There’s a story in the Bible about a garden, where God and humans live together and the biblical authors want us to see this garden as a type of temple. The top is the most sacred place, the Holy of Holies, where God’s presence is most intense and that’s where we find the tree of life. What’s this tree all about? It represents God’s own life and creative power that is made available to others. In fact, God’s first command is that humans eat from all of the trees, including this one. Ingesting God’s own life, that sounds intense. This meal transforms the one who eats it, but on the way to the tree of life, the humans have to pass by another tree called the tree of knowing good and bad. God says that eating from this tree will kill you. How does it do that? It represents, taking the authority to do what is good in our own eyes and when humans do that, it leads to broken relationships, violence and death. Both trees look beautiful, but one of them is a false tree of life and the humans take from this false tree of life and they’re exiled from the garden for good.
Which raises the question, can anyone ever get back to the tree of life? Later on in the story, we meet a man named Moses, he encounters God in a desert tree on top of a mountain, the burning bush, where Moses is told that he’s standing on Holy Ground. It’s a plant on a mountain, radiating with God’s life and power, just like the tree of life. God tells Moses, bring your people up to this mountain, so we can form a partnership. This partnership will force them to make a choice, will they follow god’s of their own making or receive life from the true God. They give their allegiance to an idol and it’s just the first of many. The story goes on to show generation after generation choosing gods of their own making and these idols were usually placed on tall hills like beautiful trees, but they’re false trees of life, that lead the people into self-destruction, exile and death.
It’s like death’s grip on us is too strong to resist, is there any hope? The story of Jesus, he came to announce that God’s eternal life was available once again through him. So Jesus thinks of himself as the tree of life? This is what he meant when he claimed to be the vine that brings God’s life into the world. Jesus invited people to eat from him. Jesus was inviting people to trust him and be transformed by his life. But Jesus also exposed how corrupt humans are, how much they love false trees of life. So Jesus presented people with a new choice between life or death. This time, they don’t just choose death, they also chose to attack the one who sustains all of life. Jesus is led up to the top of a hill, where he dies upon a tree. The cross is the sad and violent result of humanity’s desire to do what is good in our own eyes.
The tree of life has been overcome by the power of death, but Jesus said that he was a seed of God’s life, that would die in the ground, but then grow into a plant that would bear much fruit. So to defeat death, Jesus went through it and now, this new tree of life stands before us all. We can eat from it, but it will mean passing through death, allowing our old way of being human to die, so that a new humanity can grow in its place. Jesus said, he is the vine and we are his branches. Not only do we eat from this tree, we are invited to become a part of it, helping produce its fruit, so that his life and love can spread through us to others. The Bible ends in a new garden, which is also a kind of temple with the tree of life at its center, providing healing and life forever to all who choose to eat from it.
Where there’s no water, there’s no life. This is the picture we get, the dry and desolate wilderness, but God provides a spring in the wilderness that becomes a source of life for plants and animals. God brings together a man and a woman, so that humanity can flourish and spread the life of the garden. That garden spring becomes a river that flows out to water the entire world and there can be enough for everyone, it’s all a gift from God. Humans in a lush garden, but as it turns out, they find a way to ruin it. Despite all of this water that God has provided, it’s like they still have a drought deep inside of them. This is an image of the human condition, how we are always thirsty for more. But more of what? The humans want more wisdom to create more security and more control on their own terms. Tragically, it only leaves them more thirsty and suspicious of each other. So, they end up back in the wilderness.
The humans have lost access to the water of life and because of that, they can’t spread God’s life into the world. So God needs to rescue humans from the wilderness? The story of Jacob, his selfish scheming ruined his family relationships, so he has to run from his problems out into the wilderness. But there, he finds a well and he meets a woman. This is like Eden, a man and a woman together by a source of water. Then through Jacob, God creates the family of Israel. He invites them to share in his own life, so that they can be his partners and spreading that life to others. And…sometimes they do this, but ultimately they struggle with the same drought of the soul, thirsting for more power and more control, it leads them down a path of violence and self-ruin. So they find themselves in a new wilderness, captive to others nations. All this effort to quench their own thirst on their own terms is killing them. The biblical prophet Ezekiel described Israel in exile, as a pile of dry bones, scattered in the desert valley, but one day God will pour out his own life presence, his Spirit, to water the land, to create a new Eden and new kinds of humans, people who can spread God’s life to others.
There is a story about Jesus, he goes to a well that Jacob used to own and like Jacob’s story, Jesus meets a woman. Jesus tells this woman that no matter how much water she drinks from this well, she will always thirst for more, then he offers water that could quench her thirst forever. What Jesus is talking about is God’s own life that comes through him to us, to satisfy our deepest thirsts. This is why later on, Jesus says, let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. This a strange image, drinking from a person? It is connected to another strange image we find in the story of Jesus’ death on the cross. A Roman soldier thrusts a spear in Jesus’ side and there’s blood, but also, all this water flows out, it is an image showing how Jesus’ death is the fountain of life. From him, God’s own love would die for his enemies, flows down and out into the world. After Jesus was raised from the dead, we are told that he sends the Spirit into his followers, to fill them up with God’s own life. This is why Paul said that when we join the current of God’s Spirit, the fruit of Eden starts growing in us. Love and joy, patience and kindness and self-control, people like that can create beautiful things in the world that bring life to others. Little streams of God’s life that can come together and point forward to the beautiful scene that we find in the Bible, there is a new river of life, it is flowing out from God and into a renewed creation, bringing life to all, wherever it goes.
Jesus offers eternal life, but what does Jesus mean by eternal life? Jesus adopted this phrase from the Hebrew Scriptures. In English, it’s translated “eternal life” or sometimes “everlasting life,” but the phrase translated from Hebrew is “life unto the age.” The Hebrew word for age is “olam” and it refers to a period of time. What length of time? Any length of time, it can be in the past or in the future. What matters is that it’s a period of time with some common attribute that remains constant. The time of Abraham and his descendants all the way up to Moses, the common attribute is, it’s the time of Moses’ ancestors. Moses can say, remember the “days of the age,” the years of past generations and elders. An age can be shorter and in the future, Samuel, who’s going to spend his whole life serving in the temple. During his dedication, his mother Hannah calls this an “age.” So an age is a period of time, that has a unique and constant characteristic. There could be all sorts of different ages, depending on what you wanna focus on. Someone could live in two ages at the same time, if those ages happen to overlap.
“Life unto the age,” what age is this talking about? Humans are made from the dust of the ground, this is a common biblical image for creatures that are mortal. That is, they live in an age where they could die, but God takes humanity and places them in a sacred garden, where they’re invited to experience a new and deeper kind of life. By eating from the tree of life, it offers them life unto the age, a life of infinite potential, because it connects them to God’s own divine life. But the story takes a turn and instead of accepting life unto the age, they eat of the tree of knowing good and bad. Taking from this tree means, seizing life for themselves on their own terms apart from God’s wisdom, so they’re exiled from life unto the age, and they go into the age of death.
Humans mistreat each other, they do what’s right in their own eyes, things get really violent. The rest of the story of the Bible can be thought of as a choice between two different ages, the age of life on our own terms, that leads to death or the age of God’s own life. While humanity has rejected God’s life, God promises he’ll open the way back. It’s that promise that ultimately leads to the story of Jesus, he’s presented as God’s own life become human, so that both ages overlap in him. He lives in the age of mortality and death and in the age of eternal life at the same time. Jesus can offer people access to life unto the age. What Jesus says in the gospel of John, this is eternal life that they may know you, the one true God and Jesus the Christ whom you have sent. Yet, just like humanity rejected God’s life in the garden, Jesus was rejected and put to death, but God’s life is more powerful than death. So Jesus rises from the dead and he can offer God’s life to others.
John also says, whoever trusts in him will not perish, but has eternal life. That is, life unto the age, but most people think of eternal life as something that happens after you die. But in the Bible, access to this age is something we can have right now. Jesus was the place where the age of God’s life meets the age of death, that means that when people trust him, they can experience eternal life here and now. But we also still live in the age of death, what happens when we die? Death couldn’t overpower God’s eternal life in Jesus, similarly, we can remain alive to God even if we’re physically dead, in the Bible this is called being with Christ. It’s not talked about very much, because it’s not how the overall biblical story ends, the focus of the Bible is about when the age of life completely overcomes the age of death and those who are with Christ are re-created to share in God’s eternal life. A world where the age of death no longer has any power, because life that is fully connected to God’s own eternal life and love, is a life that will never end.
Which raises the question, can anyone ever get back to the tree of life? Later on in the story, we meet a man named Moses, he encounters God in a desert tree on top of a mountain, the burning bush, where Moses is told that he’s standing on Holy Ground. It’s a plant on a mountain, radiating with God’s life and power, just like the tree of life. God tells Moses, bring your people up to this mountain, so we can form a partnership. This partnership will force them to make a choice, will they follow god’s of their own making or receive life from the true God. They give their allegiance to an idol and it’s just the first of many. The story goes on to show generation after generation choosing gods of their own making and these idols were usually placed on tall hills like beautiful trees, but they’re false trees of life, that lead the people into self-destruction, exile and death.
It’s like death’s grip on us is too strong to resist, is there any hope? The story of Jesus, he came to announce that God’s eternal life was available once again through him. So Jesus thinks of himself as the tree of life? This is what he meant when he claimed to be the vine that brings God’s life into the world. Jesus invited people to eat from him. Jesus was inviting people to trust him and be transformed by his life. But Jesus also exposed how corrupt humans are, how much they love false trees of life. So Jesus presented people with a new choice between life or death. This time, they don’t just choose death, they also chose to attack the one who sustains all of life. Jesus is led up to the top of a hill, where he dies upon a tree. The cross is the sad and violent result of humanity’s desire to do what is good in our own eyes.
The tree of life has been overcome by the power of death, but Jesus said that he was a seed of God’s life, that would die in the ground, but then grow into a plant that would bear much fruit. So to defeat death, Jesus went through it and now, this new tree of life stands before us all. We can eat from it, but it will mean passing through death, allowing our old way of being human to die, so that a new humanity can grow in its place. Jesus said, he is the vine and we are his branches. Not only do we eat from this tree, we are invited to become a part of it, helping produce its fruit, so that his life and love can spread through us to others. The Bible ends in a new garden, which is also a kind of temple with the tree of life at its center, providing healing and life forever to all who choose to eat from it.
Where there’s no water, there’s no life. This is the picture we get, the dry and desolate wilderness, but God provides a spring in the wilderness that becomes a source of life for plants and animals. God brings together a man and a woman, so that humanity can flourish and spread the life of the garden. That garden spring becomes a river that flows out to water the entire world and there can be enough for everyone, it’s all a gift from God. Humans in a lush garden, but as it turns out, they find a way to ruin it. Despite all of this water that God has provided, it’s like they still have a drought deep inside of them. This is an image of the human condition, how we are always thirsty for more. But more of what? The humans want more wisdom to create more security and more control on their own terms. Tragically, it only leaves them more thirsty and suspicious of each other. So, they end up back in the wilderness.
The humans have lost access to the water of life and because of that, they can’t spread God’s life into the world. So God needs to rescue humans from the wilderness? The story of Jacob, his selfish scheming ruined his family relationships, so he has to run from his problems out into the wilderness. But there, he finds a well and he meets a woman. This is like Eden, a man and a woman together by a source of water. Then through Jacob, God creates the family of Israel. He invites them to share in his own life, so that they can be his partners and spreading that life to others. And…sometimes they do this, but ultimately they struggle with the same drought of the soul, thirsting for more power and more control, it leads them down a path of violence and self-ruin. So they find themselves in a new wilderness, captive to others nations. All this effort to quench their own thirst on their own terms is killing them. The biblical prophet Ezekiel described Israel in exile, as a pile of dry bones, scattered in the desert valley, but one day God will pour out his own life presence, his Spirit, to water the land, to create a new Eden and new kinds of humans, people who can spread God’s life to others.
There is a story about Jesus, he goes to a well that Jacob used to own and like Jacob’s story, Jesus meets a woman. Jesus tells this woman that no matter how much water she drinks from this well, she will always thirst for more, then he offers water that could quench her thirst forever. What Jesus is talking about is God’s own life that comes through him to us, to satisfy our deepest thirsts. This is why later on, Jesus says, let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. This a strange image, drinking from a person? It is connected to another strange image we find in the story of Jesus’ death on the cross. A Roman soldier thrusts a spear in Jesus’ side and there’s blood, but also, all this water flows out, it is an image showing how Jesus’ death is the fountain of life. From him, God’s own love would die for his enemies, flows down and out into the world. After Jesus was raised from the dead, we are told that he sends the Spirit into his followers, to fill them up with God’s own life. This is why Paul said that when we join the current of God’s Spirit, the fruit of Eden starts growing in us. Love and joy, patience and kindness and self-control, people like that can create beautiful things in the world that bring life to others. Little streams of God’s life that can come together and point forward to the beautiful scene that we find in the Bible, there is a new river of life, it is flowing out from God and into a renewed creation, bringing life to all, wherever it goes.
Jesus offers eternal life, but what does Jesus mean by eternal life? Jesus adopted this phrase from the Hebrew Scriptures. In English, it’s translated “eternal life” or sometimes “everlasting life,” but the phrase translated from Hebrew is “life unto the age.” The Hebrew word for age is “olam” and it refers to a period of time. What length of time? Any length of time, it can be in the past or in the future. What matters is that it’s a period of time with some common attribute that remains constant. The time of Abraham and his descendants all the way up to Moses, the common attribute is, it’s the time of Moses’ ancestors. Moses can say, remember the “days of the age,” the years of past generations and elders. An age can be shorter and in the future, Samuel, who’s going to spend his whole life serving in the temple. During his dedication, his mother Hannah calls this an “age.” So an age is a period of time, that has a unique and constant characteristic. There could be all sorts of different ages, depending on what you wanna focus on. Someone could live in two ages at the same time, if those ages happen to overlap.
“Life unto the age,” what age is this talking about? Humans are made from the dust of the ground, this is a common biblical image for creatures that are mortal. That is, they live in an age where they could die, but God takes humanity and places them in a sacred garden, where they’re invited to experience a new and deeper kind of life. By eating from the tree of life, it offers them life unto the age, a life of infinite potential, because it connects them to God’s own divine life. But the story takes a turn and instead of accepting life unto the age, they eat of the tree of knowing good and bad. Taking from this tree means, seizing life for themselves on their own terms apart from God’s wisdom, so they’re exiled from life unto the age, and they go into the age of death.
Humans mistreat each other, they do what’s right in their own eyes, things get really violent. The rest of the story of the Bible can be thought of as a choice between two different ages, the age of life on our own terms, that leads to death or the age of God’s own life. While humanity has rejected God’s life, God promises he’ll open the way back. It’s that promise that ultimately leads to the story of Jesus, he’s presented as God’s own life become human, so that both ages overlap in him. He lives in the age of mortality and death and in the age of eternal life at the same time. Jesus can offer people access to life unto the age. What Jesus says in the gospel of John, this is eternal life that they may know you, the one true God and Jesus the Christ whom you have sent. Yet, just like humanity rejected God’s life in the garden, Jesus was rejected and put to death, but God’s life is more powerful than death. So Jesus rises from the dead and he can offer God’s life to others.
John also says, whoever trusts in him will not perish, but has eternal life. That is, life unto the age, but most people think of eternal life as something that happens after you die. But in the Bible, access to this age is something we can have right now. Jesus was the place where the age of God’s life meets the age of death, that means that when people trust him, they can experience eternal life here and now. But we also still live in the age of death, what happens when we die? Death couldn’t overpower God’s eternal life in Jesus, similarly, we can remain alive to God even if we’re physically dead, in the Bible this is called being with Christ. It’s not talked about very much, because it’s not how the overall biblical story ends, the focus of the Bible is about when the age of life completely overcomes the age of death and those who are with Christ are re-created to share in God’s eternal life. A world where the age of death no longer has any power, because life that is fully connected to God’s own eternal life and love, is a life that will never end.
