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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
So far this year here in East Texas, other than ice, we have had very little of the kind of weather that usually brings down trees and their branches. For example, fire or even severe wind can quickly take a toll both on healthy, green trees and on sick, dry trees. Those who know the history of our Pilgrim congregation certainly know the damage wind can do not only to trees but also to anything in the line of a tree’s fall. In tonight’s final Reading from the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ as drawn from the four Gospel accounts that centered on Calvary, we heard Jesus on the way to Calvary speak of both green trees and dry trees, and tonight, in this our last Midweek Lenten Vespers service, we focus our reflection on that statement of our Lord about when the wood is green and when it is dry.
The Divinely‑inspired St. Luke’s Gospel account uniquely records both the fact of Jesus’s being followed to Calvary by a great multitude of the people and of women who were mourning and lamenting for Him (Luke 23:27) and what is sometimes regarded as the four warnings that Jesus spoke to those whom He addressed as “daughters of Jerusalem” (Luke 23:28-31; see Just, ad loc Lk 23:26-32, 914-922). In short, Jesus tells them not to weep for Him but for themselves, for days are coming when seemingly worse things than what was happening to Jesus will happen to those who are less innocent than He is (confer Hosea 10:8; Revelation 6:16).
Such an argument from the lesser to the greater certainly was not new to Jesus at that moment and may even have its roots in the following Old Testament proverb: “If the righteous is repaid on earth, how much more the wicked and the sinner!” (Proverbs 11:31). Jesus arguably says what a pious Jew might have been expected to say under the circumstances (J. Schneider, TDNT 5:38 n.7, citing Kuhn; confer Marshall, ad loc Lk 23:31, 865). But, Jesus’s use of the argument from the lesser to the greater is not perfectly clear to us. For example, He does not say who “they” are who are doing “these things”—“they” could be the Romans carrying out His crucifixion, the Jews who handed Him over to the Romans, or perhaps even the Persons of the Triune God Themselves. The green “tree” or “wood” certainly seems to be Jesus Himself, as an innocent man, the Savior Whom God sent to redeem all people, but who the dry “tree” or “wood” is again is not perfectly clear to us—it could be, for example, those who actually are guilty of rebellion against the Romans, those who destroyed the Savior, or those who in the end are guilty before God. Regardless of the specific identities, the basic warning remains true: if even with difficulty the green tree (or wood) burns, then all the more will the dry tree (or wood) burn, and God’s judgment ultimately confronts both (see, for example, Ezekiel 20:47).
The specific identities of both the subject in the saying and the dry tree (or wood) do not matter for us to benefit from Jesus’s warning as it applies to us. And we should apply Jesus’s warning to us, even if aspects of His warning were more‑immediately fulfilled when the Romans laid siege to and destroyed Jerusalem in 70 A‑D. By nature we are dry trees or dead wood. Our sinful nature leads us to have sinful thoughts, say sinful words, and commit sinful deeds, and our sinful nature leads us not to have the God‑pleasing thoughts, say the God‑pleasing words, and do the God‑pleasing things we should. As John the Baptizer warned his hearers earlier in St. Luke’s Gospel account, “Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” (Luke 3:9).
Tonight’s Office Hymn “The Tree of Life” (Lutheran Service Book 561) may have been new to many of you, although I thought, apparently mistakenly, that we previously had sung it with Vacation Bible School. In the hymn, contemporary hymn‑writer and Lutheran pastor Stephen Starke weaves together various Scripture references to trees in order to highlight our redemption in Jesus Christ. “The first two stanzas refer to the tree of life in the Garden of Eden”; the third stanza bridges to “the tree of life found in Revelation”; and the fourth stanza refers “to the tree of life as we know it in this world—the cross of our Savior.” Starke reportedly intended to “amplify” the historic liturgy’s Proper Preface for Holy Week, which says that the devil, who overcame by the tree of the garden, by the tree of the cross is overcome (LSB: Altar Book, 231; on the hymn’s background, see Heiser, Hymnal Supplement ’98: Handbook, #873, 141.) Indeed, our first parents’ eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2:16-17; 3:3, 11-19) defiled them and all of us, their descendants, but God’s mercy and grace for Jesus’s sake offers us forgiveness and restoration. The cross in that sense is, as the hymn says, “The tree of life with ev’ry good.”
Yet, we cannot literally go to the cross. We cannot literally, as the Opening Hymn exhorted, “Come to Calvary’s Holy Mountain” (LSB 435). But, we sinners—ruined by the fall; in poverty and meanness; defiled without and within; in sorrow and contrition; wounded, impotent, and blind—can come to find the benefits of the cross of Calvary in God’s Word and Sacraments. In the preaching of the Gospel, in the water and the Word of Holy Baptism, in the pastor’s words of individual Holy Absolution, and in the bread and wine of Holy Communion that are the Body and Blood of Christ, we have a pure and healing fountain, free remission, peace, health, and eternal life. Through His Word and Sacraments, God not only forgives believers’ sinful natures and all of their actual sins, but He also makes the dry tree flourish (confer Ezekiel 17:24).
Now, Texas ranchers might be the first to point out that not all green wood is good. For example, many ranchers regard mesquite as a harmful “weed” that should be eradicated. But, when fully cured, that so‑called “Texas ironwood” is good for furniture and implements, and where would Texas barbecue be without the smoke from the slow‑but‑hot burning wood’s distinct flavoring to steaks, chicken, pork, fish, and the like? Good wood and good works can be a matter of perspective! John the Baptizer called the repentant to bring forth fruits according to their vocations (Luke 3:10-14). Likewise, the proverb possibly behind Jesus’s statement in tonight’s Passion Reading comes right after a proverb that says this: “The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and whoever captures souls is wise” (Proverbs 11:30). So, believers, who are transformed into green trees (or wood), can positively influence others by their words and deeds. And, believers recognize that their suffering, like Jesus’s, is a reminder of the seriousness of the judgment facing those who persist in their disobedience and unbelief.
At present, there is some severe weather forecast for tomorrow and next Tuesday that could bring strong wind to damage trees in our area. (The forecast for our work day Saturday is clear, however!) We believers, who are by nature dry trees (or wood), are, by God’s mercy and grace working through His Word and Sacraments, transformed into green trees (or wood). We no longer need to fear the serious judgment that we deserve, for the God‑man Jesus Christ has borne that fiery wrath of God for us. God enables us to, in the words of our Closing Hymn (LSB 883:3), “… live that [we] may dread / The grave as little as [our] bed … to die that so [we] may / Rise glorious at the awe‑full (in the sense of “awesome”) day.” God grant us all we need, for Jesus’s sake.
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +