The Suit of Leaves Albertville 2-10-08 Genesis 3:7 + 21 Rev. Michael A. Trask
Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
They sewed leaves together and made coverings for themselves. They wore leaves! What if we still did that today? Can you imagine how difficult that would be? You’d only get one or two days of wear at the most out of each leaf suit....and then the leaves, well they’d start to dry out....get kind of crispy and crackly so just to be on the safe side, you’d have to make a new one every day. It would be a rather risky way to live, I think, to use leaves for clothing. Whenever you were out in public, you’d always be wondering if all the leaves were still in place. You’d constantly be looking around, checking your suit of leaves. You’d be afraid to sit down for fear of tearing it, and high winds, Oh boy....not good. Not good. IF we still wore suits made of leaves, each day would be filled with the very definite possibility of public humiliation and shame. I think that’s probably why we don’t make our clothing out of leaves. But let’s cut Adam and Eve a little slack. They used what they had available at the moment. They weren’t able to go to JC Pennies or Kohl’s or anything like that. The whole concept of clothing was new to them; never thought about it before. They just felt an urgent need to grab something, anything to cover themselves. They didn’t care how ridiculous it looked with the leaves and all, they just wanted to hide......for they felt naked. They hadn’t felt naked before, but they felt it now. What a change! Formerly, all the animals were paraded before Adam as he chose what they’d be called; and he was not in the least bit ashamed. Formerly Adam and Eve were given authority over the earth and were told to subdue it. Formerly, the two had a certain regal quality about them because they out of all the creatures on the earth were made in the image of God! But look at ‘em now! Scurrying away into the shrubbery! Wearing shrubbery! What has happened? What’s the matter with them? They have sinned. They have sinned against their creator! They fear his wrath. And so they hide themselves away from him. It’s very similar to what the bible tells us will happen on the last day: “People will say to the mountains “hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne”. (Rev. 6:16) Hide, Hide Hide. Cover, cover, cover. That’s who they were now and as the Children of Adam and Eve that’s a big part of who we are too. We feel guilt for the sin that now has become a part of us and we’re always worried that maybe someday it will be revealed and made known. One of the most common nightmares that human beings have, is going to work or going to school without clothes....without coverings. 1000’s and 1000’s of years separated us from our original parents, and yet we still dread the same thing! We dread being exposed! And so we try to cover ourselves. Each of us, in a manner of speaking, works on his own suit of leaves. The days of our lives are spent maintaining it so that we can feel more secure about ourselves. Deep in our humanity I think we know what we’re missing; I think that somehow we recall the honor and dignity and even glory that God bestowed on us originally, we know we have lost it, and we long to recover even as scrap of it! So we make our suit of leaves to cover who we are. But there would seem to be only a limited amount of leaves! There seems to be only a limited amount of respect, dignity, and honor to go around. That’s why it can get kind of ugly among us leaf wearers. Some leaf wearers even enjoy pulling the leaves off others, somehow it makes them feel better about their own suit of leaves. What do you think is happening when people gossip about each other. Their pulling the leaves off! What do you think is happening when there’s a media frenzy around some movie star whose having personal problems? They all gather around and start plucking off leaves until the naked truth comes out.....and everybody says “yeah, we thought so, you’re not great, your a sinful, broken human being just like the rest of us!” You want to know why people can be so nasty to each other? You want to know why we can’t all just get along ‘Cause we’re wearing leaves! We are not comfortable with ourselves. We know that we are sinful. We know that we are mortal! We fear judgment! And so we’re running for cover every chance we get and if its at the expense of another person so be it. Now I’d like to read verse 21 of Genesis 3. “The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.” This is cool. The Lord understood how they felt. He knew how embarrassed and shameful they felt. And so he made some real garments to cover them. And this is a hint really. A hint of what God was planning to do in the future. He made the garments out of skin; animal skin or as we normally call it: leather. One or more of the animals died so that Adam and Eve could be covered. God did that. Are you seeing the hint of what was to come? What would unfold from this first sacrifice of animal to cover Adam and Eve would later become the whole sacrificial system in the Old Testament period. God allowed them to substitute the life of an animal in God’s judgement, and through this means through this sacrifice, God forgave their sins....God covered their sins. The Psalmist would write “Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven whose sins are covered” (Psalm 32:1) Later of course Isaiah would say “I delight greatly in the LORD; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness” (Isaiah 61:10) Do you see how cool this is getting! God the creator, the one whom we have sinned against, is willing to cloth us in such away that it covers our guilt and shame! The Garments of salvation! The Robe of Righteousness! God gives us the clothing that we need! But wait! There’s more. The Apostle Paul says “all you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourself with Christ.” (Gal. 3:27) So the Robe of Righteousness, the Clothing that we need to cover our guilt is Jesus Christ! Look at Romans 5:19 from Today’s Epistle lesson. It talks about Adam and it talks about Jesus and how Jesus came to reverse what Adam did! It says “For just as through the disobedience of the one man [Adam], the many were made sinners (naked, ashamed, leaf wearing scurrying into the wilderness sinners) so also through the obedience of the one man [Jesus] the many will be made righteous.” Jesus reversed what Adam did by living the perfect life. He was tempted in every way but did not sin. What Adam did made us feel naked and guilty and ashamed, insecure. What Jesus did, makes us feel forgiven, covered completely and secure in the Love of God. He did this by living the perfect life that we have not lived and he did this by going to the cross and being stripped naked and publically cursed in our behalf. He took our shame and guilt away when he went to the cross. Do you see the possibility of a new way of life coming out of this? Of course you do. You’ve probably had just about enough of trying to cover yourself with a suit of leaves...all the worrying and plucking and hiding and covering your tracks....a pretty lame petty way to live when you think about it. So much better is to take the garments that God has provided. You can drop all the leaf plucking games. You can be honest! Honest with yourself and honest with God! You can say “God forgive me a sinner” and he does and will for the sake of his Son Jesus. In Jesus you will grow secure in the Love of God, so secure that rather than competing with other people for leaves, you can actually love them as you were meant to. God gives us the clothing that we need in his Son Jesus! Don’t mess with the suit of leaves anymore. AMEN |
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