Jesus' Response to Control in the World Around him was Love
What is it about control? I could begin by saying that I control things to ensure that it turns out right. But really, who is it turning out right for? Me. I could say that I control things to be sure that no one gets hurt. But who am I really trying to protect? Myself. I could consider that control is just the way to be sure things get done. But really, I would have to add the qualifier, things get done ‘to a certain standard’. Whose? Once again, mine. Wow. When I look at it like this, control is rather selfish.
Where does this impetus to control come from? We all know that bad things happen and that we will experience suffering in this world. But for some reason, we want to keep that from happening. Honestly, it isn’t our job to stop things from happening. Why do I think that we have taken this responsibility when we can do some good out there, keeping things from happening?
Adam and Eve’s trouble
I was once asked, oddly enough at a wedding, why on earth God would have allowed Adam and Eve to get into such trouble in the garden. Why didn’t he swoop in and take care of the serpent right then and there, before opening his mouth and tempting Eve? Or why didn’t he show up in the nick of time to keep them from eating the fruit? He could have stopped our whole mess before it ever began. I know I was vastly underprepared to answer these two questioning teens. So, it must have been God himself who whispered in my ear, ‘if you love them, then you let them go.’ I had the image of a dog that has never been outside, never seen the rest of the world, only you. You love the dog fiercely and do everything to make its little existence the best ever. But how do you know and experience love when the dog has had no choice? If the dog has not gone about on its own, how are you certain of its love? Isn’t it a merely caged animal, even if a gilded cage? Only when we are given the choice to stay or go, to do right or wrong, to trust or not, are we (or the dog) truly able to express love in return. Before it was a very obedient dog, but did it love me? I don’t know.
I think I would be more eloquent in my answer today, or maybe I only hope I would be. Perhaps now I would refer to parents who raise up their child in full love: providing the necessities, giving instruction, and otherwise maturing the child into an adult. At some point, the son or daughter must step out on their own and be independent of the parents. (We have seen the result of those who do not!) I would perhaps say that God loved Eve and Adam (and continues to love us today) in every way, providing for them, instructing them, inviting them into naming creation, enjoying their company, setting the world at their fingertips. And when we do everything possible for another, we too at some point have to trust that our loved ones will make choices that make us proud, that show the trust they have in the teachings we have imparted, that demonstrate their love as well. God had given no reason to doubt their trust in Him. God is trustworthy.
Serpent sows doubt
Adam and Eve spent some time in the Garden unmolested by Satan. We don’t know how much time, but I would guess that they were mature in God and mature in their relationship together. So, though the Bible has one follow the other, the fall appears immediately after creation, I suspect some good amount of time passed in which they spent their evening with God walking together. Still the serpent appears. He says insidious little things about the instruction God has given Adam, in Genesis 3:4-5: “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” Right off, the says you will not die, in other words ‘God lied.’ Then he says, ‘your eyes will be open’, which seems like saying ‘God was holding back from you.’ The insidiousness ends with a comparison of sorts, that clearly Eve is not like God, but ‘will be like him.’
Counterparts lost
If we step back one chapter to Genesis 2:18, Adam and Eve were created as counterparts. Then we see, in Genesis 3:16-17, that the curse is given that Adam will rule over Eve because he listened to her. It sounds like Eve was already pushing or controlling – but Adam didn’t present his own ideas – they both failed. The consequence was that both Adam and Eve lost their counterpart, their complementary nature would no longer be their desire, or our desire. So, it leaves us with men and women both who must learn to navigate this life outside of Eden. It seems that this navigating has led to the struggle of control and not cooperation. The struggle of me versus you, or mine versus yours. Perhaps this is where the control impetus began, and where the lies of Satan put down root.
Love is our response to control
One consequence of having their eyes opened was this struggle, but there was much more than just a struggle over who rules, but this eye-opening was to good and evil. They had lived in good all their lives until this point. Now they had to deal with the evil they saw. Now they had to deal with having distrusted God’s word. He did not give up on them, though they had given up on him. God set out a way immediately to draw them back: Jesus his son would reconcile us all to God. God did not stop ‘the fall’ from happening, he chose to love his creation as they are and chase after their hearts. He chases after our hearts still.
The life that Jesus led while here on earth showed little struggle with control or evil. He saw plenty of it but didn’t show that he struggled with it. His response to control in the world around him was that of love, love so great it created a change of heart in others. To navigate this struggle well, this struggle of control and this struggle of the knowledge of good and evil, perhaps we should start with Jesus and the stories we have at hand about how God’s people struggled. God loves us in every way, providing for us, instructing us, inviting us into creation, enjoying our company, setting the world at our fingertips.
