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Holy Week resources and reflections

God confronts sin (Sept. 30, 2018)

UNIFORM LESSON FOR September 30, 2018
Scripture passage and lesson focus: Genesis 3:8-24

The beginnings recounted in Genesis 1-2 describe good things created by God: the natural world, animals and the first human family. Genesis 3 is different. Sin intrudes in the idyllic garden.

Countless sermons, doctrines, books and works of art have offered interpretations of the fateful actions of the first human beings in the Garden of Eden. Jewish and Christian theologians have struggled to understand what is often called “the fall.” Where did evil come from? Was it Satan in the form of a very clever serpent who tricked Eve and her passive mate into disobedience?

Perhaps John Calvin was right when he wrote in his commentary on Genesis 3, “Man, after he had been deceived by Satan, revolted from his Maker, became entirely changed, and so degenerate, that the image of God, in which he had been formed was obliterated.” Many people believe that the sin of the first humans was an unmitigated disaster. I suspect that most Presbyterians would share this view.

An alternative interpretation of Genesis 3 has emerged, beginning with Irenaeus in the second century. This perspective says that the fall into sin should be seen as a first step pointing toward the incarnation and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Seen this way, the fall was a “happy fault” (felix culpa) that ultimately resulted in lifting the human race above the level of creation. Dutch Calvinist philosopher Alvin Plantinga is a recent advocate of this understanding of the fall into sin.

Genesis 3:8-11 — God encounters the first sinners

Genesis 3 opens with a very cleverly written theological discussion between the serpent and the human female. The serpent told the woman that if she ate the fruit of the tree that God had declared off limits, she would be like God “knowing good and evil.” The serpent lied. The woman, desiring to be wise, ate the attractive fruit and gave some to her mate. As a result they both recognized that they were naked and needed to cover themselves. Their innocence vanished. Commentator W. Sibley Towner wrote, “To run around unclothed is to violate a cultural taboo, there and then, here and now, and most everywhere in between.”

That is when God, out for an evening stroll in the garden, approached the offending pair. God asked the man, “Where are you?” This simple question elicited a rather defensive and self-centered explanation from the man. God confronted the man with two follow-up questions: “Who told you that you were naked?” and “Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?”

Genesis 3:12-13 — The sinners shift blame

Reluctantly admitting guilt, the man pointed his finger at his wife and said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit from the tree and I ate.” The husband implicates his wife and God as well before confessing his own sin.

God then turns to the woman and asks, “What is this that you have done?” She too deflects blame and claims that it was the serpent who tricked her into eating the forbidden fruit.

Genesis 3:14-19 — God pronounces judgment

God pronounces the harshest judgment on the serpent. Deprived of legs and condemned to move around on his belly and eat dust, the serpent is cursed more than all other animals. A profoundly adversarial relationship is established between subsequent generations produced by the serpent and the offspring of the woman.

The woman is not cursed, but she will suffer pain in childbirth. She will also be ruled over by her husband. The disobedient man is the cause of a curse on the ground that will produce thorns and thistles that necessitate hard work to wrest useful crops from the earth. The well-known summary of the human life cycle is addressed to the man and often repeated to this day when a human being dies: “You are dust, and to dust you will return.”

The reality of sin and evil despoils creation. The corrosive effects of sin can only be reversed by the saving intervention of God who sent Jesus to undo the damage of the first sinners. As Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15:22, “For as all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ.”

For discussion: How would you characterize the responses of the human beings to God’s probing questions? Do you see any parallels in recent American history? Why do you think the serpent had so much influence over the human beings? Was the fall into sin a complete tragedy or the beginning of a long learning experience for humanity?

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