We have all heard the story…the big bad serpent came along
and deceived Eve, and she ate of the forbidden fruit. As if that weren’t bad
enough, she then gave the fruit to Adam, who also ate. As a result, they were
both banished from the garden of Eden, and the entire human race after them was
plunged into the black pit of imperfection. Sounds pretty simple, doesn’t it?
But there is a catch: the Biblical story tells us that Eve was deceived. She
was tricked, manipulated if you will, into an act of disobedience. Adam then
came along and ate also, but without the element of deception. Eve did not have
to deceive him as the serpent did to her, she simply handed him the fruit and
he ate it seemingly without protest. The question that begs to be asked is
clear: “Why did Adam choose to do such a destructive thing?” He could have
walked away…he could have told Eve to stay away from him as he did not want to
join her in her folly…he could have just high-tailed it the other direction and
let God deal with Eve with no input from his side….but he didn’t. He ate. In so
doing, he joined her on the path to death.
Why?
I believe there are many reasons for Adam’s actions, but
they all boil down to one basic theme. He loved her. Completely and without
limits, no holds barred. He loved her with every fiber of his being and his
actions portray a greater lesson of devotion than had ever been witnessed. Many
people say they love someone…but do they? When the chips are down and the
buffalo is standing there in the field empty, is that person who professes such
love really still there through thick and thin, through every storm, through
every sickness…through death itself, if need be? Rarely. It seems to be the
pattern of humans to nurture an invisible line within their hearts that they
will indeed refuse to cross, even for the one they profess to so deeply
cherish. Adam had no such line. When the time came for him to lay it all down
in order to stand with his woman through the mysterious darkness of death, he
stepped up to the plate, took the bat…and swung.
Sin is a destructive force. It is an archery term that
simply means “missing the mark”. It doesn’t matter how far off from the bull’s
eye an arrow may land…any variance is imperfection, termed a “sin”. Before such imperfection’s entry into the
world, the garden was a beautiful place free of pain, death, hatred, fear, all
the common negatives now associated with life on planet earth. Existence was
idyllic, peaceful, pure and lovely. There was no sin scarring the face of the
garden, the animals, the towering trees or dainty flower blooms…or Adam’s
beautiful bride. Eve was pure in her heart, and likely beautiful of form…there
is no reason to suspect God would have made her flawed. Knowing this, let’s
imagine the scene when Adam sees the effect on Eve of her disobedience. Was
there an immediate change? A visible shift, however mild, in her appearance or
her demeanor? Did fear flutter through her eyes as she realized what she had
done? Did her physical body weaken in any apparent way, or did shame become
evident on her face? Probably all of these things occurred, and more. The woman
God fashioned from Adam’s own rib stood before him marred for the first time in
human existence…no longer perfect, no longer pure, knowing pain for the first
time. What did Adam see?
I believe that what Adam saw was his lovely bride fading
before his very eyes. However slight the changes were, he noticed the effects
of sin insidiously weaving darkness through her being. It was no mystery, he
knew what God’s command had been and he knew what the result would be of Eve’s
disobedience. He had never experienced death, but I am sure that God would have
been clear as to the horrific nature of it in order to impress upon Adam the
importance of obedience. Adam knew it was too late to undo Eve’s actions…her
future was clear. Death would come to her. In that moment, he made a
choice. He chose to stand with her no
matter what, to be her protector, to never leave her to suffer alone. He ate
the fruit, sealing his own fate as well. He chose his own death rather than
allowing his bride to suffer alone.
“Now, wait just a minute”, you might say. “We don’t know
what really went through Adam’s mind, it may be that he simply used poor
judgment or was brazenly disobedient just because the fruit seemed appealing”,
you could argue, and you might be right. But that would mean that Adam was
either willfully rebellious all of a sudden, or that he was an absolute idiot
who didn’t know how to think. Neither seems very likely, as he had resided in
peace in the garden and would have had no reason to act as he did were it not
for Eve’s actions preceding his own. My
belief is that Adam was neither rebellious, nor inept. Rather, he was enmeshed
in the definition of true unity with his bride. She was indeed flesh of his
flesh and bone of his bone. They were one. He could no more allow her to die
alone apart from him than transform himself into an orange elephant. In his
eyes he would have had only one choice: to remain at her side, bound to love
her through whatever would now come.
Spartan warriors would have readily understood such a
concept. They were raised from their mother’s knee to become men of battle, men
who could face an adversary and focus on the goal of victory for the entire
army, holding his own personal safety in a secondary position. Spartans were
known for their valor and their unshakable dedication to protecting their land
and their families…and their fellow soldiers. Their training included an
exercise wherein two men were tied together back to back and then defended each
other from outside attackers. There were several points to this exercise. One
was to develop trust in their fellow soldiers even if they could not see them.
A Spartan warrior knew that his brothers in arms would defend him to the death,
would watch his vulnerable areas and “cover his back” as it were. Another point
was to develop the idea that the battle was never within ranks. Soldiers did
not fight each other; they stood united against whatever enemy approached. A
warrior’s weapons were meant for slaying the enemy; they were never intended to
be turned against a fellow soldier. The third point of such training was a very
simple concept: No retreat. A Spartan soldier’s life embraced certain
unchangeable elements: Train for battle. Engage and defeat the enemy when
attacked. Never run. Never abandon the defense of your land, your people, and
your fellow soldiers. Never leave those who are depending on you unprotected.
These were non-negotiable standards that governed the life of a Spartan
warrior.
So, back to Adam. Definitely no Spartan…or was he? In many
respects, he bore the weight of Eve’s sin even more heavily because it was not
his own. He was supposed to have protected her…he should have “had her back”
when the serpent began its stealthy attack of deception. Instead, Eve somehow
had time and space to engage the enemy on her own without the safety of a
fellow soldier guarding her back…and she blew it. Adam no doubt felt some level
of responsibility for having not been quicker on the draw, but nonetheless the
damage was already done. So now what? Adam couldn’t save Eve from her folly, he
could only watch as she handed the fruit out to him. Was there a plea in her
eyes in that simple act? Did she too know that she would soon be torn from her
beloved’s side to endure the horrible thing called “death”? Was there a moment
of imploring Adam to help her somehow? We can’t know for sure, but one thing
the story does tell us is that Adam ate. I imagine the tears rolling from her
eyes as she watched him take that fateful bite…perhaps knowing that her man was
by that very act destroying himself alongside her and joining her on the path
to whatever their doom would entail. Together. She stumbled unwisely onto a
sword that forever changed her course…he chose death by the same sword still
bathed in her blood, simply because her own wound was mortal…he knew she could
never recover.
He simply would not leave her to suffer alone.
On another note, perhaps it was not only Eve’s suffering
alone that Adam was worried about. Perhaps he preferred death with her to
remaining in the garden without her. Sometimes the thought of the person we
love leaving us is more than we can bear, even when circumstances are dire. So
while Adam may very well have been acting with steadfast devotion, he may also
have had just a shred of personal agenda at work. He may have looked around the
garden and thought, “This just won’t be Paradise without her here”, and that
thought alone may have held more pain than his human heart could handle.
Of course, all we can really know for sure is what the story
says…and it leaves much to conjecture. There are many possibilities of what may
have occurred, the thoughts that may have run through Adam’s mind, the confusion
or rebellion in Eve’s heart. We may never know the whole truth. But of one
thing I am certain: we too, like Adam, have choices. I choose to believe that
the human heart really can possess a spirit so devoted to another that even
death is not enough to sever their bond.
I choose to believe that the heart of a Spartan warrior truly does beat
within the chest of a man. I choose to believe in the good, and in the existence of a love as
powerful as Adam’s.
You taught me to breathe under water
