9 Hosanna Warm-up

"" Shhh come here and watch this. I scurried over to where Eve was crouching behind a rock watching a man untie a colt from the tree. I crouched behind Eve. It looked as if the colt was being stolen because a couple of other men approached and there was some discussion apparently about the animal.

Maybe not, because they took the colt after all.

“You must see this.” she said.

Was I asleep or awake? If I was awake, where was I?

Reading my mind Eve told me that I was both asleep and awake. We were still waiting to wake up in Eden, but before that our entourage (that includes you, the reader) was being given a chance to see Jesus so He could show us how He made Eve realize that it was possible to return to Eden.

Gen 2:4“In the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, when no plant of the field was yet in the earth and no herb of the field had yet sprung up-for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was no one to till the ground; but a stream would rise from the earth, and water the whole face of the earth-then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being. And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east; and there He put the man whom He had formed. Out of the ground the Lord God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

2:15Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, ‘you may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.’

“Look, here He comes.” Exclaimed Eve pointing to Jesus walking before our very eyes!

Sure enough, there was the real live Jesus Christ, riding bareback on a colt.

 Stunned, and with my eyes riveted on the Christ, I managed to ask, “Eve have we gone back in time? Does this mean that when we wake up in Eden we will have gone back to the beginning of the world? I didn’t think that was the deal? I like the 21st century quite a lot. I like my country and some of the other ones, and cell phones and computers and bathrooms and refrigeration and aircon…”

“Calm down!” she interjected before I jumped over the edge. “Listen to me. Relax, time is relative. It is an element that God works with much like we work with clay. We can still be in the 21st century when we visit Eden, but the way there is without Time as you thought you knew it. You will understand this later. The only way we can be in Eden is the way Jesus Christ was in Eden when I saw Him. Today we will watch how Jesus could be in Eden in His own time period. This will help us to be in Eden in the 21st century—with cell phones! Okay?!”

Eve continued, “Today is the day that Jesus goes to Jerusalem as a king and victor. Well, not exactly because He refused the accoutrements of an earthly king, but today He receives the praise of the people.

I want you to see Jesus walk right up to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and not even take a bite!

It’s not just the knowledge of evil that we should eschew, who wouldn’t want that? In fact everyone wants paradise because there is no evil there. But the knowledge of Good is equally poisonous, and Christ knows this better than anyone.   

Today Jesus is practicing not eating the knowledge of Good, to help Him not eat the knowledge of evil when the time comes. This is an important day. Learning how to avoid eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil will be essential for us when we wake up in Eden. If we can see the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, then the tree of life cannot be far.

Now let’s  be quiet and watch the people treat Jesus like a rock star!”

12 Reaching the Tree of Life

After viewing the betrayal of Jesus Christ and thus being reminded of the day that she too betrayed God by following the advice of the serpent to eat the forbidden fruit, Eve was overwhelmed with grief. She hadn’t felt so estranged in many moons. She wouldn’t even talk to me, but I stayed close anyway.

Remembering the event of her expulsion from Eden mysteriously harbored her return.

“It looks so different to me now.” Eve said slowly and quietly as if to herself.

“What did you say? Eve, are we there; are we really in Eden?” Nothing appeared different to me. Why did I expect a bright azure blue sky sunny day? Today the sky was lavender gray and it was quiet. Even the chipmunks were hiding in the holes they burrowed into the earth.

“My friend,” said Eve pensively. “Did you notice that when He was tempted in Gethsemane, when He could have run away or in the trial when He could have defended himself, did you see that Jesus Christ was refusing to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? Did you see that when I ate from it I was thinking only of myself and how I could benefit, but when Christ was confronted with a much greater temptation to edify himself, He rejected the opportunity in order to obey God who sent Him to the tree of life. He undid me.”

“Eve, do you mean to tell me that we have been in Eden since Wednesday?”

“Yes, but it is not simply being in Eden that we wanted. We must reach the tree of life, and Jesus will take us there today.”

“Then the Lord God said,’ See, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”−

And at the East of the garden of Eden God placed the cherubim, and a sword flaming and turning to guard the way to the tree of life.”

Because of those cherubic guards and the flaming swords it has been impossible to reach the tree of life all of this time. But now watch Jesus Christ command the angels to move so He can pass through the flaming swords to reach the tree for us.

“Oh Eve! This is amazing.” I exclaimed.

“Yes amazing grace is what it is, my friend. Look! Here He comes.”

Here we were standing in Eden and on Golgotha at the same time, just as Christ was. The slashes on His skin must have been made by the turning swords as He passed through them. Eve and I watched the Cross being lifted.

Eve whispered in my ear, “Look at Him up there, naked and unashamed just as we were in Eden. Now I understand why the tree of life was being guarded all this time. Only Jesus Christ was worthy to distribute it to the people through their baptism.

Saint Paul said it best when he wrote, “Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death.” The whole big timeless and immortal body of believers together is hanging on that tree of death which is also the tree of life. Eve is there and so am I and so are you.

 God planted this tree in the middle of the garden during the creation of the world to give life abundant and eternal to His children who, like Eve, were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

“Eve,” I said breaking the silence “I think I understand now. You and I and all of these people with us are with God as you were with God in the Garden of Eden. Death has been destroyed on this day, and we are free to commune with God just as in Eden as long as we do not eat of the knowledge of good and evil again.”

“Yes,” she replied ”but you are more blessed then I ever was, because if or when you cave to the temptation to put yourself first or in any way to drift from God’s commands then you need only return to the tree in communion with Jesus and your life will be instantly restored.

Shhh today this looks like the tree of death. Let us bow our heads and pray for patience.

What an awesome awful day this is.”

Happy 1st Birthday Lilly Juliana.