Tree of Life

So the sermon today was on the text from Ezekiel about the Lord putting life back into the dry bones. It is one of my favorite stories because those bones did not ask the Lord to raise them..they were dead in their sins. The Lord came to them and gave them back their lives for His glory.

But that is not what I thought about today.

I was thinking about this point in the sermon:

"That's why, when you gather round the Lord's Table to eat Jesus' body given and to drink His shed blood, you know that your God Jesus is there to bless you. And you are not cannibals, eating dead food, but it is the risen Lord Jesus who comes down to feed you at Holy Communion. His ever-living body is given to you, and life-giving blood is yours! Your God is there, breathing His breath of life on you in the forgiveness He brings in this sacrament of life!"

I was thinking about how Adam and Eve feasted on Tree of Life every day. It sustained them. They could not remain in the Garden after the Fall because God did not want them to eat of it any longer. To be full of sin AND live forever..what a terrible punishment that would be! Anyway, then I was thinking about how we receive that Life..through feasting on the Bread of Life...who is also called The Vine. We are given what was taken away from Adam and Eve because Jesus came and took our sins upon Himself - allowing us once again to feast on that Tree/Himself each time we receive His Body and Blood in the Holy Supper!

Then there is the whole "Jesus is the Vine and we are the branches" thing. We cannot give ourselves life, nor can we make ourselves alive either spiritually or physically by doing something. We must be grafted into the Vine-the Tree of Life itself! And just like with those dry bones, God breathes Life into us while we were dead in our trespasses through His own Name in baptism! He grafts us into Himself by His Voice-just like at Creation-how He spoke and things came to be-He speaks at Baptism and creates us anew!


How cool is that?