nakedness-the key to understanding "the fall"

One question has always perplexed me. Why were Adam and Eve naked? Why was this the first thing that they noticed after they sinned? One of my favorite authors, Donald Miller, deals with this question in his book Searching for God Knows What but his discourse wasn't really an answer to my question, even though it was creative and humorous. I was sitting in my Old Testament class and my professor was the first person to give me a satisfactory answer to the question.

The key phrase is "And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed" (Genesis 2:25 ESV). Why do humans have a natural fear and shame about showing their nakedness to others? Yet, why does this not happen in a healthy marriage relationship? I think the key is that it is a trust issue. Adam and Eve walked with God in perfection and openness. There were no barriers between them and God. Therefore, God took care of them completely. This care was so absolutely complete that humanity had no reason to worry about themselves. There was no self-worry, no self-consciousness. The fact that they were naked never had any reason to cross their minds. God provided it all in his love and care for the masterpiece of his creation.

Well when our parents sinned, they suddenly became sinners and trust in God died in that moment. With that came this new idea to them of self-awareness. They began to notice things about themselves. They were introduced to the lie that humanity needed to care for themselves. The first humans suddenly become ashamed to show God their nakedness. God was no longer the intimate lover of their souls. I can almost hear the pain in God's voice when he asks: "Who told you that you were naked?" (Genesis 3:11 ESV). "The Fall" was a fall from trust. Faith and trust are now the most difficult things on this earth because humanity was introduced to the idea of self-care, self-worry, and shame.

God's judgment was to give humanity over to this. He provided a way, through toil, that humans would be able to care for themselves (though in a far inferior way). Then our loving God set out to restore a nation, Israel, back to trust and intimacy with him. The whole Old Testament is an unpacking of this plan to use Israel to be the focal point of this restoration of the world.

When the narrative reaches the New Testament, the Word of God becomes flesh and brings about a new covenant of restoration. Jesus bears the wrath of God in the place of humanity so that sin, the barrier to trust, can be done away with. I still don't understand why God only gave us a perfect sacrifice and didn't destroy sin completely at the cross, but this was his perfect plan. But in this new era Jesus calls us to completely rely on him once more. We are told that we need to seek God's kingdom first before ourselves and that God values us so highly as his image-bearers that we have no need to worry about our basic needs (Matthew 6:25-33). And now, as Christians seeking God's kingdom first, we groan (Roman 8:23). We await the final restoration promised by God, the promise that one day we will all be like our naked parents again and spend every moment worshiping God in his new earth (Revelation 21).

So Christian, lover of Jesus, let us seek the kingdom of, and be spiritually naked before, the God who has loved us and promised to provide for all we need.