Reforesting FaithSample

“Jesus the Carpenter, Nailed to a Tree”

Two thousand years ago, a carpenter who actually was God was nailed to a wooden beam.

Jesus was far more difficult to kill than people realize. He was, after all, 100 percent God and 100 percent human. What do you call that? Hybrid hardly seems sufficient. God in human flesh captures it.

From the moment he was born, someone was trying to kill him. Men tried to stab Jesus (Matthew 2:16–18), throw him off a cliff (Luke 4:29–30), and stone him (John 8:59). But it didn’t work. He could go forty days without a meal, get into the ring with the toughest opponent on the planet, and walk away after three rounds (Matthew 4:1–11). There was no point in trying to drown him; he’d walk away from that too. No, the only thing that could kill Jesus was a tree (Galatians 3:13).

Why did God use a tree? I think one reason is that Jesus never took; he only gave. He never owned a house, and the only animal he ever rode was borrowed. He could have dressed like King Solomon, but he is recorded to have owned only one coat.

In many ways trees are like Jesus. They give, and they keep giving. They give life and beauty. They give shade and rest. They clean the air. They hold back erosion. They offer shelter, food, and protection.

The worst possible thing to use a tree for is to kill someone. A crucifix is a picture of how low humanity can sink and how far God will go to rescue us.

But there’s more.

The symbol of Jesus being lifted up on a tree is the only one the Bible offers as a door to the eternal. Jesus said, “I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself” (John 12:32, esv). Through the Messiah’s death we are offered life. Through his sacrifice our sin is forgiven. 

Christ himself becomes the tree of life—the means to eternal life first glimpsed in Eden, as we saw in our first devotional. “Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life” (Revelation 22:14, kjv).

Take a walk in the woods today. Think about how you could become more of a self-giving source of life to others, in Jesus’s name.