Where Jesus' Story Begins (blog)
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning." (John 1:1-2 NIV) Is it just me, or do you also think that John repeated himself in that second verse because he was marveling at this revelation, and wanting us to see the wonder of it too? Jesus (the Word) was with God and was God... in the beginning! But where do we find the beginning of Jesus' story? Our Savior isn't mentioned by name in Genesis. But Jesus' ultimate defeat of the devil, through his death on the Cross for the sins of all people, is foreshadowed in God's curse on that crafty serpent who tempted Eve, deceiving her (and Adam) by leading them to doubt their Creator's instruction and to do what He had forbidden, injecting the deadly poison of sin into their lives and into all of Creation: "...I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head and you will strike his heel." (Genesis 3:15) Our own sad stories of broken relationships, of marred beauty and of meaningless destruction only make sense when we hold them up to the story of The Fall, where we, the created, were separated from God, the Creator, eternally. It is right there, in Genesis (chapter 3), that we, Eve's offspring, begin to see Jesus. We see him in the details of how that original sin brought death into our human story, details which, if we have been immersed in the larger story from the beginning (Genesis 1-2), strike us as all the more tragic because they follow what God reveals to us of his loving attention to detail in bringing the world and us to life! Who could make things right again? Who could possibly redeem us in God's eyes and reconcile us to Him? Who could restore us in an eternal relationship with our Holy Creator? Do you see our Savior's story coming to light in these questions? If you aren't seeing Jesus yet, continue reading in Genesis... about how Cain killed his brother Abel in a jealous rage (chapter 4), about "how great man's wickedness on the earth" became, and how "every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time", which filled God's heart "with pain" so that He destroyed His own creation, destroyed the people made in His own image (1:26), flooding the earth and sparing only Noah and those with him on the ark (chapters 6-8)... about the resurgent pride and selfish ambition of the people who went on to build the Tower of Babel (11:1-9). Are you seeing Jesus now, seeing our desperate need for him? It's there, right there in the beginning, that we first see him, in our need for him. Do you see how our sin was injected into Jesus' story, in the very beginning?