Covenants
Son of Man
a meditation on Genesis 2-4
“I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your seed and her seed” – our Father speaking to the devil
The first story ends with the description "it was very good." But is that our experience of the world today? At times, yes; other times, no. And so, something must have happened which recognized that while at some point it was all very good, very good doesn't describe the current state of the world today. So, what does describe the state of the world today? Well, in the marvelous efficiency of the bible, we get our answers of what went wrong in the second story of the bible, the story of Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden.
In the first part of the story of Paradise, we quickly revisit the story of the creation of man. We hear God forms man of dust from the ground and breathes into his nostrils the breath of life so that man becomes a living soul. There is so much to unpack there, but at a minimum, we again see God's breath (aka Spirit), this time not hovering over the waters, but now being breathed into man to make what was formerly only the dust of the earth into a living soul. We are animated by God. God takes the chemicals of the universe and transforms them into a living being - body and soul. Saint Paul summarizes the trajectory of mankind, "The first Adam became a living soul; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit."
In these first stories the Holy Spirit is being shown hovering over the waters and being breathed into man. The third person of the trinity is associated with both water and air. The pattern evident across many of the covenants, as waters of baptism bring forth life and we also see the breath of God animate our lives - water and air, the basic building blocks of human life. God - our foundation for life. The spirit of God is breathed into us to create a living being; the Holy Spirit dwells in believers to create an everlasting home. The first breath creates a living soul, the last breath leads to an everlasting life.
And of course, in this case of God’s holy breath, there is even a little more in how the pattern of the old stories is fulfilled and seen in the New Covenant. When Christ resurrects, Saint John is very careful to note Christ’s divine behaviors. Saint John records Jesus breathed on the apostles and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if your retain the sins of any, they are retained.”
We not only get a glimpse of the trinity as the Spirit pours forth from Christ, but we also see here an example of the dual nature of Christ in how the New Testament writers perceive Jesus. He acts not only like the perfect son of God, that is the perfect man and the last Adam, but also as God himself. Christ breathing air onto his disciples is both a trinitarian mystery and a mystery with respect to the dual nature of Christ, both of which are concealed in these early stories of scripture. Both of which are a New Covenant fulfillment of the first stories of the Old Covenant.
For the Church, this story contains hidden confirmation of Christ's divinity, not just his humanity as the son of Man. In one sense, he is the last Adam (Adam being the Hebrew word for mankind), so he is the last Man. And this last Man does the very work given to God alone, that is giving the breath of life to his followers (and God’s children) so that they are born anew in him. So, the last Man has divine behaviors, and not divine in the sense of simply being like God but divine in the sense of being God. God alone has the ability, let alone authority, to impart his holy breath, his Holy Spirit, and as we will see later, God alone has the authority to forgive sin. These are divine behaviors from the eternal son of Man, the last Adam that belong to him alone, of course, unless he bestows and passes his authority to his followers. Which is what we see Jesus doing in the sacred stories.
This combo of Christ’s dual nature found itself throughout his life and ministry. Saint John records that the Baptist and other followers identify Jesus as the son of God while Jesus refers to himself as the son of Man. But there is a long history to the phrase son of Man, some of the prophets realizing by the light of the Holy Spirit the need to restore mankind via a perfect Man and incarnate God. Jesus even quotes this truth at his trial, being sentenced to die by confirming his dual nature as fully Man and fully God. At his trial he quotes a vision from the prophet Daniel which foresees the dual nature of Christ,
“I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man and he came to the ancient of days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.”
And so the first son of God is not the last, nor the first son of Man the last; but there is a last son of Man who is the first to open heaven for all mankind. His dominion never ends; his kingdom is everlasting. Let’s continue the first story of Man in Genesis to see some of the early mysteries of Jesus hidden therein that will be revealed in the last Man of the Old Covenant, the first Man of the New Covenant, the One who brings forth the new heavens and the new earth.
The Last Adam
From describing the creation of man, the second story of Genesis goes on to describe two trees in the garden of Eden (Eden means ‘Paradise’) - the tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Also described is the water flowing out of Eden which becomes four important rivers. And we are given the primordial command to man, "You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die." Adam receives this divine command to abstain from the forbidden tree while he is alone with God. The woman, his wife, has yet to enter the story.
Soon after Adam receives the life-saving command to avoid death, we have the first time in the sacred stories something is mentioned that is not good, "it is not good that man should be alone. I will make a helper fit for him." Before God fulfills this promise to make a helper, Man is given the work of naming the creatures. God creates and entrusts his son to name. But in naming all the animals there was still not found a "helper fit for him." God’s promise takes patience for its fulfillment to appear, and there is no helper that can help Man fulfill the great command to come, the command of increase, the word to “be fruitful and multiply.” So, in what is possibly the first and greatest scriptural hint of the passion of our Christ, God gets to work by putting Adam in a deep sleep, a type of life-giving death, another prophecy of the crucifixion of our King.
"So the Lord caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh; and the rib which the LORD God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man.”
In Adam’s deep sleep, God fashions a bride, and upon waking, the man breaks into poetry and song,
“This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.”
Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked, and were not ashamed.
Likewise, when Christ, our last Adam, is on the cross, the Father fashions a bride from his side, the Church. And Saint Paul interprets this story of Man and Woman in the light of Christ in his letter to the Ephesians. In describing the glories of marriage, he briefly quotes the passage above and ends with his commentary,
“For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This is a great mystery, and I mean in reference to Christ and the Church."
Saint Paul quotes the story in Genesis and says it is a great mystery about Jesus and his bride, the Church.
In like manner, Saint John poetically confirms the fulfillment of this ancient prophecy of Christ and his bride from Genesis when he records his version of the story of Christ on the Cross. He writes,
"But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. But one of the soldiers pierces his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water."
We have yet to cover the details and importance in the covenants of blood and water, that is a thread we will see developed more in the covenants to come, so here we won't go into fulness of detail on that point, but what we can cover at this stage is to repeat what we have mentioned, just like the first Adam was put into a deep sleep so that God could fashion a bride from his son’s side, this first story of marriage finds its greater fulfillment when the last Adam (Christ) takes his sleep (of death) and has a bride (the Church) fashioned from his side. Hence, Saint Paul’s commentary, "This is a great mystery, and I mean in reference to Christ and the Church." The Church, like Eve, is fashioned from the side of our bridegroom, while he enters into his sleep of death. This was foretold in the Old, revealed in the New.
There is so much depth in the ancient stories, and we will continue to see how they clearly point to their fulfillment in Christ and his bride. For all the romantics out there, it is beautiful to see that man's first poetry was uttered at the sight of his bride. Talk about love at first sight! And the Holy Spirit notes, they were "naked and unashamed." At this point, the man and woman are in a state of holiness, a state of obedience, a state of perfection.
As we continue to consider the story of the first encounter between the first Man and the first Woman in the first Paradise, it may be helpful to understand a few items about interpreting sacred scripture.
The Church teaches there are two primary senses of scripture critical to interpretation. One is literal, the second is spiritual. And within the spiritual sense of interpreting scripture, there are 3 types of interpretation - allegorical (how to see Christ), moral (how to apply the teachings to our own lives), and anagogical (a fancy word for ultimate ends, the ultimate destiny of humanity).
Our interpretation always starts with the literal, understanding the author's intention in crafting the story and taking it at face value. Once we understand the literal, we can search by the light of the holy Spirit for the spiritual meaning.
And in the sacred stories, it is helpful that names have meaning. And often, the meaning of names unlocks deeper layers to the ancient stories. And so, the story of Adam can also be translated as the story of man, the story of mankind, or the story of earth. And so, Adam becomes a story about man, mankind, and earth. It is a story about a particular person and a universal type of man, a story that shares what happened on earth between God and man, and what happens for eternity with Christ and the Church. Understanding this makes the ancient stories more beautiful, for it hints at God's greater glory and purpose, more than just teaching history, but telling us about eternity. Also, it helps understand the origins and point of view of some of the New Testament commentaries, like Saint Paul's letter to the Corinthians,
"The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. As was the man of dust, so are those who are of the dust; and as is the man of heaven, so are those who are of heaven. Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven."
Knowing the meaning of names helps unlock layers of interpretation of our sacred stories. The New Testament writers reveal for us these methods that the Church teaches so we learn to see hidden in Adam the story of Jesus. Truly, the New is concealed in the Old; the Old is revealed in the New.
The teachings of the Apostles helps us see what the Holy Spirit illuminates. In the case of the New Testament, we have various commentaries of the spiritual meaning of this story about Man and Wife.
Christ teaches his disciples an example of the moral takeaway, which includes the teaching of the unbreakable bond of marriage. In Matthew's gospel, the Pharisees create tests for Jesus and one of them is about the lawfulness of divorce. Christ responds by quoting the story of Man and Wife from Genesis,
"Have you not read that he who made them from the beginning made them male and female, and he said, 'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one'? So they are no longer two but one. What therefore God has joined together, let no man put asunder."
Jesus uses this story from Genesis to extract the moral teaching that in the New Covenant there is no divorce. In the New Covenant, we have unbreakable bonds of marriage. It was written as such in the beginning, and in the New Covenant we fulfill the original intentions. This is something the Church maintains thousands of years later, even when society decrees otherwise and allows divorce, the Church maintains the teachings critical for the New Covenant - vows are meant to be kept. Therefore, a sacramental marriage is unbreakable, for we are made in the image of the man of heaven. And he keeps his vows to his bride, the Church. So do we.
And so, when we look for the spiritual meaning, Christ offers a moral interpretation. We saw Saint Paul give us an allegorical interpretation, for the story represents the great mystery of Christ and the Church. And for an anagogical interpretation, we can look to Saint John for an example that unlocks mankind's ultimate destiny. For his Book of Revelation reads,
And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And i heard a great voice from the throne saying “behOld the dwelling of God is with men. He will dwell with them and they shall be his people, and God Himself will be with them; he will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall their be mourning nor crying nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away.”
We will be naked and unashamed before our bridegroom as he has conquered for us the last enemy - sin and death. These former things will have passed away, the New has come.
Our ultimate destiny is blessed union in eternity where we are naked and unashamed before the great lover of our souls, our bridegroom. God's children will experience eternal union with the blessed triune God where we rejoice, "I have found the one whom my soul loves." The children of God are made into the bride of Christ and dwell eternally in communion with the Holy Spirit.
These are simply three examples of the types of spiritual meanings drawn from this very beautiful and brief story of Man and Woman in the garden of Paradise. There are more.
A New Eve
For we saw Jesus is the last Adam, his bride is the Church. But who is the last Woman? Who is the New Eve? Thankfully, the New Testament writers make this explicit as well. We only need look to Saint John's record of the wedding of Cana, for Jesus himself identifies the New Eve.
Let us remember the background and cultural context, Adam has authority to name the creatures. And for his wedding, God causes him to fall under a deep sleep. When he wakes, he sees his bride fashioned from his side. And he bursts out into song, the first lines of poetry uttered by man was about his wife, the glorious work of his creator, the capstone of creation. The first Man sings, "This at last is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called “Woman,” for she was taken out of Man."
Not only did Adam sing to his bride, but he named her “Woman.”
Nowadays, man might not name his wife at their wedding, but he does give her his name, for we are acting like our first father in giving our wife a name. Importantly from the scriptural point of view, Adam names his wife Woman, and so the name Woman represents the peak of sinless creation. Before sin entered the world, male and female they were created and Woman was her name.
And at Christ's first wedding, on the third day, to end the first week of John's gospel while at the wedding of Cana, Jesus performs a miracle. He's simply doing similar work as his eternal Father who performed a miracle at the first wedding of mankind to end the first week of creation. At the wedding of Cana, when the mother of Jesus comes to him to let him know there is no wine, Jesus lets us know who his mom is, she is “Woman.” She is the New Eve. Let us revisit the sacred scripture,
On the third day there was a marriage at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there; Jesus also was invited to the marriage, with his disciples. When the wine failed, the mother of Jesus said to him, "they have no wine." And Jesus said to her, "O Woman, what have you to do with me? My hour has not yet come." His mother said to the servants, "Do whatever he tells you."
The next time Jesus repeats the name of his mother, Woman, is when he is on the cross and his hour is here, the moment he says, "It is finished," just before his bride is fashioned from his side.
Jesus calls her Woman because it is a sign of the utmost respect he has for his mother. In the mind of an ancient Hebrew, there could be no better name for a female. Woman represents the peak of sinless humanity, the capstone of God's great creation, when all was very good, she was called “Woman.” Jesus the sinless Adam is telling us who the sinless Woman is, it is his mother, our New Eve.
When we wonder where Church doctrines come from, teachings like the trinity, the dual nature of Christ, or in this recent case, the immaculate conception of Mary or her status as the New Eve, well, they come from divine revelation. They come from Jesus. And many of them are hidden in plain sight, not only in God's works but also God's word, especially the early sacred stories for humanity. Truly, the New is in the Old, concealed; the Old is in the New, revealed.
And the Church is entrusted with the revelation of the divine message of the good news of Jesus Christ. And her mission is to keep that revelation in its fullness, not cutting corners but upholding the fullness of truth, including hard to fathom teachings like the trinity or the dual nature of Christ or the New Eve’s immaculate conception as the sinless Woman of the New Covenant.
And all this may be beautiful, but it is yet to explain what went wrong. This comes from the second part of the story of Paradise (Eden).
The Fall
In short, Man and Woman ate from the forbidden tree. We disobeyed our Creator. Now, it is very normal to be perplexed by the tree of knowledge of good and evil. For, how can God, who is perfect and knows not evil, create a tree of the knowledge of good and evil? But as many others have noted, evil is not the opposite of good, evil is the absence of good. In fact, more specifically, evil is the absence of God. And that's what happened.
We sought to love the creation without the Creator. And in doing so, we brought evil into the world.
A good Designer can create everything and have it be good. But, if the Designer decides to offer freedom of use, the risk is people will misuse his design. It’s not that the design was flawed, only the Designer decides not to control the users but instead gives them freedom. It is almost unfathomable, but God’s love is so deep for his children that he opened himself up to the risk that we would do evil.
God does not create evil. But as creator, as designer, if people use his design in ways they were not intended for, well, then evil is able to occur. That is how evil comes into existence in a world created very good. In fact, due to God's gift of freedom, evil is not only a possibility but a reality. And so God has knowledge of good and evil because he knows the right way, he knows his design and his purpose. He knows the divine will. And it is us, his children, to learn the right way and obey. But where we disobey the good and perfect God, where we heed not his commands, evil is brought onto the earth.
And when Man and Woman doubted God, and mankind fell into sin, that is the moment humanity came to know evil. When our first father disobeyed our Designer, we came to know evil, and not know it intellectually like God might have a concept of what evil is because he knows his design and his purposes, but we came to know evil intimately for we became aligned and one with evil because we disregard His good and perfect purposes. In short, sons of God behaving like sons of the enemy.
In paradise, we had one command, and didn't uphold it. But that one command was humanity's break from God's perfect design. And so sin entered the world. And death with it. And that wasn't good, but God has a plan for his beloved children.
But let us remember it is not just humans and God in this story. We have an eternal enemy of our souls, the devil and all aligned with him. And this second part of the second story in Genesis describes the state of the world today. For the perfection of man and woman being "naked and unashamed" is interrupted with the cruel interaction between the Devil and the Woman, between the serpent and the perfection of God's creation between Satan and God’s children. And man failed to do his job which is to care fully for God's home and God’s daughter, the capstone of creation. Man did not protect his wife.
"Now the serpent was more subtle than any other wild creature that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God say, 'You shall not eat of any tree of the garden'?" And the woman said to the serpent, "we may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden; but God said, 'You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree of which is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.'" But the serpent said to the woman, "You will not die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons."
Possibly, some of the most important lines of all of scripture until the coming of Christ, for it perfectly describes what is wrong with the world today. God has given us a command, aligned perfectly with his will and design, but there is an enemy of our souls who is asking us to doubt the will of God our Heavenly Father. There is a pull in our hearts to disobey God’s divine command.
In the case of the Woman in Paradise, before she falls into disobedience, she adds to God's command. So many things to say on this interchange, but a few to note are that at some point, for some reason, the Woman has added to the command. She adds the "neither shall you touch it" which has become a human teaching, for the divine revelation wasn't about touch but eating. But she did rightly perceive the consequence, that death would be the consequence.
Another point to consider, the devil helped mankind doubt God with what amounted to nothing, like Shakespeare's villains. He simply planted an idea in the Woman's mind that was true and deceitful in the same breath. “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” As God's children, made in the image and likeness of God, mankind was already like God. In fact, eating of the forbidden fruit made us less like God, for we marred the living images of God. We came to be closer to being sons of the devil who follow not God’s command. As Isaiah the prophet wrote about our experience in Paradise, "we made a covenant with death."
But our God is not just designer, but perfect Father. And he had a plan to lovingly restore his children.
And the plan starts with confession and proceeds to penance. First he confronts Adam, for Adam is responsible as protector as well as the one who receives the command from God before his bride was fashioned from his side. But man, weakened by sin, now hides from God, fears his heavenly Father, and struggles with the truth. When asked to give an accounting of his behavior, man responds to God, "The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree and I ate." Man confirms he ate, but almost passively blames God for the helper He gave Adam, in a weak attempt to deflect responsibility.
Being a good Father, God asks the woman her side of the story, and she says, "the serpent beguiled me, and I ate." At hearing their confessions, God promises salvation for his children and gives them their penance. In our modern world, we might recoil at the thought of penance, but penance is a gift to God's children. Penance is our prescription for healing our souls. Penance is God’s loving mercy as divine physician.
Next our Father tells the serpent among other things,
"I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel."
The woman and her seed would be at everlasting enmity with the devil. And while the devil might hurt us, the woman and her seed will be forever victorious. But for the sons of Man, there will remain a choice for our life, in whose image do we want to be made into, the image of God or the image of the enemy? A son of Man or a child of the devil?
For the rest of salvation history the people of God would be looking for the woman and her seed. This is one reason the Queen Mother in the Judean kingdom was always so important, the ancient hebrews were looking for the woman and her seed. Hence Saint Matthew let's us know, "Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child of the Holy Spirit." Behold, the woman and her seed.
And we already discussed Saint John's record of Jesus' testimony, calling his own mother, "Woman." Behold, the woman and her seed.
Likewise, Saint Luke chronicles the fulfillment of the woman and her seed. For Saint Luke gives us perhaps a little more detail on the virgin from Nazareth. And whereas the woman in Eden is visited by Satan, a fallen angel who beguiles her, the woman in Nazareth is visited by the Angel Gabriel, a heavenly angel, who announces God's plan of salvation. And whereas the woman in Eden doubted the word of God, the woman in Nazareth heeds the angel's message and immaculately bears the word of God in her womb. And whereas the woman in Eden would eat of the forbidden tree, the woman in Nazareth would give bread of life to the world. And whereas, with sadness and shame we hear the woman in Paradise's confession about the bad angel, "the serpent beguiled me and I ate," with everlasting joy we hear and heed the virgin's word to the good angel, "let it be to me according to thy word." Truly, the handmaid of the Lord. Behold, the woman and her seed.
Our heavenly Father had a plan of love hidden in the stories of old, that slowly unfolds his mercy for his children. When he gives the consequence to their sin to the woman, and then the man, we have so many amazing fulfillments in Jesus, that it is impossible that even all the books of the world could be written to accurately unveil the beauty of God's design. Only the brevity of poetry allows us to express even a small part of the infinite commentary we could offer on this early story. But we shall continue with a couple more important items sparked by the story of Paradise and fulfilled in the story of Jesus, especially for those living in the fullness of the New Covenant.
Once God has revealed the consequences to the woman and man, which include pain in labor (childbirth and work), the lordship of man, a cursing of the ground which will yield thorn and thistle amidst our food, and the return to dust we will experience in death, the sacred storyteller confirms the Woman is given a new name. For the scripture writer follows the penance for mankind with the following verses, "The man called his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all living. And the LORD God made for Adam and his wife garments of skins, and clothed them." Again, in sinless creation she is called Woman, but now the woman under the effects of sin was named Eve. We look to a last Adam and a New Eve to undo the effects of sin and model obedience to God.
And in that first story of mankind, there was sin and consequence, and there was a death that day. There was a sacrifice.
An animal laid down his life, most likely a lamb, for Adam and Eve needed a covering for their skin due to the impact of sin. They need to be clothed with garments of animal skins. A life was offered to God for the sin of mankind. What man thought could be hidden by plants and leaves in fact required the death of an innocent lamb. And even in this first story of sin and consequence, we see sacrifice for sin play an important role. We will come to see how the sacrifice of an innocent lamb would not fully cover for the sin of man, a better sacrifice would one day be needed, but the nature of that sacrifice that fulfills will be drawn out and explained in the stories and covenants to come to the sons of Man. But one key attribute is mentioned to conclude this first story of sin. And it involves the curious mention of the tree of life.
Tree of Life
After God shares the consequences with man and woman, God says the curious words,
“Behold, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil; and now, lest he put forth his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever” - therefore the Lord God sent him forth form the garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man; and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.
Man is cast east of Eden for cannot eat of the tree of life in a state of sin. From a Catholic perspective, once again, we have an incredible insight about the need to approach the eucharist in a state of holiness. Hence, Saint Paul writes to the Corinthians,
"Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a man examine himself, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup."
An unworthy manner is in a state of sin. A state of grace is the proper manner by which to establish from the tree of life.
What is important for us to consider is that in the oldest story of man we have the hope of eating of the tree of life in a state of grace so that we could live forever. We can't live forever in a state of sin, but we can live forever in a state of obedience. In God's grace, we cannot live forever in enmity with God. For who can withstand an eternity of being set against God, the creator of all that is good and beautiful and true? And just like the ancient Hebrews were looking for the "woman and her seed," they were also looking for the tree of life, the one guarded by the cherubim, the one which we are barred from until a final and proper atonement for sin happens which allows us to one day again eat of the tree of life. To eat in purity and holiness and obedience to God. In that state, a state full of grace, we can live forever with God.
As God would have it, Jesus came to his home telling his people about this tree. But it did not make sense to them. But every gospel writer includes Christ's testimony about this tree. Only, for some reason, like many of the scriptures, the full beauty of the teaching is veiled. But for those with ears to hear the gospel writers, we hear them tell us about the passion of our Lord, and we see that the prophecy of the first Adam and the tree of life is fulfilled in the conclusion of the last supper of the last Adam and his cross of death. Yes, the fulfillment of the prophecy of the tree of life in paradise is found in the crucifixion of the New Covenant on Calvary. Christ's cross of death is the eternal and true tree of life.
Hence, from the cross he says "it is finished," for he has given his flesh for his bride on the tree of life he plants in the garden of Calvary. The cross of death bears the fruit of eternal life. And Christ's bride, fashioned from his side, is able to eat of the tree of life; yes from the tree that appears to the rest of the world as an instrument of death. The cross of Christ is in fact dead wood transformed into an instrument of eternal life and salvation and is indeed our true tree of life.
And so, the sin of the first covenant of mankind is annulled by the last covenant with Christ.
For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death.
Christ has put an end to sin; he has destroyed death. And all who die in Christ simply fall asleep to be awaken to the resurrection of eternal life.
It may seem miraculous because it is. And while the details of fulfillment may have been hidden to God's children, unknown at the time of the ancient stories being written down, they were revealed by the light of the holy Spirit in the New Covenant. These prophecies and promises would be veiled until the resurrection of our Lord. For God announces his plan through the his prophets, and the holy Spirit reveals it through the teaching of his apostles. And even nature, God's work, testifies to the true resurrection. Seeds die into the earth to only bloom again as plants. Humans lay down to sleep only to be awaken to a new day. Planting, sleeping, reaping and awaking are all entwined into our daily life as a testament to our creator and the passion of our Lord. What we do daily, he does for eternity.
Moreover, the first story centered on man and wife and their fall from paradise contains the shadows of the 7 sacraments of the New Covenant. Baptism, is not needed to begin the story as they are in a state of innocence. But have no fear, baptism will be made clear very soon in an upcoming story. Confirmation is seen through God’s breath animating man. The Eucharist is seen in the tree of life that they can no longer consume once they fall and enter into a state of sin. Confession is seen once they sin and how the Father restores them in his presence, though they will be cast east of Eden. Holy marriage is seen in the sleep and resurrection of Adam once he lays his eyes on the wife fashioned from his side. The holy orders are seen in the examples of Adam as caretaker of Eden as well as our heavenly Father overseeing creation and caring for his children. Finally, last rites and healing are needed now that death enters into the world. Glimmers of the seven sacraments of the holy Church witnessed and observed in this first story about mankind’s fall from paradise. Truly, the New is hidden in the Old; the Old is revealed in the New.
Before we end this discussion on the original covenant with mankind and our entering into covenant with death, we should consider the aftermath. The next story of scripture has not only death but murder. Not only is death introduced into humanity, but the sons of Adam commit murder and bring forth an early death. And worse, murder between brothers.
So, we will not only return to the dust of the earth, but the next story shows that brother sends brother to meet his maker in untimely death. The story of the fall of mankind ends with the story of the sons of Adam, the sons of Man, and this story ends with one brother murdering another. That is the story of Cain and Abel. That is the story of a possessed man jealous of his holy brother. What we will consider for now is how this story is centered not simply on sin but also sacrifice, another prophecy of the passion of our Lord.
Man Possessed
The story of Cain (name meaning: possession) and Abel (breath, vapor, or vanity) is a warning of the choice before mankind, to become possessed by the lies of the devil and become sons of the devil, or to live holy lives by God’s breath and be children of God, offering right worship and sacrifice. Will we be sons of the devil, the father of lies? Or will we be sons of God, the father and originator of all that is beautiful, all that is good, all that is true? O man, choose wisely.
Breath, a perfect symbol of our brief time on earth, is the translated name of one of the holy sons of Adam. And among other things, the story of Cain and Abel is a veiled commentary on proper worship. For Abel, the keep of sheep, offers the firstlings of his flock and of their fat portions and "the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell."
Cain offered an offering of the fruit of the ground, the cursed ground due to man’s sin, an offering which requires little sacrifice. Abel's offering was the best portions of his sacrifice to God. He offered God life. The writer of Hebrews records,
By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he received approval as righteous, God bearing witness by accepting his gifts; he died, but through his faith he is still speaking.
Jesus while decrying the work of the false religionists of his time, invoked the memory of Able and warned, "upon you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of innocent Abel to the blood of Zechariah, the son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar."
The murder of Abel was our first example of martyrdom, murdered by his brother for offering an acceptable sacrifice than Cain. The murder of Able, shortly of the fall of mankind, is an example of the passion of Christ, a holy martyrdom.
As the fulfillment of the Story of Cain and Abel, Christ himself would be offered up by his own brothers and kinsmen, the priests of his time, offering a pure and acceptable sacrifice. They had Christ sentenced to death and hung on a dead tree, little did they know the plan of salvation accomplished through the pure offering of Christ on the cross of life. For in his pure offering, the kingdom of heaven invades earth. The true son of God restores mankind in full sonship, once again making a pure sacrifice in service to a righteous God who offers forgiveness of sins and eternal salvation to all by the work of his Son.
"For God so loved the world that he offered his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." Hence, "he came to his own home, and to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God; who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God."
And so, all the details of what went wrong in the story of the fall of mankind - the marring of the image of God and the corruption of our sonship, the inability to obey God and truly serve our heavenly Father, our fall into sin and making of the covenant with death and the devil, the sacrifice required to restore us in God’s presence, and the promise of eternal salvation to come in the woman and her seed - all these details and all these riddles are miraculously fulfilled in the passion of our Lord.
In his New Covenant, he restores us to sonship and offers the bread of life from the cross of death which is transformed into our true tree of life. In fact, the Lord's prayer has the reversal, restoration, and fulfillment of all of these themes which were seemingly lost to us in the fall into sin of mankind in paradise. For Christ re-establishes the kingdom of God, our obedience to the Father and his holy will, access to the tree of life, forgiveness of sins, and deliverance from temptation and evil. Truly, Christ restores all. Thanks be to God!
Chose Today, Life or Death
Let us end this meditation on the first covenant with man by revisiting our five considerations; let us consider the covenant in light of sin, sacrifice, salvation, sign, and sacrament.
Sin is now in the world, brought into paradise by our first parents.
As sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness to eternal life through jesus Christ our Lord.
Sacrifice is now needed. In the first instance, an animal sacrifice to clothe man as a cover for our nakedness and shame from sin. And Abel, a type of Christ, a holy innocent of God, a son of Adam, who in righteousness is martyred by his brother, a brief and hidden picture of our righteous Christ, slain by his kinsmen for the salvation of the world.
Therefore I send you prophets and wise men and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from town to town, that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of innocent Abel to the blood of Zechariah the son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the alter.
Salvation since now a savior who offers life is needed.
Then As one man’s trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one man’s act of righteousness leads to acquittal and life for all men. For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, by one man’s obedience many will be made righteous.
Sign as now we are clothed with animals skins, a covering of our sin and shame. A sacrifice is needed pointing forward to the sacrifice of Christ, the only sacrifice worthy to cover our nakedness and shame. The only sacrifice that overcomes satan, sin, and death; a lethal dose. A sacrifice by which our Christ was stripped naked and they gambled for his clothes.
For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.
Sacrament as we are bared from the tree of life until atonement for sin can be made. Yet Christ makes a sacred oath that allows us to return to the tree of life in the New Covenant,
“Truly, truly, i say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you; he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and i will raise him up at the last day.”
And so, for the sons of Man, we have two options. To become the sons of God and heed his holy commandments or to remain sons of the devil. To be a part of the holy family with the woman and her seed, or to align with the devil and evil and live under tyranny of sin and death. To live in freedom and love with God, or to suffer everlasting shame with the evil one and his demonic children. To enter God’s holy rest or enter into everlasting shame.
O man, which will you choose?
Choose wisely. And choose today.