The serpent slithers its way down the tree, the beautiful, bright fruit is plucked from the tree, a crisp bite is taken, the woman shares it with the man and the delicious juices of the knowledge of good and evil run down both of their lips. They look down in shame, the nakedness of who they are and what they have done laid bare.
This is the story of Adam and Eve, of course. It is one of the most iconic biblical images in our culture, featured in fine art, film, and the most refined genres of all the arts; shampoo commercials. It is the story that we all think we know. It is the story about humanity’s fall from grace. It is the story that describes humanity’s sin. But more than those, it describes what it means to be human. And it says, to be human is to be insecure. Before the first sin was ever committed, before the first bite was ever taken, defying the order, “you can eat of all the trees, just not that one, or you will die,” before any of that, there was insecurity. Theologian David Lose goes as far as giving it an official name, not original sin, but original insecurity.
This story of insecurity plays itself out soon after God tells the humans not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The serpent, like a cat surrounding its prey, toys with the human soul and the hole leaching of insecurity that can be found in each person’s heart. “You will not die if you eat the fruit, you are simply missing out on something,” the serpent bats at the couple as they stand there. “You are missing out on knowledge that only God has. You can have it. You can be made whole…more complete…just like God…just eat,” the snake insinuates with its slippery words.
Humans may have been made good, but this story indicates that we were not made completely whole; we are missing God. Being created is a beautiful thing, but it has one inherent problem, the very act of creation separates us from our God. We inherently have a God shaped hole that we try to fill with many things we find at hand; fruits of knowledge, intense relationships, personal accomplishments, delusions of self-sufficiency, and the things we are told will make us more complete, like good looking running shoes that will make us healthy and develop us into a stronger person. Do not believe those advertisers, I have great looking running shoes sitting in the closet and I am not healthier or stronger. They did not fill my God shaped hole.
Blaise Pascal, the seventeenth-century French philosopher, spoke of the God shaped hole, but did not speak of it in these negative terms as I have. He thought of the hole as the one thing within us that continually and inherently draws us to seek a closer relationship with God. Note: that Jesus’ very own notion of ultimate wholeness is when he abides (or lives) in you, and you live in him. You are made complete when Jesus is able to live inside. The hole is a gift that makes us yearn to be closer to God.
So, with that gift in mind, Adam and Eve then are tempted, not to sin, but to fill their God shaped hole with something other than God. Adam and Eve are tempted to think that God is not trustworthy; that God is somehow holding out.
Is this not the very thing that Jesus is tempted with in the wilderness? “If you are the Son of God, you will be given the power to make stones into bread. Prove that God will provide.” “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down and prove that God will send some angels to save you.” “I will give you all the world, all you could ever want, just worship me,” the tempter says. In other words Satan asks, “How do you know that God isn’t holding out on you? Why don’t you fill your hole with something else right here and right now? Why wait?”
You may disagree with me, but I think that most of us would do much worse than Jesus with these temptations, and would then try to cover up our naked shame with the nearest fig leaf. Though I am not going to ask you directly, I bet you could name right now what temptation you use to fill your God shaped hole. This story is about us.
Most of us think we know the end of the Adam and Eve story: Adam and Eve are punished by God with the consequences of working hard, having painful childbirths, and being kicked out of the garden forever. I would pose that this is not the most important part of the story’s end. What we fail to see when we focus on the punishment is that God does not kill them on the day they ate, as promised. God shows mercy. We also fail to see that God takes away the stupid fig leaves and sows real clothes for them to wear. God cares to their needs. And, we ultimately fail to see that God helps them to thrive in the world and build great cities. These acts of love are all in the story. Look it up for yourself. These acts are a sort of resurrection for Adam and Eve, a new life given to them by God; the God who does not forget God’s own children. Even when it appears that insecurity and death are going to win, God still triumphs; this is the promise of the cross.
Perhaps, we fail to see these good things because we are inherently insecure and cannot see good things. Perhaps, we are in too much of a rush to fill our God shaped holes with something else that we fail to allow our holes to be a gift; a gift that draws us toward God just as a baby is inherently drawn towards its loving parents.
The Adam and Eve story, in the end, is about us. We do not do any better with our temptations than Adam and Eve did with theirs; but Jesus did. Jesus remembered who he was and whose he was through all of his temptations in the wilderness, through all of his doubts in the garden, through his pain on the cross, and beyond his death into his resurrection. And, though we might not always allow Jesus to fill our God shaped holes, Jesus most certainly does not forget to keep us in him. We are in him as he rises to new life and to new possibilities.
Pray with me the words of Saint Augustine, "[God,] you have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless till they find their rest in you." May we at last find rest in you, Almighty God. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment