. Amen.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore. Amen.
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