Loving God with Soul II

The account in Genesis 2 could easily have ended with, "And they lived happily ever after." But that is not how the story ends, nor is it the way life happens for you and me. We now proceed from the story of Paradise to the story of the Fall.

Genesis 3:1-24

To this point the account in the garden has involved only Adam, Eve and God. There has been very little spoken by the characters (God speaking in 2:15-18, and Adam in 2:24). Now enters the serpent. Tradition has often inserted a detail in the story that is not there. Nowhere in Genesis does it say that the snake is Satan. The book of Revelation looks back and sees the deceptive ways of the serpent in the works of Satan in Revelation. From that time, there has been in church tradition the idea that temptation comes from the devil. At it's worst, we have done a Flip Wilson-style interpretation about sin which is "the devil made me do it." James is more correct in his New Testament letter when he says,

"...but each one is tempted when, by his own desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death. Don't be deceived my dear brothers." (James 1:14-16)

Temptation to be self-ruled and self-directed is as much a part of being human as being God-breathed. We live in that kind of tension. To locate that temptation in anything other than our own willfulness keeps us from facing the truth about ourselves and finding our full redemption in Christ. Yes, Jesus was tempted by the devil, but it was more about his motivations for doing his ministry than it was dealing with his own inner bent toward selfishness and sin. This part of the blog may draw some comment, which is good.

The serpent is characterized as being "subtle" or "tricky." The serpent is loud and verbose. In early Christian art, it is also pictured as able to walk. Have you noticed how loud and bright the sounds and sights of temptation are and how still and quiet the voice of God often is? The trickiness of the serpent is in the use of half-truths. "Did God give you this beautiful, lush, garden and then let you not eat of the fruit in it?" Implied: God is acting unfairly and is being unnecessarily restrictive. The woman speaks for the first time in the story. "Oh, no. We can eat from any of the trees...except that one. If we eat that fruit, it's fatal." The serpent debates: "It's not FATAL. God just doesn't want you to eat it, because you will know too much. You'll be just as smart as God is, and he doesn't want that." Implied: God is protecting you from something and keeping you from fully experiencing life. As you can see, the dialogue between the serpent and Eve is as relevant as this morning's news programs. For those who want full license to do as they wish when they wish, religion sets unwelcome boundaries.

Now let's slow down the story. In verse 6, the woman hears the appeal of the serpent and ponders what life would be like without limitations. The fruit (probably a fig rather than an apple) glistens with the morning dew in the light of the sun. The forbidden never looked so good! We know the story, so we want to tell her, "Get out of there quick. It's not what it appears to be. It's the wicked witch with the poison apple, Snow White." But Eve is more like us than we want to admit. She eats it and then shares it with her husband. Sin is always more enjoyable in community, where at least you can share the blame as well as the fun of doing something forbidden together. The serpent was right. Their eyes were opened, but not to what they had hoped. They discover nakedness as a point of shame. Notice the difference between 3:7, "...and they realized they were naked; so they covered themselves in fig leaves," and 2:25, "The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame." I am indebted to John Holbert, Old Testament preaching chair at SMU, at this point in the story. He asks, "Have you ever felt fig leaves? They have the consistent of #2 grade sand paper. The original hearers of this story would be howling with laughter. Of all the trees in the garden, these would make the worst clothing." Is that our human condition or what? They have discovered shame and self-betrayal and now are a scratched up, itchy mess.

God enters the picture. He walks through the garden (I think of the hymn that sings, "And he walks with me and talks with me and tells me I am his own. And the joy were share as we tarry there none other has ever known."), as if things were as they had always been. But God can't find them. He calls to Adam, "Where are you?" Don't you think God already knew? The question is for Adam's benefit. Often the Spirit of God asks us the same question when we are headed in the wrong direction. Adam says, "I heard you coming, so I hid. After all, I am naked." He can no longer be before God as he is. The Spirit-spirit relationship has been compromised. God knows that there is only one way that he could know such brokenness and shame. "Who told you that you were naked? You've eaten from the forbidden tree, haven't you?" In our mind's ear, we can hear the disappointment and broken heartedness in God's voice.

Verse 12 is so real to life. Speaking from his place of hiding from God, he blames his wife. The woman was deceived by the serpent, but there is no record that the serpent even talked to Adam. In fact, during the actual loss of innocence of Adam and Eve and their shame, the serpent is notably silent. Adam's brokeness in relationship with God now becomes a brokenness with his wife. She in turn blames the serpent and brokenness is now between humans and other creatures. In the judgment of God there will also be brokenness between farmer and the land. Each are blaming the other, not realizing that the primary brokenness is a spiritual one, between them and God. Had I more time and space, I would talk about the punishments and what they meant in that day and time. Instead, I simply state that there has been no generation that hasn't known pain in childbirth, the risk of storms and pestilence in farming, the problem of environmental damage by humans, and the biggest problem of the human blame game. Adam and Eve are hopelessly broken without a renewed relationship with God, so are we.

Verses 21-24 are powerful with a message that can be easily overlooked. What does God clothe Adam and Eve in? And how did God get them? God invites Adam and Eve to trade in those fig leaf clothes that didn't really cover up anything for those much more comfortable animal skins that would both ease their discomfort and cover them much better. The animal skins could not have been provided without the shedding of blood, and so even in Genesis 3 we see the picture of atonement, how sins and brokenness are covered through blood sacrifice. It is a picture of the sacrificial system for the forgiveness of sins to come and eventually a picture of what Jesus did for us on the cross. Genesis 3 leaves us with the truth that life isn't easy and life isn't forever, but there is the mercy and redemption of our loving Lord. And that's how the spirit-Spirit relationship is restored.

John 3:9-21

Jesus' conversation with Nicodemus takes us to yet another picture of how God restores our Spirit-spirit relationship with him. At first,in yesterday's reading he takes Jesus literally, that physicially, being born again is not possible. He then asks again, "How can this happen?" Jesus tells Nick that he is not opening his mind to the truth that he is being told. He then takes Nicodemus back to a scene from Numbers 21, when the people murmured in the desert, complaining about the lousy food and the lack of water, requesting that they go back to Egypt. Isn't it interesting how we will choose the bondage of what we have known and done over doing the hard work and taking risks of doing God's new thing in our lives? I'm one who thinks most churches get stuck in this kind of murmuring and some even go back to Egypt, not knowing they have traded away God's great promised future.

In punishment, God sends poisonous snakes among the people and many die. Moses goes to God on behalf of the people crying for mercy. God tells Moses to make a bronze snake and form it around a pole, so that those who get bitten by snakes can look at it and live. With that story in mind, Jesus says to Nicodemus

,"Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life."

The lifting up that Jesus speaks of is crucifixion, and he becomes the one to whom we can look in our sin and brokenness and find life.

Many of us can quote John 3:16 by heart, but have we done what it calls for? My concern about this passage and yesterday's one is that we have turned this into a single experience rather than let it become a way of life. There are many who have a "born again experience" who have not allowed themselves to be born again in the many different areas of their sinfulness and brokenness. Thus we have born again bigots, abusers, liars, cheaters, idolaters, manipulators, gluttons, etc, etc. Being born again is not something we check off a list as something that we get done. I believe in being born again and making a personal commitment of your life to Jesus Christ, but it is being born again into a way of life, a way of the Spirit and a way in which we come out of our hiding in the dark and experience the light of forgiving love in Jesus Christ. There are still lots of areas in my life where such light needs to shine, where I still want to hide from the truth about myself. In Jesus' words, I choose darkness rather than the light. In that sense, there is much about me that still needs the miracle of new birth. I believe Jesus is inviting Nicodemus and us, like Adam in Genesis, to come out of our hiding (whether in the bushes of our guilt or behind pious self-righteousness and relying on what we already know) to experience the life changing grace of God.

My prayer is that today you will allow God to do that in a new way in your life. Trade in those fig leaves for those animal skins and look to the crucified Christ and live. Then together we will all know better what it is to love the LORD our God with all our soul.