It was a tree that bore the fruit of sin, as the lovely forbidden fruit hung so beautifully from the branch. In Genesis 3:6 (ESV) we read “So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desired to make one wise, she took of it’s fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.”
And so it was, from the tree, sin became. The nature of all mankind would carry a genetic flaw from this time forth, a stain that could not be removed with any earthly cleaning. This stain was now part of the nature itself. With this act of disobedience the curse also came. The curse is why the wife and husband often find conflict, this is why there is pain in childbirth, this is why the man labors to survive, and by this the very land is cursed. This is why we die, borne in disobedience partaking of the forbidden fruit of the tree.
On this day we look back in horror at a different fruit borne of the tree. On Good Friday, we watch the Fruit of our salvation hang from the branches marred and wounded. A Fruit with an appearance unattractive, not like the appealing fruit plucked by Eve. Hear what the Prophet declares (Isaiah 53:2-3, ESV):
For he grew up before him like a young plant,
and like a root out of dry ground;
he had no form or majesty that we should look at him,
and no beauty that we should desire him.
He was despised and rejected by men,
a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief;
and as one from whom men hide their faces
he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
And yet it is this Fruit that the curse is destroyed. It is by this Fruit we find salvation. Yesterday we heard Jesus command that we partake of Him, for He is the New Passover which is sacrificed for us. He is the fruit of life, into whom we abide, and nurse from the sap of His Righteousness. Today we deny ourselves a taste of His goodness, for today our Lord Jesus Christ hangs upon the tree. The Fruit of salvation is ripe, and His seeds planted will soon emerge and blossom into His Bride.
But for today, let us look upon the tree and the Fruit it has borne. The marred and sore wounded Fruit that is eternally sweet upon the lips of those who would partake. We fast, we mourn, we hurt for the punishment our Lord Jesus Christ endured for the payment of our sins.
Today here the words of the Prophet Isaiah anew (53:4-6, ESV):
Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
The Collect for Good Friday from the 2019 Book of Common Prayer:
Almighty God, we beseech thee graciously to behold this thy family, for which our Lord Jesus Christ was contented to be betrayed, and given up into the hands of wicked men, and to suffer death upon the Cross; who now liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.