Renewal In Christ Mission

THE EXPULSION

Once again we have entered into the season of the Great Lent, a time of great self examination and reflection about the direction of one’s life. The Armenian Apostolic Church designates the first Sunday as the “Day of Good Living” whereby we remember how God intended life to be as it was with our original parents, Adam and Eve before the advent of sin. Without sin, they were able to life life at its optimum. But the harsh reality of sin is acknowledged the second Sunday, which is known as the Sunday of the Expulsion. The text in which we read about the expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise is Genesis chapter 3, verses 17-24. This passage records the tragic results of their broken relationship with God. We read in verses 21-24:

The Lord made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. And the Lord God said, The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever".

So the Lord banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken, After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the Tree of Life.

This is not a good ending to a story which had a beautiful beginning. Today, in a most dramatic way, we are reminded of the loss of man's happiness due to his disobedience, and so, we refer this day as the Sunday of Expulsion. Expulsion is not an attractive word by any means - it is a harsh and cruel word referring to a forced exit. It refers to an action which was not desired - it was neither desired by God nor by Adam and Eve. It was an unpleasant action made necessary by the presence of sin. This is dramatically symbolized in the Armenian Church by closing off the altar.

When Adam and Eve sinned, they violated the trust God had in them. They deliberately misused the trust and understanding between them and God. God’s heart was broken. God had placed them in a garden with everything they could possibly want or need, but commanded them not to eat the fruit of a certain tree. That tree was called the Tree of Knowledge, of good and evil. The Serpent, that is, Satan, played with their minds and convinced them that by not allowing them to eat of that tree, God was holding something good from them. They were convinced that by disobeying God, they would find happiness and fulfillment.

You see, if we don't really understand this story, it sounds like God is being very unreasonable by expelling them just for eating a certain fruit they should not have. It seems like such a petty incident. But it is infinitely much more. This is the account of broken hearts, of a loving relationship gone bad. It is the tragic result of a beautiful relationship which was knowingly broken. It is the account of the terrible feeling of fear entering for the first time into the lives of our first ancestors.

This passage is the original Paradise Lost story.

Have you ever been betrayed by a friend you thought you could trust? Or worse, I pray that you never experience the infidelity of your spouse. After the violation of trust, things can never be the same again. It’s like an expensive china vase which gets broken - you could glue it back together again, but it will never be the same. This is a very sad realization. The original joy and innocence is forever lost. This is the real issue of the fall of Adam and Eve and their consequent expulsion from Paradise.

Adam and Eve are not here any more, but the story remains. This is now your story and my story. Just like Adam and Eve, we think that by breaking God’s Law or what we know to be His will, that we will be better off, that we will be much happier, but in the end, we realize that God was right and we were wrong. We violated His love and trust. You may think that by stealing this or that, or by lying, or that by fornicating with a certain person, you will be happy, even though God has warned you not to do it. Your sins and my sins have caused God's heart to be broken. Our Church Fathers understood the great magnitude of this story very well and they went to great lengths to impress this upon the minds of the church members. During the forty days of Lent, the altar is covered with the curtain. Our vision of God's splendor and our relationship with Him is symbolically cut off because of our sins. A black drape hangs on the curtain symbolizing a tragic event.

During the Lenten period we are to realize our sins and vices and short comings, and to ask God to heal us and to remove the stain of sin from our lives. We are not to point accusing fingers to others and to see other people's faults, but during this period we are to see our own spiritual nakedness and shame, our own sins by which we have misused the freedom with which God entrusted us. This is a time to make amends with God and to heal our broken hearts. We are to pray. And by fasting, we show God that we mean business, that we are truly sorry for violating His trust and that we want to get back into a right relationship with Him. This is what Lent is all about.

Now back to the word expulsion. As stated, it is not a pleasant word, but thanks be to God, He has made expulsion into something beautiful. By expelling Adam and Eve from Paradise, God did something beautiful and good. If you notice in verse 22 of the above passage, God did not want them to remain in the Garden so that they would not eat of another tree which is known as the Tree of Life.

In other words, God did not want Adam and Eve to live forever in the state of sin, in separation from Him. And so out of love and mercy, God drove them out of the Garden until He could heal the broken relationship between Him and Adam and Eve. The magnitude of sin was so great, that it took God a long time to solve the problem, and it cost Him the tremendously high price of His own beloved Son, Jesus Christ’s life. The punishment for the sins of Adam and Eve and consequently your sins, was paid for by the precious blood of Jesus Christ. Your sins and my sins not only broke God's heart and our relationship with Him, but it also cost the life of His Son.

People who refuse to kneel before the altar and confess their sins and humbly accept forgiveness of their sins simply have no comprehension of the tragedy of sinful acts, and will never experience God's forgiveness.

It is so interesting to realize after they sinned, that although Adam and Eve covered their nakedness and shame with leaves, God made clothes for them with the skins of animals. The blood of innocent animals was shed in order to cover their guilt and shame. The great lesson to be learned from this is that Adam and Eve tried to cover up their sin by their own efforts as symbolized by the leaves, but that was not adequate. God's solution was to cover up their spiritual shame by the shedding of innocent blood, which foreshadowed Jesus Christ Who died for our sins. There is a tremendously high price to be paid for sin and we simply cannot take sin lightly.

God's innocent Son, Jesus Christ, died and paid for your sins at the cost of His blood and life. Those who do not realize the heavy price of sin and those who choose not to accept God's gift of forgiveness through His Son, will have to pay for their sins with their own lives for all eternity in the fire of hell.

So then, although Expulsion Sunday brings our attention to a tragic event, it also reveals the wonderful solution which is to be found in God's unfathomable love and indescribable mercy. The story does not have to have a sad ending, but a most beautiful ending, filled with hope and eternal joy. However, you are the one who will choose what kind of ending the story of Expulsion Sunday will have. Will you accept God's love and turn to Him, or will you reject His offer to heal the broken relationship?