The usual retelling of the Genesis 3 story goes something like this... God made the world, told Adam and Eve not to eat from the tree of knowledge and they did. God banishes them forever because... well we don't get an exact answer why but often the subtext I hear, when the story is retold, is that Adam and Eve are kicked out because God (like a horrible headmaster) likes to have petty rules and if you break just one then that's it, busted for life. Nadia Bolz-Weber asks what if Adam and Eve went to God and said we've stuffed up and we're sorry. Would God have still said that's it, you're out forever? I can't help but think that just doesn't sit right. Maybe the break with God was not because of Adam and Eve's inability to keep a somewhat arbitrary rule but because they were unable to be honest with God and take responsibility about what happened. Like a five year old with chocolate all over their face they insisted someone else did it. Relationships survive mistakes, stuff ups and broken promises all the time. What they do not survive is dishonesty. We have all felt that sense of shame that stops us telling the whole truth. There can be overwhelming urge to lie about a situation rather than tell the truth so we can appear to be (like God) perfect. But when we do lie, no matter how well we do it we feel some sense of shame. Maybe this is why Adam and Eve felt exposed (naked) and ashamed.
3 comments:
In the logic of the story, the reason for the banishment part of God's response is, in Gen 3:22, to prevent Adam and Eve from also taking of the tree of life and living forever in their sinful state.
What you're saying about refusing to own up is a good point; echoes Cain's behaviour soon after.
Bare faced lies - never a good start. I don't think it would be possible to meet someone whose never lied though.
Humanity versus perfection.
Chris
You have a good insight here, and Nathan's comment is right too. But I don't think God's instruction was arbitrary, although it is often portrayed that way. Gen 2 says the tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil were in the centre of the garden. In the symbolism of the story this seems to mean that somehow both were in the centre of God's purposes. His command ("eat, eat, but not from that one") was therefore about some fundamental aspect of the way the world was/is made. There's a deep mystery here, but it's not about trees.
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