When You Can’t Go Back to Eden
(Genesis 3; Micah 4:1-4)
Thirty years ago (Jan. 1972) there was an unusual news story about a Japanese soldier found in the jungles of Guam who had been in hiding for the past 28 years. His name was Shoichi
Yokoi, he was 56 years old, a sergeant in the Japanese army, who in obedience to his emperor had evaded capture by the enemy since 1945. He had been waiting for his countrymen to come and retake the island and rescue him but instead two hunters found him wearing a pair of burlap pants and a shirt he had made from the bark of a tree. One reason the news story caught my
attention was it made me think of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Like Yokoi, Adam and Eve lived in a jungle-like island all to themselves with weather and food and plant life
abundant enough to survive and rather comfortably at that even without all the modern day
conveniences. Both worshipped their god with great devotion. For Adam and Eve Jehovah, God Almighty, had created an idyllic setting giving them charge over all the animals and plant
life with only a restriction on the tree in center of the Garden- not to eat of its fruit. And similarly Yokoi lived in his familiar jungle setting remaining faithful to his emperor’s command to avoid at all cost capture by the enemy.
But something happened in Yokoi’s Garden of Eden just as it did in Adam’s. Some sly, subtle serpent managed to convince Yokoi after 28 years of hiding to allow himself to be discovered.
And as soon as he eats of the fruit of captivity, he discovers all kind of new knowledge:
--the war with the Allies is over it’s been over for years
--Japan has a democratic government that has replaced emperor rule
--the US and Japan are now friends instead of enemies
You would think that Yokoi would be glad to hear such news but like Adam and Eve who learned after eating the forbidden fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil that they were naked and felt ashamed, Yokoi stood before the cameras of the world weeping, feeling ashamed and saying to the reporters:
“my failure to serve fully his majesty the emperor is a great shame to me, I should have died
rather than have been found.”
And like Adam and Eve, Yokoi was now banished from his Garden of Eden and forced to make
a new life for himself in a place no longer isolated and idyllic.
At first glance this biblical comparison to an old news story may appear trivial and non-important were it not for the fact that the same thing is happening to you and me throughout life.
Take Karen the high school senior graduating this June: good grades, popular in her class, active in school sports and extra curricular activities with a good home life; she’s happy and secure in her Garden of Eden that will change dramatically as she is graduated from high school and must
find a new “garden” to dwell in be it a job, college, or the service.
Or what about Frank who has had the good fortune to work for the same company for 25 years; it’s been a good paying job and he has found happiness and security in his work, he knows the town, the people, the plant; his daily routine is familiar and comfortable to him. But this month he retires, sent away from his Garden of Eden and like Karen a certain innocence will be
shattered as he moves into a different kind of world with a different kind of lifestyle.
And then there’s Alice married to Bill for 32 years- not the best marriage but not the worse either. They know each other like a book right down to how many pills she takes each day to
how many steps he walks to the garage. But last week Bill died and suddenly the security
of being close with some one for years, sharing the same circle of friends and activities,
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unaware of this or that because Bill was never interested so they didn’t go or find out. Now like Yokoi or Eve, Alice must leave the security of her Garden for a new way of life.
It is the question of the sermon title: when you can’t go back to Eden where do you go, what
do you do?
The answer is simple, and we all know the answer because all of us have at one time or another for one reason or another been expelled or taken out of our secure Eden, and what did we do about it?
We went right out and began to create another Garden of Eden to live in. Karen went to college and had just as much or perhaps more happiness and security there as she did in high school.
Frank retired from the company and now travels, does volunteer work, and plays a lot of golf; he wonders sometimes how he had time to work before.
Alice missed Bill terribly after he passed away but eventually she adjusted to the change and spends more time with her daughter and son and their families.
And for making the transition from one Eden to the next we usually give the person praise or a pat on the back:
--nice going Frank, I thought retirement might be tough on you at first but you seemed to have
made a good adjustment and are getting along fine…
--well, Adam and Eve you may have to work by the sweat of your brow but you didn’t give up
and here you are going on to have a family and to build a new home- nice going.
For most people this is life or the way they live life, but for the Christian there is another kind
of life than trying to go from one Eden to the next. Instead of going from one temporary security to another; why not head as the Bible says to Zion.
“Zion” sounds like one of those Jewish, biblical words that doesn’t particularly
interest me. Here’s how the writer of Revelation, John, described “Zion”:
--Read Rev. 21:1-4……. there Zion sounds like Heaven.
Years ago we used to sing a hymn in the church, in fact the hymn is in our hymnal #136 that goes:
Come we that love the Lord and let our joys be known; join in a song with sweet accord,
Join in a song with sweet accord; and thus surround the throne; and thus surround the throne;
We’re marching to Zion, beautiful, beautiful Zion; we’re marching upward to Zion that
beautiful city of God.
Many Christians today think of Heaven as Zion but there is more to Zion than just being a heavenly place. The prophet Micah described Zion as:
--where the power and authority and Word of God would reign supreme through His prophets
and people…
--there would be justice, nations would beat their swords into plowshares and give up war..
--every man would sit under his vine and his fig tree and no one would make him feel afraid. (Micah 4:1-4)
The prophet, Isaiah described Zion as that place where:
--God’s Messiah would rule and judge
--where the wolf would dwell with the lamb and the leopard lie down with the kid and a little child would lead the calf and the lion together and all the earth would be full of
the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. (Is. 11:6; 35)
Jesus called “Zion” the Kingdom of God; it was the heart of His message:
“The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the Gospel.”
(Mark 1:15)
Someday after the 2nd coming of Jesus Christ, Zion will be established by God as that place
we call Heaven with no more death and war, with peace and justice and joy. But we are not
to wait till then for Zion; it surely can come now today to the believer and follower of Jesus
Christ who is fully surrendered to Him.
Eden, our Gardens of Eden that we live in today; they are our external world that has to do with facts and figures; things that I can made and do and control and be responsible for. Eden is physical, material, visible.
The world of Zion is quite different. Going to Zion means going within yourself – the Kingdom of God said Jesus is within you. Zion is not a material world where you need checkbooks, microwaves, vcrs, cars; Jesus was constantly downplaying the material for the nonmaterial—go and sell all that you have and come, follow me.
Blessed He said are the pure in heart, the merciful, those who are peacemakers…..
It is not material possessions that create Zion, but the non-material like love, joy, peace, patience, mercy all under the rule of God.
Zion is a world where “I” has no authority or desire to have authority. It is not an “I” world but a God-world where the knowledge and love and power of God are fully and completely at work as the waters covering the seas.
You would think as Christians that we would all want to march right into Zion today, but the truth is we are so preoccupied with trying to work and live comfortably and happily in our
own little created Edens that we have very little time or interest in Zion—that is for later
after we die. Our maximum effort is given to Eden our minimum to Zion.
No wonder Jesus said:
No man can serve two masters for either he will hate the one and love the other or he will
be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. (Mt.6:24)
Every so many decades or centuries we see a Christian who has given up the quest for Eden and
is marching to Zion. We usually call such people “saints” and not in a lose way but as
someone as I mentioned who has totally surrendered his or her life to Jesus Christ.
We usually ignore such people or only admire them from a distance because they are a reminder to us to give up our Eden building and begin the march to Zion. They remind us to give more
of our attention to the rule of God instead of self rule.
It’s not always easy to spot these people because they stay out of the spotlight and are often
hidden away serving and suffering for Jesus Christ in the worst places of our cities to the
remotest corners of the earth. We can usually recognize them because they live with so
little and have so much of the Spirit of the Living God within and about them.
Whenever you do see them or read about them the one outstanding feature that shines through
is a person who has no “I”, no self, only a servant’s attitude to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.
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They remain our models our reminders that it is possible not to be beguiled by Satan’s enticements to remain in Eden, but to keep surrendering more and more to the call and
promptings of the Holy Spirit to repent and believe in the Gospel—to do whatever it takes,
to follow wherever Christ leads so that His Kingdom comes and His will is done today
on earth as it is in Heaven.
It will happen again to you and to me I am not sure when or where, but some sin, some event,
some drastic change will occur that will force you out of your Garden of Eden. Begin today
now to seek and want only Jesus then when it happens instead of panic and shame, doubt and uncertainty you will be on a different path to a different Kingdom. Not going down the primrose
lane in Eden lead by your own understanding; this time when you can’t go back to Eden may
you be fully under the Lordship of Christ being led by His Holy Spirit on a march that begun long ago – a march to Zion, the City of God.
