Good Friday Lesson From A Tree.

A few weeks ago, I was finally able to go out for a walk. I like being able to go on walks because it helps to relax me, and I have time to calm my mind and pray. So many times, I ask God to help me understand things in a simple way. I don’t consider myself to be a highly educated person, I never went to formal college. The only college level courses I took were when I was studying for the diaconate. And even then, I asked my daughters to check over my papers to make sure I was formatting them the way the teachers wanted them.

I like things simple and I don’t use a lot of big words when I write or speak. In fact, in one class on Social Justice I was totally confused that I was getting A’s, yet I didn’t understand why. I asked the teacher why and she said that was the first time anyone questioned getting A’s. She explained to me that she saw that even though I was using 50 cent words instead of 50-dollar words I was understanding and already doing the things she was trying to get across. She said sometimes it is better to look at things more simply than to over think them.

That is why I enjoy my walks; it gives me time to see and hear the simple things in God’s creation and yet wonder and question things I see. On one of my most recent walks I noticed a tree that held its brown leaves all winter instead of dropping them. I had driven past this tree all winter long and never noticed it until that day. And it got me wondering as to why. All the other trees had shed their leaves except this one, so I was curious to find out why. I did some research and found that there’s a term for this curious leaf-retention phenomenon, it's called marcescence. 

What's interesting is that scientists haven't figured out exactly why some trees retain their leaves. It’s all theory, and there appears to be little new literature about the topic in recent years. One would think such seemingly delicate leaves would have been torn from the tree in the high winds of our winter storms and would have dropped many months ago, but this delicate looking tree still had all it’s leaves after months of fall, winter and spring storms. You could walk up to it and gently tugged on one of its leaves... it is on there tight! Not ready to drop even if you want to pry it!

There seem to be a lot of theories as to why this happens, from helping retain water from the snow they catch, to keeping the leaves close to the tree for fertilizer when they finally fell off in the spring.  Some think that an early cold spell stops the nature cycle of shedding the leaves. Or the tree retains the leaves for protection from animals who would try to eat the spring buds because the brown leaves were bitter thus deterring the animals from the sweetness under them.

Regardless of the reason for marcescence, when growth begins in the spring, new leaf buds will expand, push the old leaves off and clothe the branches with new greenery. 

So, what does this have to do with Good Friday?  Well it got me thinking about the crucifixion of Christ. Why did He stay on the cross? Why didn’t He come off like some were taunting Him to do? I think the answer was simple, if He did that, the job He was sent to do would not have gotten done.

I began to think it wasn’t just the nails that held Jesus to the cross, it wasn’t just our sins that kept Him there. It seems that our sins where trying to pull Him off the cross. It was His whole essence that held Him there. It was for our protection that He stayed on the cross. He knew He needed to be there until the job was finished. He knew that it was our infirmities that he bore, our sufferings that he endured, the bitterness of death that he protected us from and if He came down, we would not be saved.

He knew that the only way for us to have new life was that He had to give his life as an offering for sin, so that the will of the Father would be accomplished through him. Because He surrendered himself to death and was counted among the wicked; and he took away the sins of many and won pardon for our offenses.

He knew that without death there could be no resurrection, no salvation, no new life eternal. He knew that He was still connected to the Father, the source of all life, and by losing one life, He gained eternal life for all who believe in Him, who cling to Him through all the hard things of life, including death itself. By completing His mission, He became new life, making the cross a tree of life not death. When we hang on to the cross, we hang on to the living Christ.

Maybe, just maybe, the leaves of that tree are trying to show us what it means to die, yet remain bound to a living thing that will bring us new life.