One morning several months ago, I was lying in my hammock and I pulled up a guided meditation playlist.  I pressed “shuffle,” closed my eyes, and tuned out the world as a meditation by Deepak Chopra on the subject of judgment began to play.

I listened intently as he mentioned that the need to judge others can be a form of defense, and my interest was piqued when he indicated that judging others comes with consequences.

“When you judge someone, it makes another person wrong.  Someone else is wrong to feel a certain way, to look a certain way, to hold certain opinions… Judgment immediately creates separation… The same walls that keep other people away also shut off the flow of spirit.”

What struck me in particular was his comment about shutting off the flow of spirit.  I realize that the term “the flow of spirit” sounds a little ethereal – perhaps a little too new-agey or “woo woo” to give it serious thought at first.

But what was fascinating is that not long before I heard this meditation, I’d read about how our thoughts and emotions can get stored up inside of us, literally creating energy blockages that keep things from flowing within us as they should.  Blockages that have the ability to wreak havoc on our health and well-being.  In other words, you could say that the flow of spirit gets shut off.

As I pondered this, I considered the words of Jesus as written in the gospel of Matthew.  “Do not judge or you too will be judged.  For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”

The notion of energy blockages at the core of our being and shutting off the flow of spirit puts a whole new perspective on these words of Jesus.

When we judge others, we can’t escape being judged.  Maybe it’s not in the ways we traditionally think of, but if being judgmental can create a form of negative energy that’s in some way toxic, who’s it going to affect?  If I’m the one doing the judging, it’s going to affect me.  And the greater the intensity behind my thoughts and emotions, the greater the toxic effect on me and on the flow of my spirit.  “With the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”

All of this had taken root in the back of my mind and had given me much to think about.  Then one day, I was hanging out with some friends and we were talking about the challenges that can arise from taking everything in the Bible literally.  One of the women shared how she had recently read about how the Adam and Eve story from Genesis was actually about judgment.

I was perplexed at first.  It was a difficult idea to wrap my mind around, probably because in Christian circles, the focus of the story is on sin and disobedience.

I’ve often heard that the whole reason the tree was off limits to begin with was because that was God’s way of giving Adam and Eve the choice to love God or not.  And by choosing disobedience, they chose sin, which destroyed the relationship with God.  Then we extrapolate the idea that God can’t be in the presence of sin so he kicked them out of the garden.

But is it possible that judgment is the point of the Adam and Eve story?  The more I meditated on the idea, the more it began to make sense and the clearer it became.  In fact, it soon became an incredibly illuminating interpretation of the story, one that makes far more sense than the traditional one.  Let’s think about this.

God tells Adam, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it, you will surely die.”

One can’t help but wonder why God wouldn’t want Adam and Eve to know the difference between good and evil.  It’s hard to see the downside to that, especially when you consider that one of the first things we attempt to teach our kids is what’s good and what’s bad.

But if we view all of this through the lenses of judgment, it makes sense.

We judge others when we start categorizing their actions or beliefs as right or wrong, good or evil.  Interpreting the Adam and Eve story this way says that people weren’t created to judge others.  That’s why God forbade them to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Judgment was something that was meant to be reserved for God and God alone.  Because, as Deepak said in the meditation I referenced earlier, judgment creates separation and can ultimately shut off the flow of spirit.

It’s interesting that God says the consequence of eating from the tree is death.  “When you eat of it, you will surely die.”

Obviously, they didn’t die in a literal sense, so we’re left to ponder what this meant.  The typical explanation is spiritual death: Adam and Eve were separated from God due to their sin.  This separation would be handed down and persist throughout time, only to be finally dealt with by the atoning death of Jesus on the cross – but even then, only for those who respond appropriately.

It’s a reasonable conclusion within the confines of Christianity.

Yet, I’m left to wonder what the story would’ve meant to the original audience.  Because the Adam and Eve story was written at a particular place and time, for specific people.  And although there is certainly a timeless quality to it, I can’t believe that the primary point of the story is something that would make sense only when viewed through the lenses of things that developed hundreds – if not thousands – of years later.  Things like atonement theology and the doctrine of original sin.

Things that simply couldn’t have possibly had meaning to the original hearers.

And so I circle back to the idea of judgment and I ponder the words “When you eat of it, you will surely die.”  And in the framework of judgment, those words make a lot of sense.  Because judgment creates separation.

It builds walls, causes distance, erodes community, and destroys intimacy.  “We” becomes “us” and “them.”  And often times “they” are only truly worthy if they’ll become like “us.”  Judgment can even keep us from extending compassion because of how easy it is for us to think of all the reasons why the situation or person doesn’t deserve our compassion.

And when any of this happens, the very essence of our humanity begins to die.  And if we’re living devoid of our humanity, are we truly living?

These days, we understand science and we have mind-boggling technology and eye-opening research.  We can say “When you think or feel a certain way, it affects you in a massive way.”  And we can go on to talk about energy blockages and cellular makeup and physiology and how at the quantum level all things are connected.  All things.  And we have empirical evidence to prove it all.

So we point to this evidence, imploring people to be very careful about how they live and the thoughts they think and the choices they make because there are ramifications, whether we can see them or not.

It’s as though the author of this ancient story wanted to implore the same things, but since he didn’t have our modern knowledge and terminology, he simply used the medium of the time – story – to convey the point.  “Don’t do this or you will die.”

So I chew on all of this and I circle back to the words of Jesus in the gospel of Matthew.  “Do not judge or you too will be judged.”

Then I flip over to the gospel of Luke, where the author placed this teaching alongside “love your enemies,” expanding it and rendering it as “Do not judge, and you will not be judged.  Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned.  Forgive, and you will be forgiven.  Give, and it will be given to you.  A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap.  For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”

These words come alive in a completely new way and with a depth that I’ve never known.

And it makes me consider the types of judging that can be very common within Christianity.  Who’s right, who’s wrong.  Who’s in, who’s out.  Who’s a true believer, who’s not.  Who’s saved, who’s lost.

And I reflect on how I’ve been taught at times that God actually expects us to make some of these kinds of judgments.

Was judgment the original point of the Adam and Eve story?  Maybe it was.  Maybe it wasn’t.

But as I consider everything – the words of Jesus, the original audience of Genesis 3, shutting off the flow of spirit – the more I realize that I, too, would do well to avoid that fruit tree.

“For when you eat of it, you will surely die.”