Photo and Commentary ©2026 by Shelley Schurch
Sunday, March 29, 2026
First there was a wild windstorm. That was Wednesday. Then, two days later, on Friday the 13th, winter arrived. We were startled, but thankful that it was a one-day, mid-March winter. At our place it had been snowing before we woke up to witness it, and kept snowing until late that night.
The double punch of a windstorm and snowstorm was too much for many trees in the area, especially the beautiful cherry blossom trees. Most of them were in glorious full bloom, and it was sad to see so many of their branches bowed down and broken with the weight of snow and ice.
I’m fond of trees. I consider them friends. Much has been researched and written in recent years about how beneficial trees are, beyond their beauty. They are so alive and giving, that it seems a terrible irony that the stiff and lifeless wooden cross upon which Jesus died has been called, in Scripture and song, a tree.
The God of our fathers raised up Jesus whom you murdered by hanging on a tree. (Acts 5:30 NKJV, Peter speaking to the high priest)
Now when they had fulfilled all that was written concerning Him, they took Him down from the tree and laid Him in a tomb. But God raised Him from the dead. (Acts 13:29-30, Paul speaking in the synagogue at Antioch)
. . . [Christ] who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed. (I Peter 2:24, Peter writing to early Christians)
Jesus, our healer and sin-bearer, bowed and broken on the tree.
Broken? No.
Therefore, because it was the Preparation Day, that the bodies should not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away. Then the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first and of the other who was crucified with Him. But when they came to Jesus and saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs. But one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out. And he who has seen has testified, and his testimony is true; and he knows that he is telling the truth, so that you may believe. For these things were done that the Scripture should be fulfilled, “Not one of His bones shall be broken.” (John 19:31-36)
Broken? Yes.
I hold with those who believe He died with a broken heart.
Jesus, bowed and broken.
Weighted down with the sins of the world.
Counterweighted with His all-embracing, everlasting, unchanging, personal love for each and all of us.