It has been said that the New Testament is revealed in the Old and the Old Testament is explained in the new.  This is important because there are some who believe that the Old Testament (OT) is obsolete with the incarnation of Jesus Christ, in particular, the law.  In Jesus own words, this couldn’t be more false.  In MT 5: 17-18 Jesus tells us that he not only did not come to abolish the law but to actually fulfill it.  In that regard He would often cite the prophets and quote from the psalms.

Taking Jesus death on the cross, we can see how it is revealed in the OT and how it is then explained in the New Testament (NT).  Christians today see the Cross as the Tree of Life but that would not be the understanding of a first century devout Jew.

Paul tells us in Galatians 3:13 that “Christ ransomed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written, ‘Cursed be everyone who hangs on a tree…’” The passage that Paul is citing here comes from Deuteronomy 21:22; “If a man guilty of a capital offense is put to death and his corpse hung on a tree, It shall not remain on the tree overnight.  You shall bury it the same day; otherwise, since God’s curse rests on him who hangs on a tree, you will defile the land which the Lord, your God, is giving you as an inheritance.”

It is no wonder that every faithful Jew, living under the law, would walk away from the Cross believing that Jesus was a common criminal (a revolutionary) and not the divine being sent from God.  How can he be the savior if he is cursed by God?

Looking back at how the Tree of Life from the NT is revealed in the OT, we start with the first book of the Bible; Genesis.  I am sure that most of you know about the tree of knowledge of good and bad.  This is the tree that Adam and Eve were not to eat the fruit from.  But are you aware that there is a second tree mentioned in the creation story in Genesis 2:9.  “Out of the ground the Lord God made various trees grow that were delightful to look at and good for food, with the tree of life in the middle of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and bad.”  In 3:1-19 we get the story of the fall and its consequences.  We also get another story in 3:22-24; “Then the Lord God said: ‘See!  The man has become like one of us, knowing what is good and what is bad!  Therefore, he must not be allowed to put out his hand to take fruit from the tree of life also (italics my emphasis), and thus eat of it and live forever.’”  The Cross, by way of Jesus crucifixion and death upon it, has become the tree of life for it is by his obedient death on the cross that we are all saved for eternity (Phil 2:8-11).

How then do we reconcile the curse of the cross that Paul speaks of in Galatians versus the tree of life?  On September 14^th we will be celebrating the feast of the Triumph of the Cross.  The first reading comes from the book of Numbers 21:4-9 and the second from Philippians 2:6-11). I have already cited from the latter above so let’s look a Numbers. “But with their patience worn out by the journey, the people complained against God and Moses, ‘Why have you brought us up from Egypt to die in this desert, where there is no food or water?  We are disgusted with this wretched food!’  In punishment the Lord sent among the people saraph (Hebrew name for a certain species of venomous snakes) serpents, which bit the people so that many of them died.  Then the people came to Moses and said, ‘We have sinned in complaining against the Lord and you.  Pray the Lord to take the serpents (curse; my insertion) from us.’  So Moses prayed for the people, and the Lord said to Moses, ‘Make a saraph and mount it on a pole, and if anyone who has been bitten looks at it, he will recover.’  Moses accordingly made a bronze serpent and mounted it on a pole, and whenever anyone who had been bitten by a serpent looked at the bronze serpent, he recovered.”  The curse (serpent) became that which saved them from death and it is this passage, along with Dt 21:22 that Paul is citing in Gal 3:13.  The curse of the Cross, through Jesus “becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross,” becomes the Tree of Life, by which we are saved and have eternal life.

So the Tree of Life revealed in Genesis is explained in the NT passages about Jesus crucifixion, death and resurrection (Mt 27-28; Mk 15-16; Lk 23-24; Jn 6:32-65, 19-20). In Romans 6:1-11 Paul speaks about how we “who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death.  We were indeed buried with him through baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live in newness of life.  Jesus is put to death on the cross but in three days he would also resurrect from the dead.  “For if we have grown into union with him through a death like his, we shall also be united with him in the resurrection. We know that our old self was crucified with him, so that our sinful body might be done away with…   If, then, we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him.” (Rm 6:5-6) The curse of the serpents, for anyone who looked up at the bronze serpent on the pole (cross), would be saved (Nm 21:4-9; Gal 3:13).

The Old Testament that reveals the New becomes part of the story that explains the Old and therefore the OT is never obsolete.