This Easter I’ve been thinking about a fruit tree. It’s called the tree of life.

This isn’t a tree that you’ll find growing in Kew Gardens. The Bible teaches that God planted it in the Garden of Eden when he created humanity. But it’s a tree we never ate from. Due to our first parents’ sin, God placed an angel and a flaming sword to “guard the way to the tree of life” (Gen 3:24).

I think the fruit of this tree is tantalising. The forbidden fruit brought us death. But the fruit from the tree of life is the exact opposite. It offers us a kind of life that we don’t currently experience.

Eat this fruit and you won’t just carry on existing, but you will have a higher kind of life.

Ilford Recorder: Simon Arscott, minister, All Nations Church, is busy doing risk assessments.Simon Arscott, minister, All Nations Church, is busy doing risk assessments. (Image: Archant)

The leaves of this tree are for the healing of the nations. The trouble is, humans don’t know how to get our hands on it. If only this fruit was for sale in the supermarket or on Ilford High Street!

But the Bible is like an exciting map that shows us where this fruit is to be found. The tree of life doesn’t just grow at the beginning of the Bible, but also at the end (Rev 22:2). It’s standing in the Paradise of God.

How can I get there? Well, this is what Easter is all about. On Good Friday, Jesus died to take humanity’s curse for eating the forbidden fruit. But on Easter Sunday, he rose bodily from the dead.

This wasn’t just his come back. This was Jesus actually eating the tree of life for himself.

So, the message of Easter is that Jesus offers humanity this mouth-watering fruit - not just existence, but eternal life.