From Genesis 2 (NRSV) Out of the ground the Lord God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And the Lord God commanded the man, ‘You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat...’
Matthew 26: 26-28 (NRSV) 26While they were eating, Jesus took a loaf of bread, and after blessing it he broke it, gave it to the disciples, and said, ‘Take, eat; this is my body.’ 27Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks he gave it to them, saying, ‘Drink from it, all of you; 28for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.
Here’s the deal, the covenant of the God of Eden: eat freely of the tree of life. Eat. That’s what it’s here for. Eat. That is what God wants us to do. In the Old Testament the tree of life is the promise of the Promised Land, a land flowing with milk and honey. A place where all needs will be met. In the New Testament, the tree of life is the promise of the Kingdom of God, the life Jesus came to give. In the book of Revelation, John tells of this life: and on each side of the river was a tree of life … and its leaves are for the healing of the nations. The tree of life is a summary and a symbol of all God provides so that we might have the life He wants for us. The tree of life is that abundance of God’s provision to us.
If God so provides, it also means that we are dependent on His provision. From the first breath we take to the last, we are made and meant to depend on God and to trust Him to give us what we need. God may provide for us through the work of our minds and hands, through money we receive, through other people. But the word is always, through and not from. We receive from God through these channels of His gifts of work, money and people. God wants us to live with awareness of His generosity toward us and of our dependence on Him.
For some of us, our daily dependence on God is so much a part of the way we think, feel, and act that all we need is a an occasional reminder to acknowledge that dependence. For others, that sense of dependence somehow gets lost from our mind and heart in the daily activities of our lives and needs to be recovered. Recovery comes to us as a moment of recognition and revelation when we realize our vulnerabilities to storms within and storms without, and realize our need for the help that only God can offer.
We recover an awareness of God’s provision and our dependence by obedience. The Lord God commanded that we eat freely of the Tree of Life. And taking bread and breaking it Jesus said, “Take, eat; this is my body which is given for you.” Then He took a cup, gave thanks, and said “Drink from it. All of you. This is my blood of the covenant which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.” In Him we find the Tree of Life.
From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope January 5, 1992
© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles
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