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Summer, 2017, is history.
As the cool weather arrives, we reach for our sweaters. We need to cover ourselves more than we did
during the summer because we prefer comfort to shivering! It is fascinating to consider that the time
that Adam and Eve spent in the Garden of Eden was much the same story.
We read in Genesis 2 that Adam and Eve were naked and
unashamed. It was apparently an ideal
climate, and beyond that, our ancestors had nothing to hide. They enjoyed the earth that God had created
for them to govern, and they enjoyed unhindered relationship. It was summer, so to speak, in the Garden.
And then came the fall.
Goaded by the serpent, Eve took the forbidden fruit, ate, and shared it
with Adam. Then they discovered they
were naked. The shame of their
nakedness—not a change of season—prompted them to sew fig leaves together to
cover themselves. Fall had come to the
Garden.
When the LORD God came looking for them, they hid out of
fear, and in the subsequent conversation, we see them desperately grasping for
moral covering: When God confronted Adam about his eating the forbidden fruit,
Adam promptly blamed Eve and God for
giving Eve to him. Predictably, Eve
blamed the serpent. Now they were living
in fear, shame, and broken relationship; and there was no place to hide.
I have to think that fig leaves sewn together did not make
for particularly comfortable, effective, or durable clothing. And before He evicted Adam and Eve from the
Garden, God kindly made them clothing out of animal skins. The animal-lover in me cringes that animals
had to die because Adam and Eve sinned. While
their new clothes undoubtedly made it easier and more comfortable for them to
live and work in a newly fallen and hostile world, the real problem remained: Adam
and Eve had no moral covering, no means to cover their sin and sinfulness. Fear, shame, and broken relationship become
the warp and woof of the Genesis narrative as we read about Cain murdering
Abel, Lamech’s boasting, Jacob’s deceptions, and Joseph’s brothers selling him
into slavery.
Ancient history is filled with the saga of sin compounded by
sinners trying to cover up, justify, or blame others, or to “make up” for their
wrongdoing by becoming do-gooders. And
the struggle continues to this day. How
many times do we excuse our bad behavior by saying we were tired, stressed, or
someone “made” us angry. Or we choose an
alternate route and decide to “make up” for our sin by being law keepers who
obey but do not love. The “sin clothes”
we construct to deny, minimize, or mask our sin are no more comfortable,
effective, or durable than the fig leaves used by Adam and Eve.
So here we are. Dead
in our sins and trespasses, as the Apostle Paul would say. Our own devices of excuses and/or
self-righteousness are no better than fig leaves. But thanks be to God! Once again, the loving, merciful, God has
provided. This time, it was not the
blood of animals that was shed in order to clothe mankind; rather, it was the
blood of God’s own Son that was shed to cover our sin. Fear and shame, as well as the Law that would
condemn us have become obsolete, as the author of Hebrews reminds us.
What are we to do with this glorious truth? We have two choices. We can give in to our sin nature and take the
fig leaf route to dealing with our sin; or we can accept Christ’s covering and
no longer hide in our fear and shame.
While it is, I hope, obvious that the second path is the
wiser of the two, it may be less obvious that it is vital to walk it in the
company of God’s people. Try as we might
to avoid it, our sin nature provokes us to hurt one another, and the more we
work together, the more our sin is exposed.
That is a good thing! It is as
our sin is exposed that we have the opportunity to confess and repent and
experience forgiveness, love, mercy and grace.
And those blessings are even greater than a sweater in October.
