Genisis 3, 1-24
Dear congregation,
Today you see a fascinating picture on the screen. The artist is called Pacino di Bonaguida. The picture was created between 1310 and 1315.
This picture reminds us of today's sermon text: the significant scene at a tree in the Garden of Eden. It is called the tree of knowledge. At the same time, the picture does not remain in the Old Testament but connects it with the story of Jesus.
Jesus' cross is also called the tree of life and is also a tree of knowledge – the knowledge of good and evil.
These are two great narratives, both of which have something to do with good and evil, with humanity and inhumanity, with redemption.
What happens in the Garden of Eden is by no means a ‘fall into sin’. No, it is redemption from paradise that makes humans autonomous. Humans give up their all-round care, including the restriction of having to obey, and choose the path to freedom. This path is arduous and difficult.
Redemption is a development.
This is also shown in the image. Jesus on the cross. The cross is a powerful image of inhumanity and evil. But from it grow hopeful branches, people who preserve their humanity. They are redeemed from evil – laboriously and with much work, they shape the world.
We will never be done with either story in our lifetime – their images and events invite us to rethink our lives.
The story of paradise makes it astonishingly clear to me that freedom and effort go hand in hand.
Oh, how easy life is when you can live shamelessly. How easy everything is when you are carefree like a child and being naked means lightness and security.
On the other hand, the small child has no awareness of good and evil: fortunately. Hopefully, the child lives in great security, without responsibility. Hopefully, it is lovingly cared for and protected. It lacks nothing – at least not in the early years.
But one day, that will not be enough for the child. Responsibility is part of being human.
One day, it will no longer be enough for humans to be safe and protected. One day, it will no longer be enough to be cared for, to know no danger, no adventure, no responsibility.
Unfortunately, the magnificent narrative in Genesis 3 is mistakenly referred to as the Fall. There is no mention of a fall or sin.
It speaks of humans going out into the world – now creation is complete: humans are clothed: God sends them into life and trusts them with effort and work. God releases humans into freedom. From then on, humans are cursed and blessed to choose between good and evil for themselves.
‘Do not touch the fruit, lest you die!’ The provision of everything includes immortality. But the serpent is clever and persuades humans to give up their immortality. The clever serpent teaches mortality. Psalm 90 takes up this theme: Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.
At the same time, God's statement that man has now become more like him is reminiscent of Psalm 8, which says that man is only a little lower than God.
Man can choose between good and evil and distinguish between them. He can recognise whether something serves life or destroys it.
Let us look at the image again: Salvation on the cross: it does not happen through the cross itself, but through the knowledge that lies on the cross. Those who experience this knowledge become a branch in this tree. A witness to life.
The cross is the second tree of knowledge, where good and evil reveal themselves.
The tree becomes a challenge for humans. It invites us to pause and ask ourselves: How do I want to live in this world?
Do I want to shamelessly exploit the world and pretend that I will live forever?
Or will I live laboriously, in great pain, but unwavering and ashamed in the face of inhumanity, as a responsible human being?
In my opinion, this story is much more about that than about God punishing and cursing his people.
God asks: Man, where are you? That is the key question. Where are you, man? Where is and where does your humanity remain? What about your choice between good and evil?
It is the question that prevents autonomous, free human beings from losing their humanity. As desirable as it is and was to be free, to live life in the real world as a man and a woman, in overcoming in coping with everyday life between family and daily routine is not paradisiacal.
I would like to draw attention once again to something in this old text that is often overlooked. In most pictures depicting Adam and Eve fleeing paradise, they are shown naked, with a fig leaf. But verse 21 says: . 21And the LORD God made coats of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.
God endows humans with freedom and with appropriate clothing.
Theologian Jürgen Ebach sees it this way:
"Adult humans are clothed; the appropriate covering of their nakedness is part of human dignity. Shamelessness is (to quote Sigmund Freud) a sign of insanity.
Preserving one's own dignity and never robbing others of theirs is the task of enlightened human beings who are responsible for their actions in the real world ‘beyond’ or, perhaps better said, ‘this side of Eden’.
Between the paradise that once was and the paradise that is yet to come (for the connection between the two lines, see Frank and Marlene Crüsemann), however, lies the real world, in which human beings, women and men, must not shirk their responsibility and must therefore answer the question again and again: ‘Man or woman, where are you?’
One last look at the picture with the cross and the branches: Jesus did not hide from God. He answered the question, ‘Man, where are you?’ clearly: ‘Here I am.’
Jesus shows us what it means to be exposed, to be deprived of freedom, to be subjected to an inhumane death by people who, when faced with the choice between good and evil, choose evil.
The cross has become a symbol for the question: Man, where are you?
This question accompanies us during Lent: Where are we? Are we part of the branches of the cross, people equipped with freedom and the firm will to cultivate and preserve this earth in a humane way, even though it is arduous and painful?
Let us use this season of Lent to rediscover our humanity.