There are two things I really don’t like: feeling foolish, and not having the power to do what I want to do.
Adam and Eve got hit
with both the foolish feeling and the powerlessness – so they lashed out. Maybe
they felt betrayed by God, wondering if he had lied to them? They didn’t go and
ask him about it, though. They simply decided, “I want this stuff, and screw
they guy who has given me everything and says I can’t have this one thing that
I want.” I want power and I want not to feel foolish so to Hell with that guy,
I’m getting what I want.”
They chose desire and
getting what they wanted over good relationship.
The problem was that
they weren’t made to be satisfied by getting everything they wanted. They were
made to be satisfied by being in good relationship with each other. The one
thing that was not good in creation was that the man was alone.
The story didn’t say
that it wasn’t good that the man didn’t know enough, or it wasn’t good that the
man wasn’t powerful enough. When God saw this thing in creation that wasn’t
good, he didn’t fix it by making the man smarter or more powerful. God fixed
the problem by making the man another human to be with. The story said, it
wasn’t good that the man was alone. Human connection and relationship was what
truly made Adam and Eve whole. Human connection and relationship and connection
and relationship with God were what made the humans whole.
So, when they chose getting what they wanted, when they chose power and knowledge, over honoring God and each other, being in good relationship, they broke with their own nature. They actually worked against themselves, and the result was shame, brokenness. They hid from each other and they hid from God.
Now, some might ask,
well why did God put that tree there in the first place and then tell them not
to eat of it? Was it a test? Was God just being kinda cheeky that day?
I don’t exactly know,
but here’s a couple of ideas. What if eating the fruit of that tree is meant to
symbolize all kinds of ways in our lives that we choose getting what we want
over being in good relationship with other people, getting what we want over
treating others well?
When we do that, we hurt
ourselves; we hurt others; we feel shame; we get disconnected from one another.
That’s what happened with Adam and Eve in the garden.
So maybe they screwed it
up for everybody, but what if not. What if that’s just part of being human?
Wanting stuff, messing up, hurting one another. That’s just part of being
human. When we’re babies, we start to grow, and we eventually start to assert
our own will. We start saying no. We start exploring the world, doing what
we’ve been told not to do because we’re curious, because we want to learn and
explore for ourselves, some of us because we just have to learn the hard way.
We are made to be in
good relationship, and we also blow those relationships off to try things on
our own, and screw up, and hurt one another. It’s just what it is to be human,
and it’s messy, and it sucks, and it’s also kinda great because we have freedom
to learn and grow and become who we are.
Ideally, of course, we
are going to work at healing when we do hurt one another.
That’s what Jesus showed
us in his temptations. Did Jesus want the power that the devil offered him? You
bet he did. But, he also wanted to love and trust God. He wanted to honor God,
to honor that relationship.
So he chose a different
path. He gave up stuff that he wanted in order to be in good relationship with
God, and by extension with all people.
In doing so, Jesus
healed us by connecting God with humanity in all of our temptations, and then
on the cross, connecting God with humanity in all of our failures over those
temptations as well.
Jesus is in those places
of temptation with us, and having taken our sins upon himself, Jesus is there
in those time when we fail. When we choose stuff that we want over good
relationship, when we choose power and knowledge over good relationship, Jesus
is right there with us saying, “I understand, and now I know you’re hurting.
You’re feeling foolish and powerless. Let’s work together on healing the harms
done, and let’s get back in right relationship with one another. Let’s remember
again to honor one another, and if you try to make things right with someone
you’ve harmed, and they don’t accept that, you can honor that too. You can’t
force right relationship. That’s just taking one more thing that you want
rather than honoring the other person.
Jesus also says, “let’s
work on you feeling foolish and powerless, because in some ways we are.
Sometimes we may be somewhat foolish or certainly with we knew more. Sometimes
we just flat out are powerless. Jesus is teaching us that God’s power and
knowledge is sufficient for us. That what Jesus is teaching us in his victory
in the temptations in the desert. “Yes, I want everything you’re offering me,
devil, but I’m going to trust in God instead. Maybe I’ll get those things that
I want, and maybe I won’t.” Hell, it’s often likely that we won’t, but Jesus is
showing us the way of trusting in God anyway, not because of what we might get,
but because of who are. We’re God’s beloved children.
Trusting in God’s care
for us, trusting in that relationship and seeking good relationships with
others, we find we don’t need to feel foolish or powerless. We all of us are
sometimes, and that’s ok. We can trust in God and who we are, and when we
don’t, we can trust in Jesus joining with us in those failures. Trusting in
Jesus, we get the peace we are ultimately searching for. Peace over the
agitation of feeling foolish and powerless. Peace over not getting what we
want. Peace to let go of our shame. Peace of good relationships with God and
one another. Peace of living into who and how we were made to be.
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
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.
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