December 19 is the commemoration of Adam and Eve. I found this marvelous treatment of the day in a blog called Concordia and Koinonia by Pastor Mark Schroeder. Check it out sometime. Here is Pastor Schroeder’s insights slightly edited and a study of Lucas Cranach’s woodcut.
The woodcut above is interesting for this detail: please note the one woman has a serpent’s tail which Cranach is telling us is the devil who has become a woman, but not just any woman. It has become Eve. Eve is being tempted by Eve, her own image. The image of man and woman, created in the image of God is powerful but it was to reflect the Lord’s love and dominion but not him or her self as a self-existing all attractive being.
The Oxford Dictionary’s Word of the Year, 2013, went to “selfie”: a photo you take of yourself with your camera or phone, with or without others. The sin from the origin is selfie sin. Cranach caught the 2013 Word of the Year which was not even in his vocabulary. We live in a society in thralldom to the self, from “Self” magazine to a talk show host who’s magazine only features her every time to the worshiping the stars. Selfies seeks only the mirror of the camera’s eye. The Lord sees us with His eye and it both searches heart and soul from Whom no secrets are hid. His eye cries over the death of the body and soul (see John 11:35 ). As the Christmas hymn states it well: Christ was born for this. Born into a world in which everyone is looking out for #1 in sheer adulation, He came a mewling baby in a feeding trough, the Son of God. He came to be last and least of all, the First became last. The Coming One who brought us the reign of God. Colossians 1:
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.
There is only one Word of the year, for this year and every year since the beginning of the new creation: Jesus.
Lord God, heavenly Father, You created Adam in Your image and gave him Eve as his helpmate, and after their fall into sin, You promised them a Savior who would crush the devil’s might. By Your mercy, number us among those who have come out of the great tribulation with the seal of the living God on our foreheads and whose robes have been made white in the blood of the Lamb; through Jesus Christ, our Lord.
check out concordiakoinonia.com/
