"Naked Buck-Passers"*
By: Dr. Gregory S. Neal

Now the serpent was more crafty than any other wild animal that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God say, ‘You shall not eat from any tree in the garden’?" The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden; but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, nor shall you touch it, or you shall 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, who was with her, 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 loincloths for themselves.

They heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. But the LORD God called to the man, and said to him, "Where are you?" He said, "I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself." He said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?" The man said, "The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate." Then the LORD God said to the woman, "What is this that you have done?" The woman said, "The serpent tricked me, and I ate." (Genesis 3:1-13, NRSV)

***

I hate snakes.
Snakes give me the squirmy heebie-jeebies.
I don’t like ‘em
I can’t stand to be around them
When I see them, I want to go the other direction.
That’s why I have trouble getting my mind around this story.
If it had been me
And this serpent had dropped down out of the tree
To speak to me
There’d be a Greg-shaped hole in the hedge…
… in the surrounding bushes and trees
I wouldn’t have hung around to have a conversation with some slimy snake.
But not this woman …
This crazy woman acted like it was a common,
Everyday,
Hum-drum,
Run-of-the-mill experience …
She didn’t seem to be in any way phased by the idea
of chatting with the snake.
In fact, one gets the distinct impression that this kind of thing
went on all the time!
She wasn’t phased the tiniest bit!

The slimy guy slithers down out of a tree and,
Hanging there, says:
"Did God really say, ‘you must not eat from any tree in the garden?’"
BOOM
I’d be gone.
But not Eve.
No, she pipes up with:
"We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden;
but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree
that is in the middle of the garden, nor shall you touch it,
or you shall die.’ "

Is that what God said?
Let’s turn back to Chapter two and see what God actually said:

"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." (Genesis 2:16b-17 NRSV)

Oops … note what the woman did.
She ADDED to what God said.
God didn’t say anything about touching the tree
He said don’t eat of it.
He didn’t say don’t touch it
Don’t smell it
Don’t play catch with the fruit
Don’t look at it
No … God said not to eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
The woman ADDED to God’s Word.

OUCH

What practical advice can we pull from this

1. When a snake starts to talk,
DON’T hang around to have a conversation with him!
AVOID talking snakes
DON’T chat with the Devil!

2. When quoting from the Word of God
DON’T ADD to it.
It’s hard enough, as it is, to follow God’s wishes
Don’t think you know more than God
And Don’t pile on more and more requirements.

I can imagine how it happened.
I mean, if we’re not supposed to eat the fruit of the tree,
Why not be extra-careful and not even touch it!
They had the freedom to eat of any tree in the Garden
God’s only limitation on their freedom of choice
Was to not eat of a single tree.
How better to avoid eating of it than to not even touch it.
Only … that’s not the prohibition that God layed out.
God’s only word was that they were not to touch it.

They had the freedom to do whatever else they wanted.
They could run around, naked, to the heart’s content
And not be bothered at all by any care in the world.
No IRS
No jury duty
No 8 hour work days, 40+ hours a week
No Church services on Sunday morning
No pain
No sickness
No worries
No School
NOTHING but fun fun fun fun fun fun FUN!
They were totally, completely, and utterly FREE.
All they had to do was obey God and not eat of the fruit of ONE tree.

But Nooooooooo!
That was too easy!
That was too simple!
It was so simple, in fact, that it was impossible
The Temptation overcame her.

The snake’s reply is expected:
"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."
In other words:
"You can’t trust God’s motives
he doesn’t want you to eat of the tree
because THEN you’ll know the TRUTH
THEN you’ll know, for yourself, Right and Wrong
Good and Evil,
And you won’t need him anymore!"
This doubt,
This nagging doubt
Must have been rattling around in her head
And the temptation to find out what would really happen
if they ate of the tree
must have been there for a while as well
Because Scripture doesn’t say that she deliberated it too much.
It just says that she looked at the tree and 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."
In short … even though God said she they were not to eat the fruit
The doubt planted by the Serpent
The crafty little devil
Was enough to overcome the command to not eat of the tree.
"She took of its fruit and ate;
and she also gave some to her husband,
who was with her, and he ate."
Sorry, guys,
The man was THERE.
We can’t play stupid, guys.
Scripture says that her husband was with her
The idiot.
Guys, let this be a lesson to you …
DON’T listen to your women!
I’m single … I can say that.


"Then the eyes of both were opened,
and they knew that they were naked;
and they sewed fig leaves together
and made loincloths for themselves."

The force of the term "naked" here has both literal and spiritual connotations.
Not only were they physically naked …
Lacking clothing
In their birthday suits
A condition which, previosly, didn’t bother them.
But they discovered that they were spiritually naked
They discovered, when they ate of the tree,
That YES, they now knew Good and Evil
And they knew that they were Evil.
They had listened to the Evil one
And they were without covering.
Without protection.

I don’t blame them from running to hide when God shows up.

"They heard the sound of the LORD God
walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze,
and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence
of the LORD God among the trees of the garden."

Wow … picture it in your mind.
Two naughty children,
Trying to cover up their misdeed
Trying to hide from their Father
And the Father, walking around,
Like the wind blowing through the trees.
God … knowing what had happened …
Was looking for his Naked kids.
I’d have hid too.
And so would you!

God calls to them,
And I can see the man sticking his head up, from behind a hedge
And saying:
"I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked…."
I can also almost see God leaning back, crossing his arms
Tapping his foot
And saying:
"Who told you that you were naked?
I wasn’t born yesterday, you know …
Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?"
Rhetorical question, friends.
God knew
God just wanted to get a confession,
a little bit of honesty,
out of ‘em.
The ONLY way they could know they were so helpless
That they needed to hide from God
Was if they had either been told they were so naked
Or if they had seen it themselves.
And the only way they could have seen it themselves
Would be if they had eaten from the tree
Which would give them that knoweldge.

The man’s response is very predictable.
He passes the buck.
"The woman whom YOU gave me, God
… YOU gave her to me
… YOU bear a responsibility in this too, God …
… SHE gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate.
Don’t blame me, Blame her!
And … while you’re at it …
Blame yourself for giving her to me!"
Typical.

Before you get smug, ladies, note….
The woman didn’t behave any better.
She passes the buck too!
"The serpent … he played a trick on me!
You made him too crafty, God,
And he talked to me
And convinced me that I could really eat
And become smart
And nothing bad would happen.
And so I ate.
Don’t blame me….
Blame that crafty, tricky snake."

Buck-passers
A bunch of naked, frightened, sniveling
Irresponsible buck-passers.
Things haven’t changed much … have they?

Oh, we’ve gotten much better and explaining away our disobedience
We’ve gotten REAL GOOD and finding excuses for our sin
At blaming others for our failures to do God’s will.
But, in the end, we’re all just naked buck-passers,
Trying to push off on others the responsibility for our misdeeds.
Rather than take responsibility,
Owning up and saying "yep, I did it. I was wrong."
We, like the first man and woman,
Will also try to blame God,
blame others,
and blame the devil….
Rarely do we realize that WE are the responsible party
WE are the guilty ones.
WE are just naked buck-passers.

That is what this story tells us about ourselves.
We are naked buck-passers
We are easily beguiled
We sin
We run and hide
We pass the buck,
We try to blame God, others, the devil
For our sins
Long before we ever accept the blame for ourselves
Which, in the end, is where it belongs.
We are, definitely, a people in need of Grace.

Thankfully, what this story tells us about God includes a great deal of grace.
God creates
God sets limits
God searches us out when we mess up
God finds us, punishes us, then forgives us and covers us.

Note what happened:

"And the LORD God made garments of skins
for the man and for his wife,
and clothed them." (Genesis 3:21)

Their own pitiful attempts to cover themselves,
Their physical and spiritual nakedness
Wouldn’t do
And didn’t work.
So God performed the first sacrifice
To cover their nakedness.

Likewise, God performed the last,
the ultimate sacrifice
to cover all of our nakedness.

We may think that we’ve got on some real nice clothing.
We may think that the jacket and tie we have on looks great.
We may think that our Good Works earn us great brownie-points with God
But they don’t …
They’re not special.
They’re no better than crudely fashioned
perishable fig-leave loin cloths.
They’re works that will just get mushy, icky, and useless
with just a little bit of weathering.
And they don’t even cover very much of our spiritual nakedness.
But God’s covering DOES.

God sacrificed his Son
To cover our naked buck-passing bodies.
Jesus Christ died
That we might be clothed in the very best
that God had to offer.
Yes, God punished Adam and Eve
Yes, when we sin there are consequences for our actions
Yes, Adam and Eve died
And their innocence died the moment they ate of the tree.
But God still forgave,
Still covered them
Still cared for them.
And God still forgives
And God still covers
And God still cares
for you and for me, today.

Don’t be naked buck passers.
Don’t carry on conversations with slimy, icky, good-for-nothing snakes
Don’t add to God’s Word
Don’t run and hide from God when he comes looking for you.
Don’t try to pass the blame for your sins off on others.

Rather … we have the calling to realize that we’re sinners
Accept the truth, confess it to God,
And receving the glorious covering that God offers us
In Jesus Christ, his Son our Lord.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
--Amen

© 1993, Rev. Gregory S. Neal
All Rights Reserved

* Thanks to Dr. William Power, retired professor of Old Testament at Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University, for the use of his term "Naked Buck Passers" to describe the man and the woman.