Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7 Romans 5:12-19 Matthew 4:1-11 Psalm 32

Our lessons this morning from the book of Genesis and the Gospel of Matthew bring us two accounts of temptation – two accounts of temptation with dramatically different outcomes – outcomes that, in turn, have dramatic impact on our lives as God’s children.  Our epistle lesson from Paul’s letter to the Romans connects these two accounts and their dramatic impact.

First, the lesson from Genesis describes for us what has come to be known as The Fall.  Sometime after God created humankind, he placed Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden; Eden is a name significant in the Hebrew language of Genesis meaning “delight” and “luxury.”  Here, as we translate from the Hebrew, man was to “serve” and “keep” the garden – the garden being a place to “rest, settle down, and remain.”[1]  Even today, we have these connotations of the Garden of Eden – a place to rest and remain in the delight of God’s will – a paradise.

Our Genesis account of the Fall from the Garden of Eden is a familiar story: the serpent redirected Eve to think of God as tyrannical and disingenuous in his command that she and Adam were not to eat of the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden, death being the consequence.  The serpent tempted Eve to assert her own privilege of making decisions.  Why should she and Adam not eat the fruit of this one particular tree?  Why should humankind be denied the ability to choose freely and be enlightened to the ways of the world?  After all, insinuated the serpent, God is only being selfish – maybe God is jealous of humankind’s abilities to make choices for themselves.

Adam and Eve failed to trust God; they alienated themselves from God by thinking of themselves as being equal with God, being able to make their own decisions without God’s guidance, turning from acknowledgement of their dependence on God.

And, so, as the result of human disobedience, sin came into the world.  And, though Adam and Eve are not struck dead immediately, death, too, came into the world; earthly life now had an ending, and this death became something to be feared.  Would humankind ever again return to Eden – “a place to rest, settle down, and remain” – Paradise?

As Paul explains in his letter to the Romans, “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man (meaning all of humankind), and death came through sin, and so death spread to all because all have sinned.”  [5:12] Gloom, despair, pain, hardship, agony, toil became part of human life.  BUT, Paul goes on to say in verse 19, “Just as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.” [5:19] It is the Apostle Paul who puts it into these words that help us understand, bringing us to our Gospel message – the Good News:

Much was at stake in our Gospel account of Jesus’ encounter with another serpent of temptation.  Just prior to this encounter, Jesus had been baptized by John in the Jordan; coming up out of the water, Jesus experienced the Holy Spirit and heard the words from God, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”  [Matthew 3:17b]

Following his baptism and his affirmation as God’s Son, our Gospel lesson tells us that Jesus went into the wilderness for forty days.  Wilderness, for God’s people, is nearly always a place of struggle; and 40 days is symbolic of the time of searching for a closer relationship with God – just as our 40 days of Lent are a time of searching for a closer relationship with God – struggling to practice our faithfulness through the wilderness of our daily lives.

Affirmed at his baptism as the Son of God, Jesus was now confronted with these enormous temptations for power and prestige and protection.  Would Jesus capitalize on this opportunity to be an all-powerful superhuman god, as Adam and Eve had given in to that temptation, or would he throw his lot in with the rest of us humans and willfully suffer the consequences of being human?

As humans, we have free will; from the time of Adam and Eve, God’s earthly creation – the animals and our entire environment have been left in our responsibility by God.  We can charge full-speed ahead, relying on our own resources and instincts as Adam and Eve sought to do, or we can submit ourselves to God’s guidance in seeking to delight in God’s will – seeking to embrace God’s will as our own, praying that we will not be tempted as Adam and Eve were tempted, as Jesus was tempted.

Did God lead Jesus up on the mountain to be tempted?  What do we mean when we pray to God, “Lead us not into temptation”?  Would God lead us into temptation?

First, as we pray this prayer, we are acknowledging God’s ultimate control of the kingdom that is to come.  Secondly, we are acknowledging the reality of temptation, the reality of evil, and the reality of our human frailty in the face of the evil that seeks to lead us astray, particularly when we are weak and vulnerable as Jesus was weak and vulnerable here on the Mount of Temptation.  Thirdly, our prayer is affirmation of our dependence upon God’s armor of strength as we confront temptation face to face, and as we turn and walk away with the renewed strength of the angels.  Without this prayer of affirmation as our mantra, we succumb to our anxieties; we are overcome by temptation; we forfeit the peace and comfort of our increased awareness of God’s providence, and we are weaker still.

Lead us not into temptation; strengthen us with the desire to do your will; and, if we are tempted and fall short, protect us from the evil that seeks to overcome us in our state of weakness; protect us and restore us to your loving guidance.

Jesus was feeling weak and defenseless in this time of profound loneliness and physical emptiness.  Matthew tells us that he was famished.  Would he bow down to Satan, or would he trust God’s providence and worship God alone?

This Lent, our 40 days in the wilderness is the time that we confront our struggle to remain faithful to God alone.  God created Adam and Eve to “till and keep” the Garden.  He calls us to do the same. We may choose to be restored to the Garden where we delight in his will – where we might rest, and settle down, and remain.  It is our choice.

This paradise is God’s wish for us; this has been God’s wish for us from the time he placed Adam and Eve in the Garden of Paradise; this is God’s wish for us for eternity: rest, settle down, remain in the delight of his will.

For these forty days, look with renewed intention to Jesus Christ on this barren and foreboding Mount of Temptation.  With renewed intention, worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.

 

[1] Judy Fentress-Williams, “Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7 Exegetical Perspective,” in Feasting on the Word – Year A, Volume 2, eds. David Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor, 27-31 (Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press, 2010) 27.