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Eve – Session One
In this first session adapted from the book, Forty Women, we look at Eve and the theme of shame.
Jesus’ treatment of women was revolutionary. He welcomed and commended women others overlooked and scorned. Bleeding women. Poor women. Physically disabled women. Notoriously sinful women. Single women. Older women. Foreign women. Prostitutes. Jesus saw and loved women as beings made in the image of God.
In the book, Forty Women, Ros Clarke helps us to see the women of the Bible with fresh eyes. She walks us through a full spectrum of stories and invites us to full-orbed vision of each woman she presents.
This series looks at four such women starting with this session and Eve.
18 The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”
19 Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. 20 So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds in the sky and all the wild animals.
But for Adam[a] no suitable helper was found. 21 So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs[b] and then closed up the place with flesh. 22 Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib[c] he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.
23 The man said,
“This is now bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called ‘woman,’
for she was taken out of man.”24 That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.
25 Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.
Eve is the first woman. Eve, meaning “life,” referring to her role in the procreation of the human race. Eve became Adam’s companion, his helper, the one who would complete him and share equally in his responsibility for the creation. She, too, was made in God’s image, displaying a portion of the characteristics of God. Together. With Eve, God brought human relationship, friendship, companionship, and marriage into the world.
Eve’s only knowledge had come from God and Adam. At that point, she was pure in heart, created in the image of God. She and Adam were naked but not ashamed.
From and early age girls can learn to be ashamed of who they are, their form, puberty, having periods, infertility; the list goes on! Perhaps we need to question where this comes from. Reading the account in Genesis about Eve we can clearly see it did not come from God. In the Garden both Adam and Eve were naked and did not feel shame until the serpent reared its head.
Creator God,
who made Adam and Eve without sin and without shame, teach us not to be ashamed of our bodies. We praise you that your Son, our Saviour Jesus Christ was not ashamed to take on human flesh, nor to endure the cross, scorning its shame on our behalf. Though the world is now full of pain, fear and shame, thank you that, because of him, we can have the confidence and joy of Eve.
Amen.
