As Jesus entered Jerusalem upon the colt, people were laying their cloaks on the road and proclaiming “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!” (Lk 19.35-38) King. What does that mean? God himself defined this kingship at the beginning of history, and Luke guides us to see just what “king” means.
At his baptism, Jesus is declared to be God’s beloved son. Immediately following the record of Jesus’ baptism, Luke records the genealogy of Jesus that traces Jesus’ lineage all the way back to Adam, “the son of God” (Lk 3.21-38). Jesus is the second and last Adam, a truth that Luke’s apostolic companion, Paul, makes clear in his letters (Rom 5.12-21; 1Cor 15.45-49). Adam was creation’s original son of God. He was the image of God, the one was to live in the fullness of union and communion with God, the representative head of creation, and, as such, the one who had the responsibility as creation’s king to take dominion over the creation, moving it from glory to glory until the earth looked like God’s heaven. Adam was to cultivate the world, from gardens to culture, building houses and cities, being fruitful and multiplying and filling the earth. He was creation’s king (see Ps 8; see also Heb 1–2).
When Adam was first created, he was infantile, not in his physical stature but in his level of maturity. He was created naked like a newborn babe and needed to grow up. He would have to grow into new responsibilities. He was created sinless, but he was not mature. In order to mature, Adam would need gifts from his Father along the way, responsibilities and helps so that he could complete his mission. The first gift he was given was a helper, the woman, who was created through God putting Adam into a death-sleep and ripping his side out. In this, God showed Adam how he would move from glory to glory: death (in some form) followed by resurrection.
Other gifts were available and some would come later. God created a garden full of his gifts. There was food on the trees, and God promised that all of the trees would be food for man (Gen 1.29).
There were two trees in the midst of the Garden: the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. The Tree of Life was not forbidden. The fruit from this tree would confirm man’s life in relationship with God, and the man would live forever (something declared by God after the fall; Gen 3.22). The man was to go there first, acknowledging that his life came from God and receiving that life from God.
The other tree was forbidden … at least at the time. God promised that all of the trees would be for food, but Adam wasn’t ready for the fruit of this tree. We know from the name–Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil–what God intended with this tree. The phrase “knowledge of good and evil” is used in the rest of Scripture to speak about maturity and the ability to make wise, judicial judgments (see Dt 1.39; 1Kg 3.9; Heb 5.12–6.1). Hebrews even associates discerning between good and evil with being able to eat “strong meat,” food. Adam wasn’t ready for this strong meat. In the day that he ate of it, he would surely die (Ge 2.17). Not long after this command, in the creation of the woman, God gave Adam a taste of what this meant. When he grew up and the time came for him to make judicial judgments (such as to judge and pronounce sentence upon the serpent), God would give him the gift that he needed and move him to the next stage of glory through death and resurrection. But if he grasped for it before the time, it would mean death without resurrection. The results would be devastating; like a three-year-old thinking he could handle a pistol.
Adam disobeyed God, and the results were devastating, not just for himself, but his entire dominion.
Enter Jesus. As mentioned, the Father declares him to be his son at his baptism and declares it again at his Transfiguration (9.28-36). He is the king of creation. He is created sinless but must grow in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man (Lk 2.52). When it is time, the Father will give him the fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Before that happens, he must go to the Tree of Life, which will require passing through the flaming swords of judgment of the cherubim whom God positioned to guard the Tree (Ge 3.24). To eat of this tree in sin would put the world in a worse state than Adam left it. Jesus must be sinless so that he may live forever confirmed in a state of righteousness. He will do this, not only for himself but for all those he represents. Once he obediently submits to death for the sins of his people, his Father will grant him the Tree of Life, resurrection unto everlasting life. Once he obtains life through the forgiveness of sins, he then may pick up the mission of the son of God to take dominion over the world. To complete his mission, he must be given all authority in heaven and on earth so that he can move this creation project forward. The Father must grant him “the knowledge of good and evil,” declaring him “Lord,” so that he can complete the mission of moving the creation from glory to glory.
Jesus enters Jerusalem that day as the king to fulfill his mission and eat the fruit from the trees, but on the day he eats from them, he will surely die.
