Christmas and the Tree of Life

Christmas and the Tree of Life

Christmas Talk for Sacrament meeting December 20, 2009

I love the Christmas stories told in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke.  Luke’s gospel contains most of the story that we are familiar with, from the angel Gabriel bringing Mary the amazing news, to the heavenly hosts singing Glory to God, to the shepherds finding the newborn baby Jesus wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.  Matthew focuses on the Messianic prophecies of prophets like Isaiah, while he tells of the angel announcing Christ’s birth to Joseph and the three wise men following the brilliant new star in the east. These stories tell us something important about Jesus and his mission on earth.  The new star and the long journey of the wise men, the good news announced by angels, and the rejoicing of the heavenly hosts tell us that Christ’s birth was something truly wonderful and cosmic in scale—something that gives us reason to be full of gladness and hope.  The humble circumstances of His birth give us reason to trust Him as someone who has shared in the common lot of man, someone who understands our burdens and who would be willing to bear them for us.  These stories touch our hearts and draw us to the child who would grow up to be the Savior of the world.

I’m so glad we have these words of Matthew and Luke, but did you know that there is another place in the scriptures that sheds a different and important light on the Christmas story?  This story is found in the beginning of the Book of Mormon, in father Lehi’s famous dream, or rather, in Nephi’s vision of Lehi’s dream.  Do you remember how Lehi describes the beginning of his dream—how he travels hour after hour in a dark and dreary waste and how he prays for mercy so he can get away from that awful place?  After he prays, he notices something wonderful.  It is a tree in a large field.  Remember that Lehi is a man who has traveled many times in the barren mountains and deserts outside of Jerusalem.  To a desert traveler, a tree means an oasis with water—it means life.  What Lehi really notices about the tree is its fruit, which he describes as “desirable to make one happy.”  When he tastes the fruit, he finds that it is “sweet, above all that I ever before tasted” and “white, to exceed all the whiteness that I had ever seen,” and that “it filled my soul with exceedingly great joy”  (1 Nephi 8:10-12). 

When Nephi hears his father’s dream, he can’t stop thinking about it.  He wants to see the things his father saw, but he also wants to know what it all means.  Because Nephi has faith that the Lord can make these things known to him, his desire is granted.   “And it came to pass that the Spirit said unto me:  Look!  And I looked and beheld a tree; and it was like unto the tree which my father had seen; and the beauty thereof was far beyond, yea, exceeding of all beauty; and the whiteness thereof did exceed the whiteness of the driven snow” (1 Nephi 11:8).  Nephi recognizes the tree as “the tree which is precious above all” (v. 9). 

When Nephi desires to know the interpretation, or the meaning of the tree, an angel shows him something that doesn’t seem to belong here.  “…And I beheld the city of Nazareth; and in the city of Nazareth I beheld a virgin, and she was exceedingly fair and white…most beautiful and fair above all other virgins” (1 Nephi 11:13-15).  Then the angel asks Nephi an interesting question:  “Knowest thou the condescension of God?”  (v.16).  What the angel is asking is—Do you know how God will come down from His high and exalted place to be here on your lowly level?  Nephi answers humbly yet faithfully, “I know that he loveth his children; nevertheless, I do not know the meaning of all things” (v.17).  “And [the angel] said unto me: Behold, the virgin whom thou seest is the mother of the Son of God, after the manner of the flesh.  And it came to pass that I beheld that she was carried away in the Spirit; and after she had been carried away in the Spirit for the space of a time the angel spake unto me, saying: Look!  And I looked and beheld the virgin again, bearing a child in her arms” (v.18-20).

Aha!  Here’s another version of the Christmas story!  You were probably wondering when I was going to get to that.  Let’s keep going:  “And the angel said unto me:  Behold the Lamb of God, yea, even the Son of the Eternal Father!”  That’s how Jehovah will condescend, or come down from his place beside God, the Father to be with us.  Now comes the part that we need to listen carefully to, because it gives us a beautiful way to think about Christmas.  Remember that the angel has just shown Nephi a vision of Mary, carrying the Son of God, the baby Jesus, in her arms.  Now the angel asks the important question:  “Knowest thou the meaning of the tree which thy father saw?”  (v.21).  “And I answered him, saying:  Yea, it is the love of God, which sheddeth itself abroad in the hearts of the children of men; wherefore, it is the most desirable above all things.  And he spake unto me saying:  Yea, and the most joyous to the soul”  (v.22-23).  Nephi has realized that the tree, which he soon names the Tree of Life, is connected to the Virgin mother and her divine child, which is connected to the Love of God. 

Keep this in mind while I tell you about the Tree of Life in ancient Israelite culture.  According to Daniel Peterson, BYU professor of Islamic Studies and Arabic, ancient documents and artifacts show that at one time, the Israelites worshipped El, the Father God and Asherah, the Mother Goddess and wife of El. The worship of the Mother Goddess did not fall out of favor until after the fall of Jerusalem in 586 B.C., many years after Lehi had escaped with his family to the promised land.  Thus, Nephi may well have been aware that Asherah was considered to be the Queen of Heaven, the Virgin,, and that she was often depicted as a mother nursing her divine offspring.  She was symbolized, or represented by---the Tree of Life!  To Nephi, the connection of the virgin mother, Mary and her divine child, Jesus, to the Tree of Life in Lehi’s dream may have been a completely natural one.  In this sense, the tree represents the earthly virgin mother, and her son is the sweet fruit that she bore—the fruit that fills the soul with exceedingly great joy.  To Nephi, the Tree of Life brought to mind this very special birth, the birth we now celebrate at Christmas.  It is that birth, more than any other thing, that shows us the Love of God.

I love how Nephi sees that the love of God is like the Tree, shedding itself abroad in the hearts of the children of men.  It helps me to feel God’s love as a refuge, a place of peace.  It reminds me of my special tree that was a big part of my childhood.  I was the sixth child of eight, with parents who both worked and who weren’t the strictest of disciplinarians.  We had lots of freedom, and lots of fun, but chaos often reigned in our house.  When it got too much for me, I would climb my special tree as high as I could go.  I would find a comfortable place to sit and watch the world go by, a slight breeze swaying me gently and rustling the leaves all around me.  One person in one tree. What’s so great about the Tree of Life is that, like God’s love, it sheds itself abroad and there is enough room in and under its branches to shelter the hearts of all the children of men.

When I think of the Tree of Life in connection with the birth of Jesus and the Love of God, I can’t help but think of that beautiful statement in the Gospel of John:  “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).  Perhaps this shows us another way to look at the Tree of Life.  We might see the Tree as Jesus Christ and the precious fruit as the gift of Eternal Life.  Again, it is through the Tree that God shows His love for us.  The ward choir recently sang a lovely song called “Jesus Christ, the Apple Tree.”  Let me read the words of the song:

The tree of life my soul hath seen,
Laden with fruit, and always green
The trees of nature fruitless be
Compared to Christ the apple tree.

For happiness I long have sought,
And pleasure dearly I have bought:
I missed of all; but now I see
‘Tis found in Christ the apple tree.

I’m weary with my former toil,
Here I will sit and rest awhile;
Under the shadow I will be,
Of Jesus Christ the apple tree.

This fruit doth make my soul to thrive,
It keeps my dying faith alive;
Which makes my soul in haste to be
With Jesus Christ the apple tree.

             

Do you remember when the Tree of Life first appears in the scriptures?  It is when Adam and Eve are in the Garden of Eden.   After Adam and Eve had disobeyed God and eaten from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, God cast them out of the Garden and blocked the way of the Tree of Life.  It was against God’s plan for Adam and Eve to partake of the fruit of the Tree of Life and live forever in their sins.  They needed a time of probation, a time of mortality, when they could repent and learn how to choose good instead of evil.  Now, with the coming of Christ and his atonement, the way to the Tree of Life is open once again.  The precious fruit is available to all.  Merry Christmas!