A Tale Of Two Trees

Text: Genesis 2:7-17

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

In case you have not noticed, our culture has had a tremendous philosophical shift in the last decade or so.  It is a noticeable shift.  The shift has been from binary thinking to spectrum thinking.  Now, please do not zone out right now.  Let me explain these technical terms.  

Binary thinking involves viewing life through categories – typically two categories such as good or bad, right or wrong, and male or female.  Binary thinking normally involves two choices – right or left, up or down, in or out, on or off, light or dark, and so forth.  You get the picture – binary.

On the other hand, spectrum thinking acknowledges these categories but then insists on these categories existing on a continuum, with many possibilities in between.  Let me give an example.  As we have already stated, binary thinking views gender as male or female.  However, as of late, we have been told that there are not just two binary genders of male or female but an unlimited number of genders on a fluid continuum.  And so, last I have heard, there are at least 72 different genders according to spectrum thinking that are all laid out side by side on a long fluid spectrum.  And so, according to spectrum thinking, a person is not restricted to just a male or a female but can exist as any gender they want on a long string of genders.  

And so, binary thinking says that things are either black or white.  However, spectrum thinking says that everything in life is a shade of grey – and that all the different shades are equally good.  

Now, why mention all of this?  

When you and I pick up a Bible and read the opening chapters of the Book of Genesis, you will read about the binary world that God has created.  In other words, the Lord separated land and water.  He made day and night.  He set an expanse between heaven and earth. And He made male and female. We could say simply that much of what God created in the beginning was created in pairs – in a binary: light and darkness, day and night, land and water, heaven and earth, male and female, and so forth.  

But again, why mention this?  

Well, as it has already been stated, our culture has drifted away from binary thinking to spectrum thinking, which explains why so many individuals dislike the Book of Genesis, as well as the Christian faith.  That is to say, the world that God created does not play nicely with spectrum thinking.  The world that God created in Genesis 1 does not allow spectrum thinking but rather is very binary – very black and white.  Again, we hear this when the Lord separated the land and water, made day and night, set an expanse between heaven and earth, and made male and female.  

To make things even more difficult, for many in America, when we consider our Old Testament reading from Genesis chapter 2, we hear how Adam and Eve were in the Garden of Eden.  And there in the Garden were two trees: the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and the tree of life.  Yes, there were two trees. The first tree – the tree of the knowledge of good and evil – was a tree that they were not to eat from, for this tree would lead to their death.  However, the second tree, well… that tree was ‘not’ a tree of death but a tree that delivered life.  

Now, notice how there were not three trees or four trees in the midst of the Garden but just two mentioned trees - one tree unto death and one tree unto life?  Again, we see another binary.

But this is where things get problematic.  This is the whole point that I am driving at: we do not like this kind of binary thinking, especially if there are only two options.  We don’t like having only two options a tree leading to death and another tree leading to life. The reason is that we want to be in control.  Yes, we humans want to be in control.  We like spectrum thinking because we like to have choices.  We like to have things our way; we like to be able to pick and choose things to make ourselves comfortable.  But when given only two choices of life and death?  Well, that is too constricting.  It is too confining.  It is too structured.  It is too rigid.  It isn’t fair to have two options.  We would much rather have things be like Baskin-Robbins.  You know what I am talking about – that ice cream chain that has 31 unique flavors!  We would rather have 31 trees in the Garden of Eden, 31 genders, 31 different moralities, 31 different ways of salvation, 31 different truths, and 31 different ways to heaven.  The more options on the spectrum, the better we feel.  The more options that we have for morality and salvation, the more that we feel as if we are in control and not being controlled by something bigger and more powerful than ourselves.  

But dear friends, that is not how things are in this world.  It is not how God designed this world.  It is not how morality works, and it is certainly not how salvation works.  

Just so that we are on the same page, let’s be perfectly clear.  There were two important trees in the Garden: a tree that led to death and a tree that led to life.  And guess what, with those two trees, as simple as it was, Adam and Eve chose wrong.  They did not trust God’s Word but gave into temptation.  And guess what? The consequences of eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil affect you and me – even to this very day.

As a result of Adam and Eve’s eating from that tree of death, all of humanity – including you and me - were made a slave to sin, a slave to death.  And so, through the disobedience of one man, we went from two choices to none.  Through Adam, humanity became enslaved to sin, and the wages of sin are death. That serpent long ago, by deception, and that tree in the garden delivered death to us all.  No wonder why this Christian faith is so difficult for modern ears to hear.  

The Apostle Paul talks much about this very thing in the Epistle Reading from Romans.  He doesn’t say that all of humanity is scattered along a spectrum hanging between bad and good.  Nope!  He says that the whole lot – every single one of us is a slave to sin because of the sin of that one man with that one tree in that one Garden.      

“But what about that tree of life in the Garden, though?” you may ask, “Is that still an option?”  

Kind of…

Dear friends, sin came into the world through one man and that one tree, but thanks be to God that just as one person did it wrong and got us in all this trouble with sin and death, another person did it right and got us out of this trouble.  But more than just getting us out of trouble, He got us into life.  You see, your salvation was accomplished by another tree of life, the tree of the cross.  Hear this: where death arose through one tree, there life might also rise again through the tree of the cross.  Furthermore, the serpent, who overcame mankind through the Tree of the Garden, might likewise be overcome by the Tree of the Cross.  I am obviously referring to Jesus Christ and His life-giving tree of the cross.  A tree of the cross that is for you this day.  

And so, Baptized Saints, it seems that the Lord God still works in a binary way.  Deception came through the foul serpent; however, truth comes through Christ Jesus to you.

Through Adam, sin abounded to all mankind, but through a second Adam – Jesus Christ – forgiveness abounds all the more for you.  

Through the tree of Eden, the fruit of sin and death came forth, but through the tree of the cross, the fruit of salvation and life reigns eternally for you.  

Work hard for sin your whole life, and your pension is death, but God’s gift is real life, eternal life delivered by Jesus to you.    

Two trees; the one in the Garden unto death and the tree of the cross unto eternal life.  One earned by mankind’s sin and another accomplished and given by our Lord to you – as a free gift.  

In the name of Jesus. Amen. 


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