God is love. God’s will is always to love. God’s will for me and for you is to love God and love each other. Knowing God’s will doesn’t mean that we are biblical scholars or more holy than others or that our prayers are eloquent. God’s will is made manifest in Christ. When we look to Jesus we see, in the flesh, how God wants us to live. Christ is God’s gift to humanity. God’s will is a gift. To know God’s will is to have open hands to receive it, being filled with awe that you have been given the same precious gift that hung the stars and raised the mountains. It is a gift which will raise you as well . . . but we don’t have to go deep into our story to know that not everything happens according to God’s will.
When God created the heavens and the earth God looked upon creation and said that it was good. It wasn’t perfect. It never was. But it was good. It was very good. God took man and placed him in the garden and said, “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.” Notice the language used. You may freely eat . . . you shall not eat. There is freedom in following the will of God. “You may freely eat of every tree.” Some have asked why God planted a tree in the garden from which we could not eat. It’s a fine question, and it certainly speaks to the human condition. God provided the freedom to choose out of God’s super abundance, yet we ask, “Why not that tree?” I think that God reveals to us why that single tree is not to be desired—God knew that we could not follow God’s will without community. Let me explain.
Immediately following the command not to eat from a single, set apart tree, God says to himself, “It is not good that the man should be alone.” It is the first time that God pronounces something to be “not good.” Isolation and loneliness and extreme solitude is not good, which is why there is only one tree from which God commanded us not to eat. God separates it and shows humanity physically what God’s will is. The forbidden tree is isolated, apart from God’s abundance. It is not good that the man should be alone, so God created woman. Community is born out of God’s goodness and desire that we not be alone. Being in community is God’s gift which reminds us that God’s will is not only about me or you, but me and you. Jean Vanier in his remarkable book, Community and Growth, writes, “Community is the place where the power of the ego is revealed and where it is called to die so that people become one body and give much life. Jesus said that ‘unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit’” (John 12:24). God separates out the tree from which we shall not eat, and the man who was alone is given community, and it is good. It is very good.
Mark Twain once said, “It’s not the parts of the Bible I don’t understand, it’s the parts I do understand that scare me.” God’s will is clear, and yet it’s not enough for us. The serpent asks the woman, “Did God say, ‘You shall not eat from any tree in the garden’?” The woman replied, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden; but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, nor shall you touch it, or you shall die.’” God’s command is not enough. Humanity felt the need to add to it— “nor shall you touch it,” the woman replies. This gives the serpent an opportunity to plant seeds of illusion. “You will not die, you will become like God, knowing good and evil.” Now humanity’s eyes have lost focus. God’s will begins to unravel. The woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that the tree was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her (by the way, some folks conveniently forget that Adam was there as well) and he ate and their eyes were opened and they knew that they were naked.
It all sounds good enough. The tree was good for food. The tree was a delight to the eyes. The tree was to be desired to make one wise. What is so wrong with nourishment and delight and the desire for wisdom? Nothing, except that it is no longer God who is good, but the tree. The tree is good—three times over, once forgetting the Father, once forgetting the Son, and once forgetting the Spirit. I’ve mentioned this before, but the problem with sin is that it’s half right at best. Before God spoke of the tree, God called to the man and the woman and said, “Be fruitful and multiply.” Sin is half right. It’s great at multiplying, but it is never fruitful. It is a cancer of sorts because it is fruitless multiplication. There is nothing wrong with seeking the goodness of food, but at what cost. “If you are the Son of God, turn these stones into bread.” “Man does not live by bread alone.” There is nothing wrong with our eyes being filled with delight, but at whose expense? David peered over the walls and saw that Bathseba was very beautiful. There’s nothing wrong with the desire for wisdom, but at what price? Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? “Why do you call me good?” Jesus replies. “Only God is good.” Having the knowledge of good and evil is not the same as following. James Howell writes, “We may voice a holy intention: “I ought to pray more. I ought to read the Bible. I ought to volunteer. I ought to go on a diet.” But “ought” doesn’t get us anywhere. The first Christians were accused of turning the world upside down! God’s will is not simply what is better than our “oughtness.” God’s name is not “I Ought,” but “I Am.”
God’s will is something holy and subversive. It is the grain of sand upsetting the machinery of the world. Jesus compares the Kingdom of God to a mustard seed, a treasure buried in a field, a pearl found in the darkness of the ocean floor. It is simple and precious and transformative and it is something the world wants buried. This is why when Jesus gathered with his disciples he said, “This is my body broken for you. This is my blood of the covenant poured out for you.” He didn’t call together the exalted leaders of his day. He called to be his followers a tax collector and a zealot, mortal enemies of one another. He shared his body and his blood with Judas who betrayed him and Peter who denied him. God offered his broken body to broken people. You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil because it is upon this tree where I will send my Son. When God’s will unravels God offers himself to bind up the broken pieces. When Adam and Eve were hiding because of their nakedness, God fashioned for them clothing. When God’s will became undone and the cruelty and hate and evil of humanity placed Jesus on the tree, our knowledge of evil was transformed into a Good Friday, because he lept out of the tomb so that we might trust that God’s will ultimately leads to good, the same good which God proclaimed when he rested on the seventh day and marveled at creation. We gather around this table, as Paul says, to “Taste and see that the Lord is good.” Amen and amen.
Encouraging thought. All too often the will of get rap up in theological jargon. I guest there are too many side to it. Utmost however is his will for us to love him, and each other.