“Then the LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, ‘Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die'” (Genesis 2:15-17).
Why would a good and all-knowing God place the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the middle of Paradise, knowing full well that Adam and Eve would disobey and eat from it? This is another question atheists like to ask to stump Christians, and it echoes the cry of the human heart for understanding. Was God setting a trap? Was He testing them for His own amusement? No. The answer is far deeper and more beautiful than that.
To understand, we must view the tree not as a snare, but as a liturgy. That tree was a holy appointment; it was part of the divine service of Eden. And in that divine service, just like in ours today, God was giving Adam and Eve a way to worship, trust, and receive.
The Tree Was Not a Trap, But a Liturgy
What is liturgy? It is God’s service to us, and our response of faith. As Lutherans, that’s why we call our worship the Divine Service, for God is the one doing the service to us. We confess that the liturgy is not man-centered entertainment or emotional hype; rather, it is God-centered, through which God is speaking, giving, and forgiving, and His people respond with trust, praise, and thanksgiving.
In Eden, God gave His Word: “Eat form every tree freely, but do not eat from this one.” That Word was not arbitrary. It was sacramental. The word “sacrament” comes from the Greek word meaning “mystery.” The tree was a mystery. They knew what good was, but they had no idea what evil was! The tree of the knowledge of good and evil was set apart by God’s Word. It became a living sermon—a call to trust God’s goodness and live by His Word alone. As God would later say through Moses, “Man lives not by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Deuteronomy 8:3). Jesus would repeat these words to Satan in the wilderness (Luke 4:1-4), accomplishing as the Bride of Christ what Adam failed to do for his bride—rejecting the serpent with the spoken Word of God.
The act of not eating from the tree was itself a liturgy—a bodily confession of faith. By not eating from it, they were confessing, “God is God; I am not. His Word is true. I am His creature. He gives me life.” This is why our liturgy begins with Confession and Absolution. We enter worship not by our works, but by acknowledging God’s Word is true, even when it condemns us. And then, He forgives us through His spoken Word.
The Tree Taught Faith through Limits
Every liturgy has structure, and every structure has boundaries. In Eden, the boundary was the forbidden tree. Why? Because love without boundaries is not love; it is chaos. Good parents place a curfew on their children—they are given a structure in which they must live for their own good. And the moment they see a friend who does not have such limits, they think their friend has more freedom. They come to desire this newfound “freedom,” not knowing that the limits placed on them are for their own good to protect them. In truth, the child’s boundaries makes them more free, because so long as they keep it, they are safe.
Similarly, God placed the forbidden tree in the garden as Adam and Eve’s limit. God placed that tree in the garden so they could exercise their creaturely faith within a clear and meaningful structure. By it, they were truly free to worship God in full fellowship. After the Fall happens, we read that “they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day” (Genesis 3:8). They had complete fellowship in the literal presence of God!
By placing that tree in the garden, in essence God was saying, “Everything here is a gift I give to you. All is yours to enjoy. But this one tree—this is Mine. Not because it is evil, but because it is holy. It belongs to Me alone. To honor Me, trust Me by not eating from it.” The Scripture says God commanded them to do this (Genesis 2:16). Command is liturgical language. It’s the same word used throughout Leviticus when God institutes offerings, festivals, and priestly duties.
The tree was part of Eden’s divine liturgy—its holy rhythm. The refusal to eat was an act of worship—an obedient “Amen” to God’s Word, which means “yes, yes, it shall be so” (SC III, The Seventh Petition).
The Fall Was a Rejection of the Divine Liturgy
When Adam and Eve reached out and took the forbidden fruit, they were not merely breaking a rule. They were rejecting the divine liturgy—refusing the rhythm of grace. They abandoned the Word and the order of worship God had established. Instead of receiving from God, they seized what they thought was rightfully theirs. Instead of trusting God, they wanted to be gods themselves, trusting in their own will. Instead of worshiping God, they worshiped themselves.
In essence, they were saying, “We will now determine what is good and evil. We will be our own gods.” This is the heart of every false liturgy—every self-made religion and every attempt to come to God on our own terms. Article IV of the Apology of the Augsburg Confession teaches that false worship and idolatry arise when people believe they can please God by works done without faith, without Christ, and without the Holy Spirit (Ap XXIV, 211). This is exactly what Adam and Eve did—they trusted the serpent’s words more than God’s. Further, they tried to please themselves without faith, without the Word, and without grace. And the result was death.
Christ Restores the Liturgy by a Tree
But thanks be to God—He did not abandon His liturgical purpose for creation. In fact, He fulfilled it. If sin entered the world by a tree, so salvation came through a tree: the cross. “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us—for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree'” (Galatians 3:13). The tree of the knowledge of good and evil brought death through disobedience, but the tree of the cross brings life through the obedience of Christ. “As in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive” (1 Corinthians 15:22).
And just as God once fed Adam and Eve from the trees of the garden, so now Christ feeds us His own body and blood in the Sacrament of the Altar—the Lord’s Supper. Just as Adam and Eve were to trust in the mystery of the “sacrament” of the forbidden tree by not eating from it, conversely, we now we trust the mystery of Christ’s true presence in the Supper, which deliver the benefits of what He accomplished on the tree of the cross.
Our Lutheran liturgy is not about impressing God; it is about receiving from Him. It is God’s service to us—gottesdienst (German for divine service). It is a gracious reversal of Eden’s tragedy.
Our Liturgy Today Reflects Eden and Points to the New Paradise
In our Divine Service, the same pattern holds:
- God speaks, and we listen.
- God gives, and we receive.
- God commands, and we trust.
- God forgives, and we rejoice.
We do not approach God with fig leaves or our own wisdom. We come empty—to be filled. We come sinful—to be cleansed. We come hungry—to be fed. As the Apology also tells us, the Mass—the liturgy—”does not properly mean a sacrifice, but rather the public ministry. Liturgy agrees well with our belief that one minister who consecrates gives the Lord’s body and blood to the rest of the people, just as one minister who preaches offers the Gospel to the people. As Paul says, ‘This is how one should regard us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God’ (1 Corinthians 4:1), that is, of the Gospel and the Sacraments [reminder: ‘mysteries’ is the Greek word for ‘sacraments’]” (Ap XXIV, 79-80).
This is what Eden was meant to be. This is what our liturgy echoes. And this is what awaits us in the new creation. In the final chapter of Scripture, the tree of life returns: “On either side of the river was the tree of life… and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations” (Revelation 22:2). The liturgy begun in Eden, broken by sin, and restored at the cross will be consummated in the eternal worship of the Lamb in the new creation.
So, why did God place the tree in the garden? Because He wanted Adam and Eve to worship—not just with words, but with trust. That tree was a liturgy—a visible sermon and a sacramental act of worship. And though they fell, God did not destroy the liturgy; He fulfilled it in Christ.
When you come to church, then—when you hear the Word, confess your sins, sing the Kyrie, and receive the Eucharist—you are stepping back into the divine rhythm of life, the divine liturgy of God’s grace, and the Eden that is being restored.
And one day, we will eat again in the New Paradise—the new heavens and the new Earth. Not in fear, but in joy. Until then, we live by every Word from the mouth of God.
The Lutheran Column 