Summary
The Bible is more than a smattering of good advice; some knowledge of good and evil.
The Bible is a story, with a beginning that anticipates an end; it has a plot.
Stories reveal people and stories can make you want what you formerly did not want.
No one goes to heaven unless they want to go to heaven.
In Revelation 22 we come to the end, for the end has come to us, and it reveals the beginning and the plot.
In Revelation 22 we see the End in the Beginning; we see the Plot.
In Revelation 22 we see a tree in a garden, that is the New Jerusalem.
Asking when and where is the Garden and the New Jerusalem, is not like asking when and where is Cleveland Ohio.
The Garden and the New Jerusalem are the edge of all when and where.
In the garden, John sees the Tree of Life.
But where is the tree of the knowledge of Good and evil?
What is the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and evil?
Perhaps it’s like the magic mirror in the story of Snow White.
The Evil Queen wants to know who is the “fairest in the land.”
She wants knowledge of the Good, so she can judge whether or not she is good, and make herself good… that is to say, make herself beautiful.
But, of course, she makes herself ugly, inside and out—she attempts to put Snow White’s heart in a box.
The Magic Mirror is like the law—any law.
We want knowledge of the good, so we can judge the good, and make ourselves good.
But we make ourselves ugly, inside and out.
The Law is good, but the way we take it makes us bad.
We take it to justify ourselves and end up crucifying the heart of God.
Jesus is the heart of God, our Prince.
Snow White also has a mirror, but she looks at it in a different way, asking a different question, wishing a different wish.
The Queen wants to conquer the good.
Snow White wants the Good to find her and conquer her heart.
The Queen thinks the good is a thing, and so, the face in her mirror is death.
Snow White thinks the Good is her Prince.
Her mirror is a wishing well which turns into the eyes of her Prince.
Jesus said, “I am the Life.” And he is “the Good,” who is God, in the flesh.
The Tree of the knowledge of Good and evil and the tree of Life were both in the same spot—the middle of the Garden.
They were two trees that looked just the same, or one tree that we think is two, until we come to the New Jerusalem.
Whatever the case the two trees, that are one tree, is the Judgment of God.
John doesn’t use the normal word for tree, but a word that can also refer to a cross.
And John goes out of his way to point out that Jesus was crucified in a garden.
Jesus is the plot, Jesus is the Logos, Jesus is our Prince—how do you take Him?
We’ve each taken his Life like the Evil Queen, and to each, He’s given His Life—He washes us in his blood, and He makes us Snow White—now how do you take Him?
The cross was never plan B, but always plan A.
Jesus didn’t die simply because you made a bad decision.
Jesus died, to create in you, a good decision.
God’s judgment does not change; but we change because of God’s Judgment.
The Cross reveals the Judgment of God and it creates the Judgment of God is us.
Our Judgment is to take the Life, damn the Life and damn ourselves.
God’s Judgment is to give the Life, which creates the river of Life, which brings all creation to Life—God’s Life, eternal Life.
At the tree in the Garden, God makes us want what we did not want—Himself.
At the tree in the Garden, God reveals that He is our Helper and He gives us His Heart.
From the tree flows a river of Life, offered to you in a cup.
It will destroy the Evil Queen and liberate Snow White.
Jesus is the heart of God given to you on a tree in a garden.
He makes you beautiful in His time.
Stop asking, “Am I Good?”
Worship the Good who makes you Good: the image and likeness of God.