Genesis 3:6 — “When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.”
I Corinthians 11:24 “And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me.
Taking and eating in the fall were the verbs of death. With the death of Christ taking and eating become the verbs of eternal life. The first taking and eating was the proclamation of man that he would chance the grasp at Creator status. The new covenant taking and eating re-positions men in their creaturely dependence. The first taking and eating was the stuff of eternal death and separation from God. The second taking and eating is the food of eternal life and the drink of peace with God. The first taking and eating was the destruction wrought by Adam upon he and all his tribe. The second taking and eating is salvation wrought by Christ upon all His tribe.
Note that the disobedience that destroyed Adam and his race is a disobedience that, while spiritual, had a corporeal instantiation in the fruit of the tree. Likewise the obedience that blesses the tribe of God is an obedience that comes to us, through the corporeal instantiation in the fruit that comes from the vine and the grain that comes from the field. Salvation and condemnation alike are primarily spiritual but never so spiritual that they are disconnected with corporeal realities that reflect spiritual realities.
So simple was the first act of taking and eating. So hard the undoing of that taking and eating. God would taste poverty, know what it was to be railed against, would become familiar with sorrow and acquainted with grief before “take and eat” would become verbs of salvation.
