Genesis 3 is a pretty well-known passage. It’s the fall of man. Adam and Eve ate of the fruit (which is always for some reason an apple) of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. As soon as they ate the fruit, their eyes were opened, and they realized that they were naked. Naked. Exposed. Nowhere to hide.

So what do they do? They hide. They sew together some leaves to cover up. Suddenly, God shows up. Perfect timing, right? When they hear God coming, Adam and Even hide. God plays along and calls out to them, like he doesn’t know where they are. When they appear, God asks why they’re hiding. Because they’re naked and afraid, they respond. God’s response: “Who told you you were naked?”

Busted. Adam and Eve are caught red handed. There is no way out of this now. They’ve eaten the one thing they weren’t supposed to eat. The only thing, and they couldn’t resist it. So now what? Just walk out and admit what you did, right?

Nope.

Adam blames Eve; Eve blames the serpent.

They aren’t the only ones. Cain kills his brother Abel and, when confronted, responds, “Am I my brother’s keeper.” When Pharaoh confronts Abraham about Sarah being his wife, Abraham shifts the blame back to Pharaoh, claiming he was afraid Pharaoh would kill him. The same story continues on today.

We seem to always want to shift the blame to others. I hear this all the time in my classroom. Whenever I reprimand a student, it’s often, “He was talking to me.” Or, “They’re talking over there.” Or, my personal favorite, “It’s my mom texting me.”

What is it about humanity that constantly wants to shift the blame away from ourselves? We don’t like to look like we’re in the wrong, even if we are. It takes a lot to admit when we’re wrong. That’s what struck me about the Adam and Even story. Even at the beginning of it all we were blaming others for our problems.

The irony came in Jesus, though. If there was ever anyone in history that would point fingers at others and be right about it, it was him. Yet, he came and showed us humility and forgiveness and mercy. Then, he took all our blame upon himself and suffered the consequences of it.

Talk about a sobering thought. While I sit around and point fingers away from me, the perfect person absorbed all the blame he didn’t deserve. When I think of things in that way, I think I can probably admit my faults more.

We should all sit down and take a look at how we try to pass the blame on to others. Get a grip on that pride and allow yourself to submit to humility. We don’t have to continue playing the blame game. Let’s just admit when we’re at fault and move forward.