“And the man and his wife were both naked, and were not ashamed.” There’s vulnerability in being naked. We’re only ever naked, without the garments that protect us in so many ways, when we feel safe and secure, when we are with people who we know will not take advantage of our nakedness. As adults, we’ve mainly lost those feelings of safety and security. But, if you’ve ever spent much time around small children, or if you have small children of your own, then you will know that nakedness for them is no problem. For innocent children, giggles and laughter often accompany the freedom of being without clothing. Oftentimes my children, when they are without clothing – say after a bath – will run through the house laughing and yelling, daring us to catch them, daring us to once again encumber them with clothes. They are free. They are safe. They are protected by their parents who have created an environment that allows them to be so.
This is where we have left off with Adam and Eve, the first characters in the Story of God. They are naked, and they feel no shame. They are free. They are safe. They are living in an environment that has been provided by God their Father that allows them to be naked in all of its vulnerability.
God, the one who has written the script for our story, is also the one who has set the stage for our characters. And it is a good stage. There is work, there are fruits of their labor for nourishment, there is trust, and there is valued communion with God. The curtain has come up on the play, and things are going splendidly. Things are as they should be. Our characters are developing.
But, as there is in every play and every story, there is an inciting incident. A moment when there is a confrontation between the normal and the good and the abnormal. Questions of direction and action are raised. Conflict is introduced. Enter the serpent. In the biblical text, we are given very little information about this character. In Genesis 3, he is not identified as evil or as Satan, only as craftier than the rest of the wild animals (v. 1). His character is soon revealed as one who questions the goodness of the Director and the very safety and security of the stage that has been set.
The serpent opens his mouth and speaks to the woman whom God had created from the man’s rib. “Did God say, ‘You shall not eat from any tree in the garden?’” (v. 1). It seems like an innocent enough question. Tone of voice may be the key here. We could imagine that the serpent asked the question in a matter of fact way. As in, “What time is it?” Or, we can imagine that there is in the serpent’s voice that tell tale inflection – the slight elevation in pitch at the end of question – that questions a person’s current course of action, “Are you going to wear that?” or “Are you really going to eat that?” With this little inflection, the question that the serpent asks introduces into the story doubts about Adam and Eve’s current life choices.
The woman’s response is straightforward. “Yes, in fact God said that we may not even touch it or else we will die.” Laughing, the serpent responds, “You won’t die! God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” Notice here the “when.” For the serpent, it is a forgone conclusion that the man and women will eat of the fruit. It is not, “if you eat of it” but “when you eat of it.”
Doubt about the nature of things has now entered the picture. The woman, and the man too, are now unsure that the script that has been written for them is good enough. Questions race, “What if God is holding back from us?” “What if there is something greater and bigger and more fulfilling out there from which God is keeping us?” “What would it be like to be God?”
Soon, the thirst for answers that is fueled by doubt in the script that has been written overpowers everything else, and the woman reaches out to eat the fruit. Matter-of-factly, she plucks one for herself and for her husband. And they both eat.
There was no thunder, no lightning, just the crunching of teeth on fruit and the sweet taste of juice in the mouth. They did not die. But their eyes were opened. They were naked and ashamed.
Lost now was their freedom, the safety and security that the original script and stage had provided for them. No longer were the man and woman going to be able to move about and feel invulnerable and protected. Fear became real. And in an attempt to replace what they had lost, the man and woman fashioned for themselves feeble and weak bits of protection. Attempting to feel safe again, attempting to trust again, Adam and Eve cover themselves with fig leaves.
The Director is watching from his place off stage. God sees the whole event happen. God’s beloved characters have gone off script. They have begun to improvise, and they are not very good at it. The story line has changed. It has changed so much that a new narrative arc must be written. Adam and Eve will no longer be able to inhabit the stage that God built for them.
Everyone gets new boundaries, new lines, and new directions. The serpent, for his part, will be the lowest of all creatures. He will be looked upon by humanity with fear and loathing. For the woman, it will now be much harder to fulfill the command to be fruitful and multiply. She will be able to do so, but it will come with much pain and danger. The man, who was given charge over the beasts of the field and the plants of the earth, who was charged with tilling the land so that it will produce fruit, will now have to work much harder. Work will no longer be easy. It will be a chore, and there will be forces that work against the man.
Finally, God removes the couple from the Garden. They are now too much like God to be trusted. The serpent was right, Adam and Eve did not die. But they did become like God, knowing good and evil. Whatever that means. So, they must go. Banished. These first Characters will now get a chance to live the new storyline they have written for themselves.
Their original story, the Story of God has been rejected. Terrible things will happen. Terrible things always happen when we reject God’s story for our lives. Adam and Eve exchanged trust and rest, safety and security for knowledge. They exchanged the freedom of nakedness for the restriction of clothing.
But, thanks be to God, the Story does not end here with shame and nakedness. We are not left to die vulnerable and unprotected. No, God through the Holy Spirit is patiently working with these characters that have gone off script. The rest of the Story, from here on out, is the Story of God’s loving work to draw us back to the script and storyline that God has written for us. We will be stubborn characters. Sometimes we will follow God’s directions, other times we will not. But always God is there, gently saying to us, “This is the way, walk in it.”
Hey Jason, great post as always. I would argue that though Adam and Eve didn't "die" when they ate of the fruit, that death did enter the equation (or scene). Before everything was safe and secure, but now the separation from God, or death, entered the world. That is then when the next act comes in with Christ coming into the world to destroy death and restore our relationship.
ReplyDelete