week 3: sacrifice

Hey guys! We had a super awesome lesson this week about sacrifice, and how we can become more like Christ by learning about Adam and Eve, and their roles given to them by the Lord. We broke down a verse that can be pretty confusing and controversial at face-value, Moses 4:22. The two have just partaken of the fruit, and God is telling them the consequences of doing so. This is what He says to Eve:

22 Unto the woman, I, the Lord God, said: I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception. In sorrow thou shalt bring forth children, and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. 

I don't know about you, but being a woman, my first instinct is to wrinkle my nose and say, "That's wrong." I dread the idea of having "multiplied sorrow" in having kids, and being ruled by my husband definitely doesn't sit well with me, either.

We wrestled with the wording of these phrases in class, and came to a few conclusions about equality, sacrifice, and the Savior. This verse is now almost hallowed to me, and I hope I can explain how I feel about it in a way that lets you see it in new light, too.

Using this verse, I want to sort of layout the roles God gives to Eve and Adam. First, looking at Eve: really quickly I want to say, for those who don't know, Latter-day Saints believe that the Fall was a necessary step in God's plan. We believe that Eve understood that in order to be able to have children, she would need to partake of the fruit and live a mortal life, where she knew good from evil, and joy from sorrow, which was not possible in the Garden.

In Verse 22, God tells her that because of her choice, having kids is going to be extremely difficult. Now, we don't know to what degree she was tricked by Satan into eating the fruit, and we don't know to what degree she understood that the Fall was necessary, but we do know it was a little bit of both. We believe that she understood enough to know that if she ever hoped to "multiply and replenish the earth," as God commanded, she would have to eat it, and that the consequences of doing so would require great sacrifice. Unlike many other Christian religions, we believe Eve was wise and courageous in making the choice to bring forth life, even when she knew it would come at great cost to her.

She reminds me of someone else who voluntarily gave His life so that others could live: our Savior, Jesus Christ. He knew that performing the Atonement would be more difficult than anything even He could fathom, but He did it, and He did it for us. Eve, rather than someone who should be condemned for being weak and villainous, should be celebrated as one of the most Christlike people to ever live. Both she and the Savior gave their lives as a sacrifice--Eve so that we could live on earth, and Christ so that we could live again in heaven.

Now, for Adam: I want to say a little bit about what I learned about him, and how he is also a Christ symbol, using the phrase in Verse 22 that used to make me uncomfortable: "And he [Adam] shall rule over thee [Eve]."

Okay--why does it say that? This is modern revelatory scripture! The Family: A Proclamation to the World  says that man and woman are equal partners. So what's the deal with this?

My professor gave one explanation that was so profound: if we step back and remember that everything in the gospel somehow pertains to becoming more like Christ, we can look at this verse in that context. What is one thing that Christ rules over? How about his church. In Revelation 19, we see the analogy of the Church and Christ, being represented by the bride and the bridegroom. And what has Christ given to the Church? Everything.  Therefore, while Adam was called to "rule"--or maybe a better word, preside--it is his calling also to give everything he has to his wife. This isn't the only interpretation of this scripture, but it is the one that makes the most sense to me, and the one that helps me grow closer to the Savior.

Adam and Eve, are both called to sacrifice, in different ways. They are different, but they are equal, and so it is with men and women today. When joined together, they elevate each other, and Christ strengthens them both. I think that is why, in temple marriages, the man and the woman kneel across an altar, a symbol of sacrifice, and a symbol of Jesus Christ.

If you have made it this far, thank you! I hope you were able to find something you enjoyed, or didn't know before. If you want to learn more, lds.org is the official website for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. For more about Jesus Christ, go here. If you want to read Moses 4, go here. To learn more about how Latter-day Saints view the Fall of Adam and Eve as positive and necessary, go here. If you are interested in learning more about the LDS perspective on the family and the roles of men and women, you can read The Family: A Proclamation to the World, here.

Insights taken from / catalyzed by Prof. Tyler Griffin's 01/25/18 lecture, REL A 250, Brigham Young University.
Artwork: "Awesome Wonder" by Greg Olsen