I sat down on one sunny morning last week to pray with the beautiful Scripture readings of the Easter Vigil.  I like to pray with these scriptures at some point during Holy Week because they present, in condensed form, all of Salvation History.  The readings begin as always with the glorious Creation story (Gen. 1:1-2), which includes the creation of man and woman, and they end with Jesus’ victory over sin and death in the Resurrection.
 
To better appreciate the significance of the Empty Tomb, I thought it would be worthwhile to spend a little time praying with Genesis 3 and 4 to take stock of the consequences of Original Sin to the relationship between the first husband and wife.

In Genesis 3:7, the Scripture writer notes that after Adam and Eve both ate from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, “the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths.”  The first thing Adam and Eve must have felt at that moment was fear about their sexual difference since they immediately covered their loins.
 
The part of their bodies that enable them to carry out the one flesh union God called them to when he joined them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply,” became a source of fear.  The original innocence the first couple experienced with each other, when Adam exclaimed, “this is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh,” disappeared, and in its place entered lust.
 
The next scene in this tragedy is not only one of fear of each other now, but also shame.  For “the man and his wife hid themselves from the Lord God among the trees of the garden.”  God calls for them and the man answers, “I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid myself.”  God then confronts Adam about eating from the forbidden tree to which Adam responds in short, “she made me do it.” Thus irresponsibility and blame enter the picture. In fact, Eve does the same thing when she is questioned by blaming the Serpent. Adam and Eve welcome strife into their relationship as they point fingers and become unable to take responsibility for their own actions.

Further consequences of the Fall are described in the rest of Genesis 3 and 4.  Enmity aka hatred will now exist between the Serpent (the Devil) and its offspring (demons) and the woman and her offspring. This would include Mary and Jesus of course.  “To the woman he said, ‘I will intensify the pangs of your childbearing; in pain shall you bring forth children.’” So here, pain enters the picture, where before, it didn’t exist.  The bad news for the woman goes on. “Yet your urge (desire) shall be for your husband, and he shall be your master.”  No longer equal partners, the relationship between husband and wife is now marred by male domination on his part and servility on her part.

Things didn’t go well for the man after the Fall either. While they were free to eat from all but one of the trees of the Garden before their fall from grace, Adam would now have to “toil” or struggle with the cursed land to bring forth food to eat. “By the sweat of your face shall you get bread to eat.”   Suffering makes its grand entrance. Death too enters here in the human story. In Genesis 3:22 we read, “See! The man has become like one of us, knowing what is good and what is bad! Therefore, he must not be allowed to put out his hand to take fruit from the tree of life also, and thus eat of it and live forever.”  They were exiled from the Garden of Eden.

In spite of their disobedience, God shows his love by making leather garments to clothe them. Leather is the skin of an animal, so as it turns out, the Fall also brings about the consumption of animals for their skin and meat.

In Genesis 4 we get to witness the entrance of resentment and the deadly sins of envy and murder into Adam and Eve’s family life.  Adam and Eve’s firstborn son, Cain, murders their second son Abel.
 
So to recap; original sin ushered into marriage and family life the following: fear, lust, shame, irresponsibility, blame, strife, enmity, pain, male domination, servility, suffering, resentment, envy and murder. Marriage definitely needed a Savior.

Six weeks ago our forehead was marked with a cross of ashes, ashes that represent our participation in the sinful legacy our first parents.  It seems fitting that the ashes are placed on our foreheads, the place where we are sealed with Holy Chrism at baptism and claimed for God.  Our baptism and adoption into God’s family makes it possible to live a different kind of life.

The Empty Tomb Jesus left behind is a reminder that our Lord’s redemptive work on the cross and his resurrection has significant implications for marriage.  The Empty Tomb means it’s possible to reclaim the Genesis marriage before the Fall. God stepped into history to redeem us individually, but He also restores and makes everything new. Our marriages and our family relationships are redeemable; if we accept Him.