"And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed" Gen: 2:25
In the great creation epic of Genesis, we are told that the creator God made Adam and Eve and that he made them naked.
The Lord had formed the man Adam outside
of the Garden of Eden ,gave him life and placed him in the midst of this
Paradise.
"Then the Lord God formed
a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the
breath of life, and the man became a living being.
Now the Lord God had planted a
garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had
formed. The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the
ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the
middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of
good and evil.The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of
Eden to work it and take care of it". Gen: 2:7-9-15
Eve
After placing the man Adam into the Garden,
the Lord then brings forth a wife out of the
man himself and presented her to Adam.
"So the Lord God caused the man
to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s
ribs and then closed up the place with flesh. Then
the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the
man, and he brought her to the man.The man said,“This is now bone of my bonesand
flesh of my flesh;she shall be called ‘woman,’for she was taken out of
man.”That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife,
and they become one flesh.Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no
shame." (21-25)
Sin Brought Shame
Adam and Eve were then
naked together before
one another and their creator but they had no shame. There
was shame only when they both sinned by heeding the voice of Satan in the guise
of a serpent and taking and eating from the Tree of
the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
By Adam and Eve taking the prerogative of what
is "good and evil" to themselves this then altered
their relationship with one another and with God. They now had
a distorted view of God, and each other; who they were created to be, and
were always meant to be.
Their nakedness was, in their
minds something to be avoided and they attempt to cover it
by their own efforts through sewing fig leaves together.
There entered now a profound sense of shame and they are led to hide among
the foliage of the garden to avoid God himself even as he calls out
to them.
"Then the man and his wife heard the
sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of
the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the
garden. But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are
you?”"
Where Are You?
With their minds now having an altered view of
God, they now had sought to avoid him, yet, it is God who comes looking for
Adam and Eve. It is humanity, embodied in Adam, who hides from the creator.
In God interaction with them he asked them a simple yet probing question. "Where are you?" The Lord God knew where his
human children where, but he wanted them to know where they were.
Hostile in Your Minds
What Adam and Eve did, is to demonstrate
through their actions, what St. Paul tells us in his Epistle to the Church are
Colossi Greece regarding the attitude of mind which alienated humanity from our
God.
"And you, alienated as you once were and
even hostile in your minds, amidst your evil deeds,"Col:1:21
That is, all humanity, embodied in our first
parents, have had a latent hostility toward God. This hostility has manifested
in our collective and individual lives. This hostility which manifests in
different ways, including wanting to avoiding God, ignorance of God,
indifference toward God and even defiance toward God.
This hostility arises out of a distorted view
of God, which is what occurred in Adam and Eve's minds. It was their minds which
became hostile toward God, not God's toward them. God came looking for them,
even after their minds were darken toward him.
This hostility, which now has alienated humanity is found in the human mind,
in the person of Adam, which led he and Eve to hide and to cover their nakedness. This hostility has kept humanity from having a right relationship toward God and toward one
another. Adam and Eve could no longer feel right being naked before God and one
another, they hid from God and attempted through their own efforts to cover
themselves by sewing leaves together not wanting to be exposed before God.
Naked Before God
God made our first parents naked, he could
have very easily dressed them, but did not. Why? In creating humanity naked in
the persons of Adam and Eve God was showing us what it is he had intended for
us all. Our Lord wanted humanity to be naked before him, that is nothing would
be covered. Our Lord wanted a completely open relationship with his human
Children, which means, there would be nothing to separate us from he and one
another. We would all be naked before God and having no shame, recall that shame
only entered when their view of God became distorted.
"Adam and his wife were both naked, and
they felt no shame"Gen:2:25
This is not to say, that as the human family
grew over time that all would go about unclothed, that is not the case. God
himself would have provided the extended human family with the appropriate
attire. Nakedness before God is a condition of the heart, meaning that we are
all completely before him with nothing to obstruct of relationship with our God
and each other. There would be no shame.
"No creature is hidden from Him, but all
things are naked and exposed to the eyes of Him to whom we must give an
account" Heb:4:13
God Calls to Us
Adam and Eve being created naked only shows us
what is true, that our Lord sees us for what we are, yet, loves us
none-the-less. He comes and seeks us out even when we hide among the trees of
this world. That means our God is always reaching out to us knowing full well
where we are hiding.
This God has come to us in the person of his
holy Son Jesus, and comes us to beckoning to us, asking us all "where are you?" .
"He called you to this through our
gospel, that you might share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ." 2Thess:2:14
Our God wants us to see where we are,
where we are hiding from him among the trees of this world and to come out
and meet him, to feel no shame before him, to see God as he truly is, as a
loving Father who wants us to experience his unconditional love for us, in
spite of who we are or what we have done.
Through Jesus, our God has come calling us, and
in Jesus, who we meet in the Gospel message, we encounter a loving
Father who wants us and desires us to know him.
"If you have seen me you have seen the
Father" Jhn: 14:9
Clothed With Christ
Through Jesus our God has provided us
the appropriate attire that we all need, even as
he covered Adam and Eve's nakedness with the sacrifice of skins
for them.
"The Lord God made garments of
skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them" Gen: 3:21
God did this for two reasons, one to look
ahead to the sacrifice of his Son Jesus upon the Cross which takes
away all of humanities excuses from being excluded from
a relationship with God, and to eliminate the shame which Adam
and Eve were feeling, toward he and one another.
Through Jesus we have been given
the appropriate attire that we might be at ease with him having
the shame of sin covered over.
"for all of you who were baptized into
Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ" Gal: 3:27
Jesus is the garment by which we may adorn ourselves
and bring peace to our hostile minds and take away our shame.
Our God, through the proclamation of
the Gospel about and through his Holy Son Jesus, calls out to us
all. Our Lord calls us to himself into a relationship where we feel no
shame for our brokenness and failures, where we can truly stand before God
as we are knowing that he loves in spite of ourselves and he wants us to stand
naked before him with nothing to keep us apart.
Benediction: May we each and all hear the calling out to us of our God thru the Gospel and come from forth from among the trees of this world in which we have been hiding , and come forth and be clothed only in his holy Son Jesus Christ, today, tomorrow and forevermore. Amen.
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Rev. Todd Crouch, Norman, Oklahoma
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