But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not die; for God knows that when you eat of [the tree of the knowledge of good and evil] your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” — Genesis 3:4
(“Be careful what you wish for...”)
Our first reading this morning reminded me of a similar story I heard not too long ago. A man was walking on the beach when he came across a lamp. He had seen Aladdin, so he knew what to do. He grabbed the lamp and rubbed it. Sure enough, out popped a Genie.
I am here to grant you one wish,
said the Genie.
ONE?!?! What happened to three?
asked the man.
Things are tight in the post–dot–com world. Global concerns about the economy and homeland security have made things for cutbacks everywhere.
So you get to pick: you can either be incredibly rich, incredibly wise, or incredibly popular?”
One wish and I don’t even get to make up my own?
Take it or leave it,
said the modern–day Genie.
The man thought for a few moments while the Genie waited impatiently. Time’s up, make your decision!
Ok, ok,
said the man, It’s a tough choice, but I would like to be incredibly wise.
The Genie spoke his magical incantation, and granted the man his wish. A cloud of smoke surrounded the man.
When it cleared, the Genie asked him, So what have you learned with this new–found wisdom?
The man replied, I realized that I should have taken the money.
It wasn’t exactly a Genie, but...
In the same way, Adam and Eve found themselves walking in the garden when they came across a tree – the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Instead of a Genie, they came across a serpent.
The serpent offered them one wish – that they would be like God, knowing good and evil. That temptation led them to ignore God’s words:
So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate. (Genesis 3:6)
And what did they learn with their new–found wisdom?
Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves. (Genesis 3:7)
The first thing that they learned with their knowledge of good and evil is that they had done evil.
Their eyes were opened, and their hearts were saddened.
(How should we read these early verses in Genesis?)
Now any conversation about the early chapters of Genesis immediately raises the question about the literal nature of the text. There are two usual responses:
1) I had a good friend in college who spent much of his free time reading and researching about how we could understand Genesis literally.
2) I have known other folks who wanted to ignore the whole book because they dismissed it as a metaphor.
But instead of those two, I would like to offer a third option. When we talk about the Garden of Eden this morning, consider it at the very least as a parable of the human condition. Even if there was no literal Adam and Eve, we can still recognize ourselves in their actions.
They saw something that they wanted. Not just the fruit, but what it promised them: They would be like God.
Can you hear their conversation, their thoughts before they ate?
How wonderful it would be to be like God!
Knowing good and evil, that can't be bad, right? It’s knowledge.
It’s what I want, after all; and don’t I have the right?
But they were blind to what they were giving up. In thinking about what they wanted, they forgot or ignored what they had been told. And they were tempted.
What they did not realize was that if they did not eat the fruit – if they obeyed God – then they would know only good. Think about it. If they were tempted with knowing good and evil, what did they know before?
Did they know “good” before they ate of the fruit? Well they walked together with God and each other. The work they did was fruitful. They were at peace with all of creation, with God, and with each other.
And so began a pattern of behavior that continues still today. We work so hard at shedding our innocence and then work so hard to get it back. We are fooled by those forces in the world (and inside of ourselves) that tell us that we must be wise in the ways of the world. You can hear it in the things that we say. People are almost embarrassed to say that they have lived “sheltered” lives. They say it as if they have missed out on something, usually because of their lack of knowledge of something trivial in life.
But think of the word that we are so quick to dismiss: “sheltered.” To life a sheltered life means that you had someone who loved you enough to want to protect you from the evils that the world can offer.
Adam and Even led a “sheltered” life before they ate of the fruit. It was a blessing, a blessing that God kept them from evil. And yet they were so quick to shed their innocence and I ask you:
Don’t we do exactly the same thing?
(Before we cast any stones...)
Don’t we seek so hard to get rid of the image that we might be innocent? A recent pop–song had that line as its refrain, “I’m not that innocent.” Message? Just because I'm young doesn't mean I don’t know the ways of the world. What a sad, sad message for our young people to want to convey.
Adam and Eve did not want to seem innocent. And so they ate the fruit. And what did eating the fruit gain them? “Their eyes were opened, and they were ashamed.” They knew evil. They saw evil in themselves, in what they had done.
This may be the first time that marketing and advertising were misused to confuse the “consumer.” Had the serpent come to them and said “Would you like to know what evil is?” they would have said no. But the serpent said, “You will be like God” and their eyes widened and they said “Really? That would be great!”
But they were misled as we have often been misled. Far too early in life we lose our innocence as well, and many people spend a great deal of their life either bitter about the decisions that they have made, or desperately seeking to get it back.
They expected it to be a wonderful moment, but it was not. They felt shame. They felt vulnerable. They felt scared. They had – for the first time in history – that feeling in the pit of their stomach when they realized they had done something wrong. They had never experienced that before. But now their eyes were opened.
They covered themselves from each other. When God came back to the garden later they hid themselves. Yes, their eyes were opened, but they had ignored the cost.
Before we cast the first stone against them, don’t we also have to admit that there are times in our lives when we have done the same? When we have done what we knew we should not do for no other reason than we wanted to do it?
We, like Adam and Eve, are aware of our sinfulness. We cannot un—bite the apple.
We cannot reclaim that innocence, we cannot undo our sin.
But there is one who can.
From Paul’s letter to the Romans:
For just as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.” (Romans 5:19)
Jesus Christ came and gave us a new beginning. He was the New Adam who came into the world, and he had a second chance to undo what had been done.
(Think about the comparison for a moment.)
Adam and Even were alone in the Garden of Eden
Jesus was alone in the desert.
Adam and Eve were tempted by the serpent.
Jesus was tempted by the devil.
Adam and Eve were tempted to eat the fruit.
Jesus was tempted to turn the stone into bread he could eat.
The serpent said that they would not die if they ate the fruit.
The devil told Jesus he would not die if he threw himself down from the temple.
The serpent said that they could be like God.
The devil told Jesus that He could rule over the earth.
If Adam was the first man who failed to be faithful to God’s command, then Jesus was a new Adam who did not fail.
Jesus did not reject innocence. Jesus did not reject God’s law. Jesus did not embrace sin. Jesus did not do what He wanted to do just because He wanted to do it.
Jesus went to the cross to die for us and for our salvation. He went willingly, He went of his own will, even though He prayed that God might spare His life.
Jesus did not despair for human life. He did not hold humanity with disdain. He loved life as He loved us.
He died that we might have a second chance.
He died that we might know that when we fall we can rise again with the strength of God’s grace to lift us up.
He died that we might work to spread God’s grace and use our lives as tools and weapons against the serpent, against the devil, against that which is evil in the world.
Jesus came into the world with His eyes opened, and His heart filled with love for you and me. He never gave up on us, though we were sinners. God never gives up on us, though we still sin. He is the God of the second chances, who forgives seventy–times–seven times. He is the Father who welcomes the Prodigal sons and daughters back home after they have left to shed their innocence and learn the ways of the world.
He is the God who saw us as worth dying for, and who sent His Son to show us how to life, how to die, and how to be forever part of the kingdom of God through the resurrection and life everlasting.
Let us pray that we might experience God’s love and grace anew this day.
Amen.
Preached February 17, 2002
First Presbyterian Church
Gainesville, Florida
(Download this sermon as a zipped PDF file.)