Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7
The LORD God took the man and
put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it.
And the LORD God commanded the
man, "You may freely eat of every tree of the garden;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 die."
Now the serpent was more crafty
than any other wild animal that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman,
"Did God say, 'You shall not eat from any tree in the garden'?"
The woman said to the serpent,
"We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden;
but God said, 'You shall not
eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, nor shall you
touch it, or you shall die.'"
But the serpent said to the
woman, "You will not die; for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes
will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."
So when the woman saw that the
tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the
tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she
also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate.
Then the eyes of both were
opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together
and made loincloths for themselves.
Matthew
4:1-11
Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by
the devil.
He fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished. The
tempter came and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, command these
stones to become loaves of bread." But he answered, "It is written,
'One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth
of God.'"
Then the devil took him to the holy city and placed him on the pinnacle
of the temple, saying to him, "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself
down; for it is written, 'He will command his angels concerning you,' and 'On
their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against
a stone.'"
Jesus said to him, "Again it is written, 'Do not put the Lord your
God to the test.'"
Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the
kingdoms of the world and their splendor; and he said to him, "All these I
will give you, if you will fall down and worship me."
Jesus said to him, "Away with you, Satan! for it is written,
'Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.'" Then the devil left him,
and suddenly angels came and waited on him.
===============================
There are a number of things that our Old Testament story
and our Gospel story have in common.
·
Both are about temptation.
·
Both reflect the free
will that God has given us.
·
Both involve a choice
that is available to the main characters in the story – the man and woman in
Genesis, and Jesus in Matthew’s gospel.
·
Both are about obedience
to God – and certainly disobedience as well.
·
Both provide important
insights into who we are and what God intends for our life.
In our gospel reading, Jesus goes straight from his
baptism into the wilderness.
The Holy Spirit has led him here. 40 days of fasting leave him famished, weak
and vulnerable. And into this comes the devil, the tempter, ready to test him.
There are three tests –
·
Feed yourself by turning
stones into bread.
·
Prove how God will
protect you from harm.
·
And claim your rightful
place of power over all kingdoms and nations of the world.
God had just called Jesus “my beloved Son, in whom I am
so very pleased.”
Jesus knows that each of these things with which he is
tempted is certainly within his power and grasp. And Jesus has not yet begun his ministry.
Certainly these proddings from Satan could be perceived
as “helpful shortcuts”, if you will, to help him feed the poor, to convince
people of his importance, so they will listen to him, and follow him.
But in each case Jesus responds with words of Scripture,
words of truth, that do not represent the easy way out, the most efficient way
to proceed.
·
“Life does not come from
bread alone, but real life comes from the word of God.”
·
“Do not test God.”
·
and “Worship the Lord
your God, and serve only Him.”
The story of the garden of Eden begins from a place of
abundance, not at all like the scarcity of the wilderness and the fast. The man
and woman have been placed into the garden to till it and keep it. That is their purpose. And they are told they can freely eat of every
tree in the garden, except for one.
Just stop a minute and think about the life they have been
given. Abundant life, joyful and purposeful work, and almost complete freedom. Just one commandment – and on its surface much
easier than any one of the ten commandments, or Jesus’ great commandment to
love God and love one another. All they
had to do was to leave alone that one tree, that one place that would open up
to them the knowledge of good and evil. They
were given a world they did not have to create or earn, a sustainable and
plentiful world, world without end. They
are given expansive freedom, but not limitless freedom.
A couple of things are worth pointing out here.
·
First, good and evil
both existed already. Their awareness of it changes because of their actions. God’s
intent has always been for humankind to enjoy the abundance of the goodness of
creation and of God’s loving presence.
·
Second, free will
existed from the beginning. We always
had the option to obey or disobey.
Enter the serpent, stage left. The serpent here is the tempter.
And we hear that the serpent was crafty, craftier than
any other animal God had created. I had to look up the word “crafty” to see
what was being implied here.
According to Merriam Webster, the word “crafty” means to
be “clever at achieving one's aims by indirect or deceitful methods.” As we hear those words we can probably think
of people we have known like that. I can
even think of some crafty commercials I’ve seen, especially those ones at 9
o’clock at night that make me want to immediately order a pizza!
So we can assume that the serpent was pretty skilled at
temptation. And much like the tempter’s
approach with Jesus, this tempter appealed to their ability to increase their
personal power. For knowledge is
power. “You will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
Once that opportunity is dangled in front of a person, it is mighty hard to
stop thinking about it. And so they ate, not only because it was
beautiful fruit, but because it would “make them wise.”
The man and woman had the freedom to obey or disobey. The consequence of their choice to disobey had
attached to it a death sentence – not immediately, but ultimately, because it
opened them to knowledge of the things that lead to death – to sin, shame, and
disobedience of God. And so, humanity
was placed outside of the garden, into the world, because of our inability to
obey one commandment. We have spent the
rest of our days dealing with the evil that comes from being disobedient to
God, because of our desire to be like God, to be the judge of what is good and
what is evil.
What is the point of all this? What is the message for us as followers of
Christ today?
First, this: that obedience to God is not the easy way
through life’s challenges. Temptation is
always right in front of us, appearing to be a short cut to success.
There is craftiness everywhere we turn. We are
continually bombarded by crafty companies and crafty government officials and
just plain old crafty people we know, who want us to believe and behave in a
certain way, and who convince us to fear, to want, to fight, to grab for power
wherever we can get it, in order for them to accomplish their own success.
But obeying God, following in the path of Christ, means turning
away from the shortcuts, declining the short term pleasures that disobedience
can provide.
It means using our free will to step way out on a limb of
vulnerability and weakness – the limb that bears the fruit of love – and to
trust that God is with us, come what may.
It means recognizing that even the good we do, we do for
the wrong reasons – for our own recognition and ego – because we are wired to
feed our own self interest and our own desires. This is the consequence of sin.
This doesn’t sound like very good news, does it? But it is only half the story. We are redeemed, in and through the life,
death, and resurrection of Jesus, because God knows we cannot earn our own
salvation. No way. One of our more recent confessions, the Confession of 1967,
which focuses on our alienation from God and our need for reconciliation and
redemption, provides what I think is a very good explanation of both sides of
this truth, in two sections, entitled “ The Sin of Humanity” and “The New
Life”.
THE SIN OF HUMANITY
The reconciling act of God in Jesus Christ exposes the
evil in us as sin in the sight of God.
In sin, we claim mastery of our own lives,
turn against God and our fellow men,
and become exploiters and despoilers of the world.
We lose our humanity in futile striving
and are left in rebellion, despair, and isolation.
Wise and virtuous persons through the ages
have sought the highest good
in devotion to freedom, justice, peace, truth, and
beauty.
Yet all human virtue,
when seen in the light of God’s love in Jesus Christ,
is found to be infected by self-interest and hostility.
All people, good and bad alike,
are in the wrong before God
and helpless without his forgiveness.
Thus all fall under God’s judgment.
No one is more subject to that judgment
than the ones who assume that they are guiltless before
God
or morally superior to others.
God’s love never changes.
Against all who oppose him,
God expresses his love in wrath.
In the same love, God took on himself
judgment and shameful death in Jesus Christ,
to bring humanity to repentance and new life.
THE NEW LIFE
The reconciling work of Jesus
was the supreme crisis in the life of mankind.
His cross and resurrection become
personal crisis and present hope for humanity
when the gospel is proclaimed and believed.
In this experience, the Spirit brings God’s forgiveness
to us, moves us to respond in faith, repentance, and obedience, and initiates
the new life in Christ.
The new life takes shape in a community
in which we know that God loves and accepts us
in spite of what we are.
We therefore accept ourselves and love others,
knowing that no one has any ground on which to stand,
except God’s grace.
The new life does not release us
from conflict with unbelief, pride, lust, fear.
We still have to struggle with disheartening difficulties
and problems.
Nevertheless, as we mature in love and faithfulness in
our life with Christ,
we live in freedom and good cheer,
bearing witness on good days and evil days,
confident that the new life
is pleasing to God and helpful to others.*
Key messages in this section of the confession are:
·
All people, good and bad
alike, are in the wrong before God and helpless without God’s forgiveness.
·
Our new life takes shape
in a community in which we know that God loves and accepts us in spite of what
we are.
·
The new life does not
release us from conflict with unbelief, pride, lust, fear.
·
Nevertheless, as we
mature in love and faithfulness in our life with Christ, we live in freedom and
good cheer, bearing witness on good days and evil days, confident that the new
life is pleasing to God and helpful to others.
My friends, even though evil is all around us, and we
ourselves are predisposed to evil by our nature, God is steadfast, and we have
been delivered from the death that comes from turning to evil and sin, because
we have been redeemed, by God, through the saving death of the risen Lord.
To Christ be the glory, now and forever. Amen.
* Confession of 1967, Book of Confessions, PC(USA)
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