Broken Mirrors

This week we talked about The Fall.  The story of Adam and Eve, a sneaky talking serpent, and the result of mistrusting and disobeying God.  Read Genesis 3 for the full story...I can wait...seriously, grab a Bible and read...it's way better than anything I have to say.

Ok, good, now that we're all on the same page with how Adam and Eve got banished from the Garden of Eden and became separated from their Creator, we can continue on to why this matters for us.  Other than being called "The Fall," this part of history is often referred to the original sin.  Let's take a quick look at what that means because sin has become a constant part of our story and our language.  The English word "sin," is found in both the Old Testament and the New Testament.  It refers to acts of rebellion or resistance to the Lord...often it refers to the action of disobeying God's commands, but also includes thoughts that resist God, or placing trust in anything other than the Lord.  The word used in the New Testament is ἁμαρτία (harmatia in English).  This would have been understood by early Christians as sin, as actions and thoughts that disobey God's word, but the word harmatia itself derives from an archery term meaning "to miss the mark."

What was the bulls-eye that Adam and Eve missed?  God's plan for His creation was unity with Him.  It was walking in the Garden together in a harmonious, loving relationship.  Adam and Eve, however, believed a serpent instead of trusting in God.  They believed that God did not have their best interests at heart when He told them not to eat the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge...they did not believe that God was acting out of Love for them...they trusted in the serpent's version of reality over God's truth.  They missed the mark of trust and obedience when they ate of the fruit.

So two people made a huge mistake thousands and thousands of years ago...why does it affect us?  Adam and Eve were banished from the Garden of Eden.  They were separated from God, separated from the Tree of Life...they were spiritually dead.  We do the same thing as Adam and Eve.  We trust in other voices more than God's.  We fall into the enemy's manipulation of God's word...believing that money, success, friends, looks, and the way others view us will fill us.  We believe that we have things under control, and that God's plan isn't best.  This leaves us separated...spiritually dead.  We are unable to eat of the Tree of Life because we are filling ourselves up with all sorts of things that lead us to death...we seek sin over righteousness, death over life.  We're created in God's image, just like Adam and Eve, but our sin, rebellion, and lack of trust in God causes breaks and cracks.  We become a poor reflect of God, just like a broken mirror.  We broke.

We got ourselves into this...but we're dead...we can't give ourselves life.  God is the only source of true life.  We cannot bring life to our dead spirits, no matter how hard we try.  God has to do it.  And praise be to God, because God is Love...He loves us in our broken mess of a state.  His love is bigger than our brokenness.  And His Son enters our story...