'The Expulsion'

The last time I visited the Art Gallery of New South Wales, I was confronted by one of the most powerful paintings from an Australian artist, Arthur Boyd’s “The Expulsion”. Adam and Eve are set in a particularly scrubby Australian bush setting. The rather badly drawn Adam leans forward in motion with his hands over his face. Beside him Eve is similarly in motion, her body pale beside that of Adam’s, her left arm is stretched behind her as if to ward off a horror. Her face is downcast, a mask of misery.

Behind them, the source of their terror, is the angel with both arms stretched towards them in menace. The angel’s mouth is an open black hole and its eyes glare out at the couple shrinking before it. There is no paradise behind the angel, no luxuriant growth complete with exotic animals, just more of the same scrubby Australian bush.

To see this painting and to understand its subject in the context of its place in the Bible is to understand something that is being slowly masked by our culture of personal and corporate progress and success. It is to understand, as the poet Virgil put it, “There is heartbreak at the heart of things”.

Boyd’s painting and the story to which it refers expresses this brokenness at the centre of our lives. We are outcasts from our true state and things are amiss. We are cast out into a harsh world in which we must make our own way.

An analysis of the meaning of this image and its setting in the prehistory of Genesis 1-11 requires that we take these texts seriously while admitting their legendary nature. They are historical in that they point to the real circumstances of human living not in that they are a description of the origin of the world. Likewise, the accounts of the resurrection of Jesus differ from those of the cross in that the former is what we may call historical legend, while the latter is an event that took place in time. The following analysis is written in a style that does not differentiate between these two modes, so allowing a single story to be told.

Boyd’s picture shows Adam and Eve fleeing in terror from the YES of God spoken as the garden of Eden. In the garden they lived in intimacy with each other:

Then the man said, "This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; this one shall be called Woman, for out of Man this one was taken. (Genesis 2:23)

They also lived in intimacy with God who walked in the garden at the time of the evening breeze. Their work was to till and keep the garden. They could eat of all the fruit of the trees in the garden except for a certain tree, “the tree of the knowledge of good and evil”. For if they eat of that tree they will die.

In paradise, Adam and Eve are saved from having to judge. They are saved from having to decide who is good and who is evil: a terrible burden. They are saved from placing themselves above another as judge and therefore losing the intimacy that is at the centre of all love. In paradise, Adam and Eve are to understand that this burden may be only carried by God and that if they take it upon themselves they will die.

The temptation to moralise about the story is strong, particularly when we read of the punishment that is meted out by God after he finds out what has happened (Genesis 3:13-19). God sums up the situation by declaring that man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil and he sends the couple out of the garden and posts an angel to guard the way to the tree of life in case the man should eat of this and live forever.

The first account of human history that is then related is the murder of Abel by his brother Cain. Abel was keeper of sheep and Cain was a tiller of the ground and both presented offerings to God. But God:

... had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell. The Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry and why has your countenance fallen?” If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is lurking at the door: its desire is for you, but you must master it. (Genesis 4:5-7)

It is clear that the expulsion from the garden does not remove men from God. However, eating of the forbidden tree means there exists a rivalry in judgment between men and God. So when God judges between the two brothers’ offering, Cain is placed in conflict with his own judgment, which must be that his offering is acceptable. No reason is given as to why God makes a distinction, the point being that God keeps his own council. The conflict between the judgment of Cain and that of God causes his face to fall and his anger is directed not against God but against his brother whom he murders.

The misery of men is that we cannot help but judge, we have eaten of the fruit of the knowledge of good an evil and there is no turning back. But we are also subject to judgment from others and this brings enmity between men that they have to master to avoid violence. The spread of violence in the world is marked by the overwhelming vengeance of Lamech that we find in Genesis 4:23-24:

I have killed a man for wounding me, a young man for striking me. If Cain is avenged sevenfold, truly Lamech seventy-sevenfold. (Genesis 4:23,24)

And finally, as the creation runs out of control, God reverses his judgment that all that he had created was good and we read that “the earth was corrupt in God’s sight” (Genesis 6:11): the fall has run its course.

While in the garden there could be no enmity between Adam and Eve because they were incapable of judging one another. However after the event that has been called “the fall” judgment of others stood close at hand and could not be controlled. The result was that violence was introduced into the world.

All conflict between men relies on judgment of the other. This is exposed as a lie when protagonists in any conflict see their opponents as fellow human beings. It is this intimacy, on which friendship is based, that recalls the intimacy of the Garden of Eden and in which we are to find our true humanity. That is why the neighbour features large in the sayings of Jesus, not as an invitation to do good works towards him but as a promise of fulfilled humanity.

The history of Israel as a history of violence and apostasy plays out the result of the fall. The enmity in the hearts of men proceeds from their ability and willingness to judge the other. At the end of this history stands one who sets the stage for the healing of human enmity and he does this by taking that enmity upon himself.

Jesus set his face towards Jerusalem, knowing that the final conflict would cost him his life. This conflict had been brewing in the three or so years of his ministry between those who judged men and women as good or evil and his acceptance of all into his fellowship. Jesus refused to judge others. This was the essence of the final conflict and he walked to Jerusalem knowing that he would be judged and killed. He bares in his own body the death promised by God to Adam and Eve. In doing so he reversed the event of the fall by exposing the judgment of men to be a lie. The judges in turn became the judged.

It was on the cross that the judgment of men was played out in all of its futility. Men saw themselves as being in righteous judgment. But for anyone with eyes to see, it is obvious that they are the ones who are judged. The message of the resurrection is that God vindicated Jesus. The one we judged has become our judge. The astounding message of Easter day is that instead of us being condemned forever for our act, we are reconciled and the way is open for peace to reign in the world. Our judgment that others are good or evil is placed under judgment and the thorn that is the irritant to violence is pulled.

When Jesus tells us to judge not, lest we be judged, he refers to the judgment we make of ourselves and others. The refusal to judge acts as good or evil would leave us in a moral wilderness. However it is a different thing to judge the perpetrators of those acts as good or evil. Even “the worst of the worst” are sons and daughters of God. All individuals, without exception, have been made in the image of God. But all individuals, without exception, are creatures who are acted upon by forces unseen which distort that image into unrecognisable shapes.

Since we do not know what is in the heart of another we can safely leave judgment of that other to God and be relieved of that burden. Likewise, we may leave judgment of ourselves to God and be relieved of an even greater burden. The proclamation that Jesus is the judge of the world is good news that sets us free and breaks the cycle of violence between men.

If we now go back to Boyd’s marvellous painting we see it in a new light. The expulsion is the final act of creation in which man comes to himself as an historical being limited by death and with the judgment of others in his heart. The event of the cross and the vindication of Jesus in the resurrection is the source of reconciliation between men because they see the fruits of their judgment and the one they judged is vindicated.

While the secular order can only rely on our desire for peace, Christians point to an historical event whose power reaches down through the ages and is active in our midst.

So peace for Christians is no ideology but an established historical entity that exists with or without our consent. This may be contrasted to all of the good intentions of the peace movement who think that all we need to do is to desire peace and peace will break out all over the world. The biblical drama tells us that our problem lies deeper than us having disordered desire. Judgment lies deep in our heart and we cannot of our own accord remove it. It takes stronger medicine, the shedding of the blood of the only true human being under our knives.