Only God has made the Tree
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. The Word of God through which the Holy Spirit guides our hearts and minds today is recorded in Ezekiel 17:22-24
This is what the Sovereign LORD says: I myself will take a shoot from the very top of a cedar and plant it; I will break off a tender sprig from its topmost shoots and plant it on a high and lofty mountain. On the mountain heights of Israel I will plant it; it will produce branches and bear fruit and become a splendid cedar. Birds of every kind will nest in it; they will find shelter in the shade of its branches. All the trees of the field will know that I the LORD bring down the tall tree and make the low tree grow tall. I dry up the green tree and make the dry tree flourish.
“I the LORD have spoken, and I will do it.” (NIV) – This is the word of the Lord.
Dear friends in Christ Jesus, who find rest beneath him,
Joyce Kilmer wrote this poem: “I think that I shall never see/ A poem lovely as a tree.// A tree whose hungry mouth is prest / Against the sweet earth’s flowing breast; // A tree that looks at God all day, / And lifts her leafy arms to pray; // A tree that may in summer wear / A nest of robins in her hair; // Upon whose bosom snow has lain; / Who intimately lives with rain. // Poems are made by fools like me, / But only God can make a tree.”
(Louis Untermeyer, ed. Modern American Poetry. 1919. from www.bartleby.com/104/119.html).
“Only God can make a tree.” How true that is! Only he is the Creator. God’s Word for today also speaks of the Lord God making a tree. These verses, though, are not referring to a literal tree. They are part of a parable. And rather than just any tree, these verse refer to the Tree. Who is this Tree and what does he do for us? May the Holy Spirit guide us to answer these questions from God’s Word as we consider the theme: Only God has made the Tree
1) The Lord himself takes a shoot from David’s family tree
Who is this Tree that the Lord has planted? To answer that we need to look at the first part of Ezekiel 17 and remember the times in which Ezekiel lived. The first part of the parable talks about an eagle breaking off the top of a cedar tree and taking it to another country. Cedars were majestic evergreen trees. They could grow over 100 feet tall and live for centuries. Later the Lord explains the parable, saying, “The king of Babylon went to Jerusalem and carried off her king and her nobles, bringing them back with him to Babylon” (Ezekiel 17:12).
The eagle who carried off the cedar top is Nebuchadnezer the king of Babylon. The cedar top is the king in Jerusalem who was Jehoiachin. You may not remember him. He has king for only three months before Nebuchadnezer took him into exile around 600 B.C. But you do know the name of his ancestor. Jehoiachin was the heir and descendant of King David, who lived about 18 generations earlier. The cedar whose top is broken off is David’s family tree. Although the base of the tree in the days of David and Solomon was strong and god-fearing, by the days of Jehoiachin, the tree was weak and ungodly.
Could anyone save God’s people caught in such a wicked time? No earthly king could. Jehoiachin was in exile. His successor Zedekiah relied on human ingenuity and strength. With the Lord as his witness, he promised to be faithful to Nebuchadnezer and then broke his oath and plotted with the Egyptians against him. The end result of relying on human power and ingenuity was the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple. Could anyone save God’s people?
Into this hopeless darkness the Lord’s Word shines: “I myself will take a shoot from the very top of a [Hebrew = “the”] cedar and plant it; I will break off a tender sprig from its topmost shoots and plant it on a high and lofty mountain.” (Ezekiel 17:22 NIV).
No one else could do it, so the Lord himself did it. He himself takes a shoot from top of the cedar tree. He takes someone from David’s family tree. Whom does he take? Jesus. According to his human nature, Jesus is a descendant of David. Matthew and Luke clearly trace Jesus ancestry back to David.
Jesus did what no one else could do. He carried out God’s saving plan. Only Jesus could do it, because only Jesus is both God and man. The Lord himself takes a shoot from David’s family tree. He becomes that shoot, when God the Son became flesh. Only the Lord can save.
We need to remember that. Only the Lord Jesus saves. Like the people in Ezekiel’s day, we fall into the sin of relying on our own strength and ingenuity. This can take many forms. As we celebrate our country’s birthday, we might be tempted to trust the strength of our military to keep us safe and secure, instead of trusting in the Lord. We might rely on the government to solve our problems, instead of taking them to the Lord in prayer and looking to him for the best answer. We might think our future would be brighter if the economy gets better, instead of focusing on the brightness of our future home in heaven which Jesus purchased for us. We so easily find ourselves trusting in the dollars we earn, instead of counting Jesus as our dearest treasure. We look to our money to provide for us and to make us happy instead of finding true joy in the Lord. Yes, it is a great blessing from God to be living in a strong and wealthy country, but it is also a temptation to let the Lord God become secondary. That is sin. It earns us eternal exile in hell. Only the Lord God can save. All others hopes will wilt and snap and burn. Only the Lord Jesus, who came from David’s family tree, only Jesus saves.
2) The Lord makes this unlikely shoot grow into the greatest Tree
How does Jesus save? How does he grow into the splendid cedar that feeds and shades all who are under its branches? Not in any way human wisdom could imagine. For the Lord does the impossible. He says “I the LORD bring down the tall tree and make the low tree grow tall. I dry up the green tree and make the dry tree flourish.” (Ezekiel 17:24 NIV)
Jesus appeared to be a low, dry tree. By faith we know that the man, Jesus, is our God and Lord. But he hid his divine glory and power during his life.
Consider the way he lived. He was not born in a palace, but was laid in a manger, from where animals fed. Doesn’t he appear to be a wilting sprig with no future? He grew up in the backwaters of Israel in a town called Nazareth. When he began his ministry, the rich and powerful did not follow him, but the poor and the outcast. Such a lowly life might be compared to a scrawny shrub, not a cedar tree.
Consider Jesus’ death. He was arrested, condemned, and crucified, nailed to a cross. Isn’t a dry, sunbaked tree, standing naked against the horizon, a fitting reminder of his god-forsaken death?
But the Lord makes the low tree tall and the dry tree green. Jesus came back to life. He rose from the dead. He is exalted to the highest place, ruling all with God’s almighty power.
But greatest of all, his glory reveals to us that all he suffered not for himself but for you and me. He felt the prickly hay on his soft, new-born skin for you and for me. He walked the dusty streets of Nazareth and Judea for you and for me. His perfect, sinless life counts for us and covers our sins. He felt the nails pierce his hands for you and for me. He carried the god-forsakeness of all sins for you and for me. He paid the full price in our place. He rose in victory because God forgives you and me. He rules all things for his people, for you and for me. Only Jesus can save. He came to save you and me.
The help of man is useless. What is tall and green, powerful and wise by human standards, will be brought low and made dry. Put your hope in the Lord Jesus. He alone saves you.
And during this national holiday, pray that more and more in our country and around the world may believe this truth: Only Jesus, who died and rose, only Jesus saves. Very few in our country publicly honor Jesus as the only one who can save. The watchword of our generation is tolerance, by which they mean: “You must accept that other religions are just as true as yours.” In others words, Jesus isn’t the only way. Any and every way is just as good. Pray that more and more people do not believe this lie For all other ways, no matter how tall and green they appear, will prove to be low and dry.
We cannot force or coerce others to believe in Jesus. We should not be mean toward them but rather show them love and kindness. But love certainly needs to pray for them and warn them that believing any teaching other than Jesus leads to hell. God wants all to know that only through Jesus, who became low and dry in our place but rose in glory, only through Jesus are we or anyone else saved. “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12 NIV). Only Jesus is the God-man. Only Jesus lived and died in our place. Only Jesus defeated sin, Satan, and death, which he proved by rising from the dead. Only Jesus is exalted above all. He reigns above the loftiest mountains. He rules the heaven of heavens and all beneath it.
3. The Lord keeps us safe under this Tree’s branches
As the exalted, splendid cedar tree that he is, Jesus keeps us safe under his branches. Referring to Jesus as that cedar, the text says, “It will produce branches and bear fruit and become a splendid cedar. Birds of every kind will nest in it; they will find shelter in the shade of its branches” (Ezekiel 17:23 NIV).
In the shade of Jesus, in the shadow of his cross we find shelter from God’s anger against our sin because Jesus has taken the full heat of God justice in our place. In the shade of Jesus, in the cool of his empty tomb we find renewal for Jesus’ resurrection declares God’s verdict that he forgives and acquits you. You have a new life.
Jesus brings all this to you through the fruit that he bears for you to eat. What is this fruit? It is his word and the two sacraments, namely, Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Through these three he feeds your soul with the Gospel, the Good News of God’s forgiveness in Jesus. Consider the Lord’s Supper that you will soon receive. He let’s you eat his body so that you know that on the cross he sacrificed himself for your sins. He let’s you drink his blood so that you believe that all your sins are paid for. Consider the promise he made to you in baptism that you are born again into God’s family and clothed with Jesus’ perfect life.
He wants these promises to go out to all people. He wants his kingdom to come into their hears through his Good News.. He wants you and me and all kinds of birds to shelter in his shade and feast on his promises with our hearts and minds. Sharing the Good News of Jesus by the way you live and the words you speak is the greatest service you can give to our country. For the more that we and our fellow citizens shelter in the shade of Jesus and feed on his word and sacrament, the more the Lord’s blessing will flow to us as individuals and as a nation.
Only God has made the Tree. Only God has given us Jesus, for Jesus himself is God. He is that shoot from David’s family tree. Though once lowly and despised he is our glorious Savior. He keeps us safe in his branches, feeding us through his Word, though Baptism, and through his holy Supper. Cedars are evergreens. The next time you cut down an evergreen and bring it into your home, remember only God can make a tree. Remember Jesus is the lowly, dry shoot that has grown into the mighty ceder Tree, the only tree that keeps us safe for all eternity. Only God has made that Tree.
