The First Saints & Sinners
Ss. Adam and Eve represent the totality of God’s work in creation. He created them on the sixth day, making them male and female. While we often conceptualize these individuals as the original sinners, they are (in true Lutheran fashion!) the original saints. In fact they are the very first saints to walk the earth! The Church’s commemoration of their day on December 19th reminds us of this duality and ties into the Advent season, pointing us to the coming of Christ.
The first man, called Adam (whose name is connected with the Hebrew word ha-adamah or “the ground”), and the first woman, called Eve (whose name means “life” or “living”), were formed by God. God took the dust of the earth to make Adam, breathing into him the breath of life. Eve was then formed from the rib of Adam and given to him as a gift from the Lord.
These “first parents” lived with God in paradise, and he gave them all they could need or want. However, the serpent deceived Eve to take the one thing that God had not given them to enjoy. This was fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 3:1-7). With Eve’s action sin was brought into the world. From these parents we have inherited our original sin and, like them, have come to know life separated from God. Adam and Eve knew they did wrong and were ashamed from the moment they sinned, hiding from each other and God and covering themselves with fig leaves.
When God asked Adam what happened, he blamed everyone but himself. When God asked Eve, she blamed the serpent. But God had the last word and in his loving response proclaimed judgment and promise. He foretold the coming of a man—a second Adam—who would defeat sin, death, and the devil to save both our first parents and all of us from sin. Adam and Eve went on to experience the pain God predicted: pain in childbearing and child-rearing and pain in toil and work. They went on to live outside paradise, seeing firsthand what a sinful world looks like.
A Brief History
This story draws numerous parallels between Adam & Eve and Christ’s coming and foretells Jesus’ birth and salvation story. Jesus, the second Adam, triumphs over the same temptations that caused the first Adam to fall into sin. He was sent to the earth, incarnate by the Holy Spirit, to become the manifestation of God’s promise and to redeem mankind (Romans 5:12-21). While Adam was our “first father,” through Christ we are born again. While Adam broke the first covenant with God, Jesus established another. There is one comparison after another to be made; even St. Paul refers to Jesus as the “second Adam” (1 Corinthians 15:45-49).
Keeping this parallel in mind, Christmas Eve, December 24th, was always the traditional feast day for Adam and Eve. Although Adam and Eve were never officially recognized as saints by the early Church, they were honored as unofficial saints throughout the Middle Ages. Their day on December 24th and its direct ties to the Feast of the Nativity were evident to all in the Church, folding together the entire Biblical narrative from start to finish. Sometime after the sixteenth century and the Reformation, the feast was discontinued on this date as it was increasingly overshadowed by the secular world’s preparations for Christmas.
While Lutherans still celebrate Ss. Adam and Eve in December, especially drawing upon the aforementioned connections during the Advent season, moving the date to the 19th allows for Christmas Eve to have a more firm focus on Christ. However, by still highlighting this day towards the end of the Advent season, the meaning of the season comes full circle, reminding us of the reason for the Incarnation and highlighting how Jesus came to earth in order to reconcile us with God.
Collect
O Almighty God, who hast knit together Thine elect in one communion and fellowship in the mystical body of Thy Son Jesus Christ, our Lord: grant us grace so to follow Thy blessed saints in all virtuous and godly living, that we may come to the unspeakable joys which Thou hast prepared for those who unfeignedly love Thee; through the same, Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost: ever one God, world without end. Amen.
Lessons
Resources
Issues, Etc. interview with the Rev. Dr. Tom Egger on Adam and Eve
Issues, Etc. interview with the Rev. Dr. Thomas Winger on Adam and Eve Throughout Scripture
Propers found in Daily Divine Service Book: A Lutheran Daily Missal, edited by the Rev. Heath Curtis
References:
1. Treasury of Daily Prayer. Concordia Publishing House. 2008.
2. Weedon, William. Celebrating the Saints. Concordia Publishing House. 2016.
Images:
1. God Forbidding Adam and Eve to Eat from the Tree of Knowledge, Heinrich Aldegrever, Germany, 1540.
2. The Garden of Eden with the Creation of Eve, Jan Brueghel the Younger, The Netherlands, ca. 1630s.
3. The Garden of Eden with the Fall of Man, Peter Paul Rubens & Jan Brueghel the Elder, The Netherlands, c. 1615.
