I ask you to consider the example of the tree in paradise and the wood in the cross. My point is that just as the first tree, though green, bore death, the wood of the cross, though dry, gave birth to life. -- St. John Chrysostom, *On Saint Phocas* par. 5
Wow. That's very cool.
ReplyDeleteThe Last Adam does not merely come to succeed where the first Adam failed, but needs to overcome the first Adam's failure in order then to succeed.
The first Adam fails to resist Satan's temptation, even though he stand in a lush garden filled with all types of good food for him (Gn 1.29).
The Last Adam resists Satan's temptations, even though he stands in a cursed wilderness barren of food (Lk 4.1-2), the world made by the first Adam.
The first Adam seeks to take life by grabbing the fruit of the tree of life in the Garden, and so dies, bringing death to his seed.
The Last Adam gives life by offering himself on a tree of death, without fruit, but turns the dead wood into the Tree of Life for his seed.