"When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband who was with her and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened and they realized they were naked...and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden" (Genesis 3:6-8)
"...because you have done this...your desire will be for your husband and he will rule over you."
(Genesis 3:16b)
The woman...
Interesting how her broken relationship with the Lord God now also means broken relationship with the man. She no longer trusts him fully; she questions everything about him. Why had he not stopped her from the enemy's deception? He was right there!
The intimacy she once had with the Lord God is shattered, so much so that she and the man had hidden from Him in shame and fear. She realizes that the intimacy she also shared with the man - being naked and unashamed, open and vulnerable, trusting each other - was shattered too. How is it that her broken relationship with the Lord God is now mirrored in her broken relationship with the man? Oh, if she had only not eaten from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. If she had only turned away from the lies of the enemy! If only the man had intervened!
Fruit from the Tree.
Like Adam and Eve, we too have eaten the fruit of that tree, the fruit that brings shame. We feel naked, vulnerable and exposed in ways we were never meant to feel. Like Adam and Eve we too cover ourselves with "fig leaves" to avoid true intimacy in our relationships with each other, and we hide from the Lord God to avoid true intimacy with Him.
Where shame is birthed, fear quickly follows. And down through the ages the enemy continues to use these debilitating emotions - shame and fear - to keep us hiding from God and from each other.
Fruit from the Tree.
There is another Tree.
In Jesus' day the Cross was an instrument of shame. Crucifixion was not just a way to cause someone a slow and painful death, although have no doubt about it, it was a crushing way to die. But it was also a very public way of shaming a person. In crucifixion you were left out in the open as your life slowly drained out of you. You were completely exposed, naked, powerless, without dignity. The Cross was a symbol of shame so horrific that people would not even speak the word out loud.
Think of it! Jesus, God in human flesh, hanging on a Cross. He who clothed the heavens in all their glory...now naked and exposed. He who covered Adam and Eve with animal skins...now uncovered and vulnerable. Why would God choose an instrument of such shame to redeem us?
Because He knew the only way to take shame from us was to transfer it onto Himself.
"For God made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." (2Cor.5:21)
"We keep our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith who, for the joy set before Him, endured the Cross, scorning its shame...
...scorning its shame...
and sat down at the right hand of God." (Hebrews 12:2)
