rod out of the stem of Jesse

... Christ Himself is the real Tree of Life; the prototype of that wondrous tree from whose salvation-bringing sight and enjoyment mankind had been removed in consequence of sin, without ever being able to lose the memory of it. He is called indeed in the Old Testament "as the eternal, heavenly Wisdom of God " a "Tree of Life" (Prov. iii. i8) ; even as, with regard to His human nature and origin, He is called a "rod out of the stem of Jesse," and a "branch out of his roots" (Isa. xi. i). And He calls Himself in the New Testament the " true Vine " (John XV. I ff.) ; He speaks of Himself as the "green tree," which must suffer instead of the dry wood, properly destined for fuel (Luke xxiii. 31). The green wood, the gloriously blossoming fruit-laden palm tree (Psalm i. 3 ; xcii. 12), is hanged upon the dry bare tree of the curse (Gal. iii. 13); He consecrates this precisely thereby as a place of blessing, grows into one with it, as a gladdening, world-renewing Tree of Life, at whose roots gushes forth the fountain of everlasting life, whose fruit affords to every one the true and ever satisfying food, and whose leaves are for the healing of the nations (Rev. ii. 7 ; xxii. 2). All that which had expressed itself in the pre-Christian world in efforts after the ideal or real [i.e., by means of types] representation in religious symbolism of the Tree of Life as the compendium of all blessedness, finds here its fulfilment, its Divine ratification, in a blessing extending exceeding abundantly beyond all previous dimly realised conception and even longing.

- Otto Zöckler, The Cross of Christ (1877)