Today’s devotion on the theme of death is from Rabbi Jason Sobel.

Have you ever wondered why Jesus had to die on a cross? The answer given by most people is that this was a common means of execution by the Romans. But surely something as important as the death of God’s Son was not based solely upon Rome’s proclivity for brutal means of execution like crucifixion. There must be something more.

Sin Entered by Means of a Tree
How did sin enter the world? The first man and woman took from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and they ate the one thing in the garden of Eden that the Lord had prohibited (Genesis 3:6). Their disobedience led to the fall and their exile from Eden.

Redemption required a repair (tikkun, in Hebrew) for their sin. The first man and woman could not correct what they had done. What did God do? Since sin entered by means of a tree, God put His Son on a tree, in the form of a cross, to redeem us from the sin of the first man and woman. The Lord put Jesus, the second Adam, back on the tree for you and me to restore and make restitution for what had been stolen from the tree in the garden.

The first Adam brought death by means of a tree, but the second Adam brought life by means of His death on one! (1 Corinthians 15:21–23 TLV).

The Sign of the Curse was Thorns
As always, there is even more. As Jesus hung on the cross, He had a crown of thorns on His head. Have you ever wondered why? The Roman soldiers put a crown of thorns on His head to mock His claim to be King Messiah. But the deeper spiritual reason for the crown of thorns also ties back to the garden of Eden. The sign of the curse of creation was that the ground would “produce thorns and thistles” (Genesis 3:18). By wearing a crown of thorns at His crucifixion, Jesus, the second Adam, took upon Himself the curse of creation, to undo it for the purpose of restoring the blessing!