It is Good Friday, and my theme is trees. No, it is actually just about one tree, the one appointed for the lifting-up of our Savior--the one upon which He said He would draw all men to Himself (John 12:32).

It was said in Jesus’ time that a criminal’s death was the most shameful if it was upon a tree--by crucifixion! But our Carpenter King made this statement about the wood upon which He would be sacrificed as the place of His lifting-up.

We were looking for a king who would talk about his elevated throne covered in precious gems, high above us, from which he would recue us from the world’s political peril, and from the oppression of evil. Jesus said to watch as He was lifted-up above the world on Golgotha’s Hill on a blood-washed tree.

He came to die for us. And there was one tree selected upon which He would save us. The shame implied by dying on a tree would not get on Him, because He was without sin (although tempted in all of our ways), but every one of our sins would brutally land on the pure Savior. On His wooden Cross, which pointed always to His Father, He had a far better-than-a-throne, for the rescuing of His own. He had the bridge between heaven and earth--the only one that could span the massive gap between our fallen ways, and the God Who is Good. This was a supernaturally tall and powerful tree!

The Cross of Christ started from a little seed, perhaps planted, or blown by the wind, or hidden by one of the creatures. Its beginning, as with all of the sentry-like homes for the forest animals and the birds of the air, was with little attention, often without a thought for the coming strength and might, and with years as a blown-low sapling that could be pulled from the ground by almost anyone. Who could have foreseen which one would reach into the Home of Jesus’ Father?

The diameter of a tree spreads in layers called annual growth rings. Each year a layer of wood is grown to eventually give the girth of a forest giant. From the very field where the Cross was felled there may have been many trees that Jesus Himself had shaped into a baby’s cradle, a doorway lintel, a dining table, a chair for His family, handles for tools, floor boards, a even boat--like the one He would later teach from. But never would the tree that had been selected for the Cross have come through His carpentry shop. He would carry that wood, His own killing machine, to Calvary, but he would not carve it.

The image that I’ve posted shows Jesus giving up His last breath on the Cross (That is how one died in a crucifixion--by suffocation. The arms could no longer hold up the chest and the lungs were shut down by the weight.) The art is from the Grotto in Portland, Oregon. I believe that it was not a part of the installation to have a felled tree next to the scene, but rather a coincidence of the care of the grounds. It made the Cross so poignant to me to see a tree that could easily have been fashioned into the Cross to which the One Who would eternally set us free was nailed.

I thought about the Annual Growth Rings that I could see on the bottom slice of the downed tree. That tree--the real one--that became the Savior’s Cross had a designated time. Jesus often talked about how His time had not yet come, knowing that His death on the bloody Cross was also appointed for our salvation.

As I looked at the drooping head of the Lord, and then back again to the tree and its timed-out rings, I realized that I too had an appointed time. The sun burst through the woodland thicket over the sweet head of the Redeemer reminding me with a stunning brilliance: When I came before the Cross of Christ and asked Him to forgive my sin and to come into my life as Lord, that was my exact time to be lifted up with Him by His Good Friday Cross.

From that time on I would be: “always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.” 2 Corinthians 4:10 The Carpenter King had actually fashioned a bridge for me by His wooden Cross.

He has done it for you too, and the appointed time is when your heart wants the widest embrace in the universe—the one that reaches down from the Cross and invites you to walk upon its wooden bridge into an open heaven of His mercy and loving compassion. You are never timed-out. The appointed time is always now with Jesus.