Michelangelo and a Reflection on Christian Marriage
A deeper look at "The Creation of Adam."
God first admits that things were not good in Genesis 2:17.
Now, God utters this “not good” before the original sin, before Adam and Eve damaged their relationships with God and with each other. Before the first sin, God says, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suited to him.”
The man’s loneliness and his lack of a helper is what is “not good.”
God vows to do something about it. You know the story: He makes animals and gives Adam the tremendous responsibility of naming them. “But none proved to be a helper suited to the man.” Everywhere he turned in God’s creation, there was no one like him. Adam was alone.
Michelangelo’s Genius
Here, I’d like to introduce Michelangelo, the great Renaissance painter of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Michelangelo offers his own reflection on this scene in Genesis 2.
The first thing you notice in Michelangelo’s “The Creation of Adam,” is the striking closeness of God to Adam. Heaven brought so close to earth. God, full of vitality, reaches to touch the lifeless man, breathing into him the breath of life.
Now, it’s easy to miss a few details in this scene. But, they’re critical for what Michelangelo is attempting to portray about Adam’s solitude.
On the right side of the painting, you’ll notice that God is surrounded by a number of figures — angels. But, there is a unique addition in this heavenly entourage. Notice Eve, there, under God’s left arm — under his protection.
And, take note of the strange, pink cloud containing God, Eve, and the angels. If you look closely, you realize that it’s the outline of a transverse of a human brain. Then, if you rotate the image, what initially appeared to be the transverse of a brain is also the transverse of a heart. Like this…
What does all this mean?
Well, it really means Adam was never really alone. For one, God was with him. And, God had Eve in his mind and in his heart for Adam from the beginning — from before he breathed life into the dust he had formed into the body of a man.
At just the right time, when Adam realizes his solitude and his unique relationship with God, God gives the woman to the man and the man to the woman.
So the LORD God cast a deep sleep on the man, and while he was asleep, he took out one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. The LORD God then built the rib that he had taken from the man into a woman. When he brought her to the man. (Gen. 2:21-22)
Eve is taken from Adam’s side. This shows that she is equal in dignity to the man. She is not taken from his head, indicating that she was above Adam. And, Eve is not taken from Adam’s feet, indicating that she is beneath him. She is Adam’s equal.
That Eve is taken, so to speak, from Adam shows us that she is to draw Adam out of himself. He is to love her, to make a gift of himself for her, to affirm her goodness.
Eve is given to Adam (God brings her to the man). She is God’s gift to Adam, to be received by Adam. Eve is given to Adam to mediate God’s love for Adam. Eve is given to somehow incarnate God’s love for Adam who, as a human being, needs to receive love in an incarnate way.
As Eve’s helpmate, Adam is to draw Eve out of herself and is to be accepted by her.
Michelangelo’s painting magnificently manifests God’s providence for Christian marriage. God cares about this son and this daughter such that he places each into the other’s life as an expression of his care and concern for them — to mediate his love, each for the other, in a concrete, incarnate way.