Jesus "The Branch"
There is more than one verse that refers to Jesus as "The Branch". In Zec 6:12 it says "Behold the man, whose name is the Branch; and he shall grow out of his place and he shall build the temple of the Lord." I used to wonder why He was called "The Branch". Imagine the shape of the cross. It has an upright that points upward to heaven, and a cross piece that points in two directions toward men on earth. God says to love Him (upward) and to love our neighbor (outward on either side of us). As a tree has a truck that grows upward, it also has branches that grow outward. Jesus is one of those branches in this analogy, and we are the other branches. Jesus "branched" out from Heaven and grew up on Earth, out of that place of Heaven, and He will build the temple of the Lord. There will be a physical temple, and our Christian bodies are also the temple of the Lord in which He indwells. Jesus is the Branch that has branched out from Heaven toward man on earth. As I think of a tree, there is not much we do with the trunk (unless we cut it down. But we can sit on a strong branch, we can hang on it, and hang things on it, set things on it, Jesus is our Branch who has reached out to us, supports us, carries us, and allows us to cling to Him.
There is more than one verse that refers to Jesus as "The Branch". In Zec 6:12 it says "Behold the man, whose name is the Branch; and he shall grow out of his place and he shall build the temple of the Lord." I used to wonder why He was called "The Branch". Imagine the shape of the cross. It has an upright that points upward to heaven, and a cross piece that points in two directions toward men on earth. God says to love Him (upward) and to love our neighbor (outward on either side of us). As a tree has a truck that grows upward, it also has branches that grow outward. Jesus is one of those branches in this analogy, and we are the other branches. Jesus "branched" out from Heaven and grew up on Earth, out of that place of Heaven, and He will build the temple of the Lord. There will be a physical temple, and our Christian bodies are also the temple of the Lord in which He indwells. Jesus is the Branch that has branched out from Heaven toward man on earth. As I think of a tree, there is not much we do with the trunk (unless we cut it down. But we can sit on a strong branch, we can hang on it, and hang things on it, set things on it, Jesus is our Branch who has reached out to us, supports us, carries us, and allows us to cling to Him.