On Sin and Togetherness

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The New Testament story of Ananias and Sapphira is brutal. A husband and wife sell their field, then collectively decide to lie and tell the apostles that they’re giving all the money to the church, when in reality the couple have withheld a portion of the profits for their own use. Ananias is the first to approach the apostles, but Peter calls the man out on his sin by saying, “Why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit? … You have not lied to man but to God” (portions of Acts, 5:3-4, ESV). Immediately, Ananias falls dead on the ground. A few hours later, Sapphira walks in with the same lie, unaware of her husband’s death, and Peter says to her, “How is it that you have agreed together to test the Spirit of the Lord? Behold, the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out” (5:9). Sapphira also dies.

In reading the passage this morning, I was struck by two things. First, this account is troubling in its similarity to what happened in Eden after the Fall. The exact circumstances, words, and actions might have been different, but the heart issue plaguing all four individuals was the same: the desire to hide what they’d done from God. They knew what they had done was wrong, otherwise they would not have tried to hide their actions in the first place.

When Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, “the eyes of both were opened and they knew that they were naked” (Genesis 3:7). Suddenly because of sin, their nakedness and vulnerability, formerly beautiful because they had lived in perfect communion with God and each other, were things they were ashamed of and wanted to cover. So, they sewed fig leaves together as clothing, and when they heard God approaching, they “hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden” (3:8). That act was a physical manifestation of the spiritual distance that now yawned between humans and God.

The parallels are troubling because they force us to reckon with the effects of sin, how humans, including ourselves, have not “gotten better” at fighting it. Scripture is filled with patterns, and they paint a picture of the cyclical nature of sin and mercy, depicting both what God intended for his creation and what we have sinfully made of it.

Which brings me to the second startling aspect of these stories. Often in Scripture, readers are given examples of relationships gone wrong in order to provide deeper understanding of what those relationships were supposed to look like had they been conducted in a godly manner. These two passages draw attention to this kind of unhealthy human connection, and although they describe a husband and wife, the root of the matter can be applied to any type of relationship.

Togetherness is a gift. One of my writing professors once pointed out that although the story of the Fall is surrounded by anger and grief, it’s also important to note that Adam and Eve left the garden together. Even as he cast them away from his presence, God did not separate Adam and Eve. But the love they had for each other was also broken at the Fall, and all human relationships afterward would be tainted by selfishness, lust, idolatry, and all the rest.

Adam and Eve, Ananias and Sapphira, sinned against the Lord together. They led each other away from God, toward their own ideals of what was good and desirable. It’s a somber warning, yet not without hope.

Godly relationships happen when both parties are not looking out for themselves first, but loving with the other person’s best interest in mind, when they’re mutually seeking the Lord. The author of the letter to the Hebrews wrote, “Let us consider how we may spur one another on to love and good deeds” (10:24, NIV), and that’s such a huge part of learning to love each other well. How might we continue old connections and enter into new ones with the recognition that this person is beloved by God and we want to see them flourish under that love? Godly relationships form when both individuals actively ask themselves this question, when the desire to exhibit kindness goes both ways.

As difficult as these Scripture passages are to read, the entire Bible is situated around the amazing grace found at the cross. Jesus has provided a way for us to truly connect again with God and with our fellow human beings. Even on this difficult pilgrimage, caught time and time again in sin’s snare, God continues to come after us, to find his lost sheep. He’s leading us back to new life with him, and even now we are on our way back to Eden.

words by Eliana Chow and photo by Marlow Amick