Good Friday: the tree in the midst

From Fr. Peter Eckardt of Alexandria: A garden is a place of life and growth. So it was that in the beginning there was a garden; and in the Passion of our Lord we also find gardens: at first, of Gethesemane, and at last, of Jesus' burial. And as the tree of life  was in the Garden of Eden, so now between the two gardens of Jesus' Passion is the cross, which is  the  tree of life, where Jesus is suspended between heaven and earth. Here is  the glory of God; here, behold, the Man. The new creation is begun. Sermon for Good Friday.