The budding of the Tree of Life

O all ye who pass by, behold and see;

Man stole the fruit, but I must climb the tree;

The tree of life to all, but only me:

Was ever grief like mine?

The Sacrifice, George Herbert

 

Through the cross and empty tomb, life is offered to a world condemned to die. For many early Christians, this paradox at the heart of the Gospel of Jesus Christ was visualised through the image of the cross as the Tree of Life. The Tree of Life stood in the heart of the Garden of Eden, offering eternal life to those who would eat of its fruit. In Genesis, it is implied that, prior to eating the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, humanity could have eaten from it, since God does not command them to avoid it. Two trees: one representing ‘yes’ to God and to life, the other representing ‘no’ to God, and humanity chose the latter.

The idea that the cross is like a tree is seen in the New Testament. In Gal 3.13, Paul sees Jesus’ death on ‘a tree’ as proof that he has come under the curse of the law - as expressed in Deut 21.23 - for us. In 1 Pet 2.24, Jesus ‘bore our sins in his body on the tree’, though Peter does not link ‘tree’ to an Old Testament idea explicitly. The Tree of Life is prominent in Revelation (2.7; 22.2; 14 and 19), but it is not likened to the cross. The beautiful image here is of humankind finally returning to the Tree of Life which was once denied them because of their sin.

After the New Testament, these themes come together, possibly as early as the beginning of the 2^nd Century in the letters of Ignatius of Antioch.

I glorify Jesus Christ, the God who made you wise, because I understood that you are established in an immovable faith, as though you were nailed to the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ in both flesh and spirit, and rooted in love by the blood of Christ…truly nailed in the flesh for us under Pontius Pilate and Herod the Tetrarch (from its fruit, from his God-blessed suffering, we exist) in order that he might raise a banner for the ages – for his holy and faithful ones, either Jews or Gentiles, in the one body of his church – through the resurrection. (Smyrn. 1.2 – author’s translation).

Christians are nailed to the cross as they trust in Christ. The fruit of the cross – the suffering of Christ - gives life. By the middle of the 2^nd Century, the idea of the cross as the Tree of Life has become well-established. Justin Martyr writes:

Hear, then, how this Man, of whom the Scriptures declare that He will come again in glory after His crucifixion, was symbolized both by the tree of life, which was said to have been planted in paradise, and by those events which should happen to all the just. (Dial. 86 – Ante-Nicene Fathers)

By the time of Irenaeus of Lyons, writing towards the end of the 2^nd Century, this comparison has become theologically neat:

For doing away with [the effects of] that disobedience of man which had taken place at the beginning by the occasion of a tree, He became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross; rectifying that disobedience which had occurred by reason of a tree, through that obedience which was [wrought out] upon the tree [of the cross]. (Ad. Haer. 5.16.3 – Ante-Nicene Fathers)

This tradition is a development of a biblical idea, not a biblical idea itself. However, it has inspired many with its claim that in the place of death, life blossoms: that the fruit of the cross is life for me and you. God invites us now to eat and have life.

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Ben Sargent is Dean of Chapel at Winchester College. He is also a Latimer Trust trustee and some of his books published by us could be found here.