He would claim to be the Great I Am, because He was, and is, and will always be.

When the right amount of time had passed, and He had attracted enough followers and agitated enough of the officials, He entered Jerusalem on a donkey while the crowds shouted praises to Him.

It was the week before the Passover.

The time was perfect.

From Garden to Garden

Jesus was no stranger to the events that had occurred in the Garden of Eden. As a part of the Trinity, He had been witness to it all. Now, He was in another garden, called Gethsemane. As He prayed to the Father, He waited for the officials to come and get Him. The fulfillment of the words spoken in Genesis 3:15 were about to come to fruition. During the celebration of the Passover—which reminded Israel of their deliverance from slavery in Egypt—He would be nailed to a Roman Cross and sacrifice His life for the deliverance of all men from slavery to sin. He would undo the tragedy of the first garden.

Crucifixion—an especially horrific way to die—required that the accused carry their crossbeam to the site of execution. There, typically, the crossbeam was nailed to a tree. In Jesus’ case, His tree of death became our tree of life.

The End of the Story

It’s easy to think this is the end of the story. Jesus died; He rose again, and ascended into Heaven.

But, no. That’s still the middle of the story.