Iconic Encounters on the Way to the Cross: Adam and Eve

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ICONIC ENCOUNTERS ON THE WAY TO THE CROSS: ADAM AND EVE

Genesis 2:15-17, 3:1-7; Matthew 4:1-11

A sermon preached at First Presbyterian Church by Carter Lester on

March 9, 2014

Introduction: We are about to read one of the most popularized passages in the Bible. Who has not seen a cartoon or heard a joke about Adam and Eve? It may also be the most misunderstood passage in the Bible. For starters, despite what you may think, there is no “apple” here and no devil. So it is important when we read this passage closely so we hear what it actually says, and not what others have imagined it saying.

It may also be helpful to know that through the history of the church there have been two major interpretations of this passage. One interpretation has been particularly important in the Catholic and Protestant streams of Christianity, at least until more recent times. This interpretation understands that Genesis 2 and 3 is primarily a historical description of how sin entered God’s creation, with the understanding that ever sinceEden, we are all infected by sin. As children were taught in the earliest reading primer in Puritan New England: “In Adam’s fall, we sinned all.”

The other interpretation is just as old, going back at least as far back as Iranaeus and Theophilus in the second century. Historically, it has been more important in the Eastern Orthodox part of the church, although in the past century, more and more Protestant and Catholic scholars, teachers, and preachers have come to this understanding. This interpretation understands Genesis 2 and 3 to be more of a timeless description of the human condition – an interpretation aided by knowing that the Hebrew word, “adam” is the word for human being. In other words, in Adam and Eve, we do not just see someone else who lived a long ago. In them, we see ourselves.

With all that in mind, let us read Genesis 2:15-17, 3:1-7.

In Genesis 2, we are told that when God created the first human beings, God gave us four wonderful gifts. The first gift is the gift of life itself, a gift so precious and important that we are never to take it for granted and always respect it for the blessing that it is. The second gift is vocation: “the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it,” we are told. Each human being has a purpose, something we can contribute to the rest of humanity and creation. The third gift is human companionship. In the part of Genesis 2 which we did not read, God creates Eve because it is not good for Adam to be alone –and the animals are not sufficient to meet that need. We human beings were created for relationships – not just in marriage, but in community. We all need people in our lives to be what God created us to be and to enjoy life as God intends.

It is the fourth gift which is tricky: freedom. It is tricky because the freedom that God gives human beings comes with boundaries or limits. Adam and Eve are told that they may freely eat of every tree of the garden – except for one: the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And what happens should they eat of that tree? They will die, God says, and the sense of the verse is that they will be killed immediately.

Most of us may know what follows. First, a talking snake shows up. Despite popular misconceptions, the author of Genesis never says that the snake is Satan. He is simply a creature – and a “crafty” one at that. The word used to describe the snake may also be translated “clever” or “shrewd.” Like all three English words, the Hebrew words is an ambiguous word. Being crafty or clever or shrewd can be a good thing. But we have all known too people who are “too clever by half,” that is smart, but smart in a sneaky way that is always looking for an angle, always looking for an easy short-cut, always “looking out for #1.” That is the snake here in Genesis 2.

The snake suggests to Eve that God doesn’treally mean that they can’t eat of that fruit. Instead, the snake suggests that God is afraid that if Adam and Eve eat of the fruit, they will be like God, “knowing good and evil.”

Eve is convinced, and Adam, who frankly seems the weaker of the two here, follows right along. They let themselves be persuaded by the logic of the snake. They ignore the limit that God has set, rationalizing that it is a good thing to have wisdom, after all. And so they both eat of the fruit.

The consequences of their rebellion are immediate. When you continue to read Genesis 3, you find out they are both feel guilty and ashamed, try to hide their nakedness, and try to hide from God. Of course, they cannot fool God or hide from God. And when God asks them what happened, they are like young children caught with their hands in the cookie jar: “Eve made me do it,” Adams says. “The snake made me do it,” Eve says. The result of their disobedience is broken relationships – between human beings and God, between human beings and the snake and the rest of creation, and among human beings themselves. Adam and Eve are not killed, however. But the life they enjoyed is destroyed and God kicks them out of Eden.

In chapter 2, we learn that Adam and Eve have all that they need. In the Garden of Eden, they have enough food, enough drink, enough work, enough rest, enough and companionship. But in chapter 3, we learn that they do not believe it is enough. They want more. In chapter 2, they are given the gift of a God who loves them, cares for them, protects them, and gives them purpose and freedom. But in chapter 3 we learn that that is not enough either. They want more: they want to be like God, to live by their own rules and not be restrained at all by God’s limits.[1]

At the root of Adam and Eve’s problem is a lack of trust in God. What Eve seeks is a good thing – wisdom – but she does it by trying to take a shortcut,not the path given by God. Eve and Adam would rather listen to the snake and follow his crafty logic than trust and live within the boundaries set by God. What the author of this passage in Genesis is telling us is that true wisdom can only be found through humility and trust in God.

This isthe human condition. This is who we are. We are all sinners, we all fall short – and it begins about the time we become toddlers. You have probably heard the “Toddler’s Ten Rules of Possession,” the first five of which are: “if I like it, it’s mine; if it’s in my hand, it’s mine;if I can take it from you, it’s mine; if I had it a little while ago, it’s mine; and, if it’s mine, it must NEVER appear to be yours in anyway.”

There is a part of us that never leaves that toddler stage. No matter what we have, it is not enough. We think that if we only had more of something – then we would be satisfied. If only we had more friends or better grades, if we only we had nicer clothes or a bigger house, if only we had more time or more opportunities – then we would have it made, then we would be happy.

If only.. But of course, once we get whatever we think we are missing, we still do not have enough. We find contentment or satisfaction hard to come by because we always want more. We are Adam and Eve.

And like them, we resist limits and push boundaries. I am not talking here about human limits and boundaries; I am talking about God’s limits and boundaries. Pushing our limits can be a good thing as we try new things or aim our sights higher. But crossing God’s limits and boundaries is inevitably destructive because those limits and boundaries are there for a reason.

But like Adam and Eve, we do it because we want unfettered freedom, we want to do what we want when we want to do it. Children and youth push limits only to hurt themselves or go down self-destructive paths. Adults push limits and find themselves rationalizing adultery and justifying sleazy ethics. Businesses push limits and we have the economic crash of 2008.

What Genesis tells us is that we are born into a world of God’s making – not ours. There are no self-made men or women, no one who has really pulled himself up by his bootstraps. Instead, we are made by God and live in a world which God has made. Our destiny as humans “is to live in God’s world…on God’s terms”[2] – not ours. We can trust in God and respect those limits and boundaries as a gift and guide to us so that we can be blessed by our freedom. Or we can take things into our own hands, and effectively place our trust in ourselves and not in God.

This passage in Genesis warns us about the subtlety of sin. As one commentator notes, “where there is no realistic acknowledgement of our immense capacity for self-centeredness and our ability to rationalize whatever we desire, the gracious limits of God that restrain our sinfulness can be treated as if they did not greatly matter. The result is not human flourishing but the brokenness of life that issues in a flood of sin and death.”[3]

How different Jesus is when he responds to temptation in Matthew 4. And he is dealing with the real thing – “the tempter,” as the translation we heard this morning describes it – and not a mere talking snake. Right after he has been baptized and right before he begins his public ministry, Jesus is led by the Spirit into the wilderness to spend 40 days preparing for what is to come.

After 40 days of fasting, if anyone should want more, it is Jesus. He is famished, Matthew tells us, and the tempter offers him the chance to turn stones into bread. But Jesus says he has enough, and so he resists doing what the tempter wants him to do.

If anyone should live without limits, it is God’s Son, the Messiah. But when the devil takes to the top of the Temple and dares him to jump and let the angels catch him as they will surely do for God’s Son, Jesus refuses to push the limits and says, “Again it is written, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’” As one commentator notes, putting God to the test, expecting God not only to fulfill God’s promises but to do it how, when and where we expect, “dramatically reverses our relationship to God.” It puts us in charge and treats God like our servant, a magic Genie who is there to fulfill our every command. Jesus will not do that.[4]

Finally, if anyone should be able to avoid trusting in God and to take things into his own hands, it is Jesus. He is the Messiah after all. But when the devil takes Jesus to a very high mountain and shows him all the kingdoms of the world and says, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me,” Jesus says a resounding “no:” “Away with you, Satan! For it is written, ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve only Him.” Jesus will be crowned “King of kings” and “Lord” of lords, but only after taking the long journey to Jerusalem, only after suffering and dying on the cross.

And then there is this final fundamental difference between Adam and Eve and Jesus, between we human beings and the One who has come from God in love to save us. When we sin, like Adam and Eve, we are quick to rationalize and make excuses. But Jesus, who is sinless, makes no excuses. Instead he takes the blame. “He bears our sins on the cross that we might be dead to sin and alive to all that is good,”the Bible tells us. In Jesus Christ, God restores us to what was lost in Eden and frees us to do good, love well, and enjoy the life God intended at the dawn of creation.

Someone once passed on to me a cartoon from the New Yorker. In the cartoon are two wealthy tycoon types complete with double-breasted blazers and cocktails in hand. They are standing on the lawn of a magnificent estate overlooking the sea. One of them, gazing out over the water, says to the other, “Sometimes I wish someone else were Captain of my Fate and Master of my Soul.”[5]

The good news is this: Someone else is.

[1] Robert Ensign, “Eve’s Dream,”

[2] Walter Brueggemann, Genesis, Interpretation Series (Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1982), 40.

[3] Allen C. McSween, Jr., “Exegetical Perspective,” Feasting on the Word: Year A, Vol 2 (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2010), 30.

[4] Thomas G. Long, Matthew, Westminster Bible Companion Series (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1997), 39.

[5] Described by Michael Lindvall in A Geography of God (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2007), 28.