The Commemoration of Adam and Eve, 19 December

Prayer of the Day

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.

About Today’s Commemoration:  Adam was the first man, made in the image of God and given dominion over all the earth (Genesis 1:26). Eve was the first woman, formed from one of Adam’s ribs to be his companion and helper (Genesis 2:18–24). God placed them in the Garden of Eden to take care of creation as His representatives. But they forsook God’s Word and plunged the world into sin (Genesis 3:1–7). For this disobedience, God drove them from the garden. Eve would suffer pain in childbirth and would chafe at her subjection to Adam; Adam would toil amid thorns and thistles and return to the dust of the ground. Yet God promised that the woman’s Seed would crush the serpent’s head (Genesis 3:8–24). Sin had entered God’s perfect creation and changed it until God would restore it again through Christ. Eve is the mother of the human race, while Adam is representative of all humanity and the fall, as the apostle Paul writes, “For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive” (1 Corinthians 15:22).

“Writing In the midst of paradise stands the tree of life. From this, Adam [and Eve were] driven away so that [they] would not eat of it but instead would die according to God’s judgment on account of the sin [they] committed. But the cross of Christ is the noble tree of life on which hangs the noble fruits that bring us eternal life. “No forest produces such foliage, blossoms, sprouts.” Whoever consoles himself with the precious merit of Jesus Christ shall live, even though he die. “And whoever lives and believes in Him shall never die” (John 11:26). Because of their sins, Adam [and Eve and their] children were locked out of paradise, but through the key of the holy cross, it will be opened once again to all repentant Christians. Crux Christi clavis Paradisi, that is, “The cross of Christ is the key of paradise,” says John of Damascus. To this, the fathers of the Church relate the key of the house of David, which can open so that no one can shut [Isaiah 22:22]. Let all evil spirits be defied, who would like to lock heaven to us, which the Lord Jesus opened by His cross and death.” —Valerius Herberger

The quotes above are from Concordia Publishing House. Treasury of Daily Prayer (Kindle Locations 31418-31425). Concordia Publishing House. Kindle Edition.

We are Adam.  “But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” (Gen. 3: 9).  The Lord God knew exactly where Adam, and Eve, were as they were hiding, and we cannot hide from God.  The first husband and wife had eaten of the fruit to become like God.  In Hebrew “Where are you” is one word, Ayekah. When Dad or Mom asked it sometimes, it was scary because I did something wrong: Ayekah?!  Where are you is a contemporary question and during the 60s similar questions were asked, Where are you at? (as life), or Where are you coming from?  Many times, we don’t want to tell because of shame and hurt, otherwise we would just die. We have. “For as in Adam all die…”.  We are dead in our trespasses and in the Incarnation, the birth of Jesus, the Lord has come to find Adam to save him from himself that is the self (the Old Adam), immersed in sin, death, and power of the devil.  Jesus lets himself be found in a feeding  trough and on the Cross and a thousand stops in  between and now where you are. “…so also in Christ shall all be made alive” (1 Corinthians 15:22).  His holy and whole calling is to find, for instance, read St. Luke 15. Why does He let Himself be found?  So we be found in Him.