I
was always a pretty good student. I studied hard. I listened for what the teacher considered important.
I knew how to cut my odds of being wrong. I checked my work. And often I was
the first to finish. Yep. I was one of those who really annoyed everybody
else. Except when it came to algebra
class…I hated algebra…and I hated it because most of the time I
just couldn’t get it! But I had a
secret weapon … a best friend who was brilliant at math…she could
always find “x”…she was so good at it that she could find
“lmnop” too just for the fun of it. Of course, she was in the super-duper honors
algebra class. But every night we would
talk on the phone, and right after we finished all the
really important conversations about boys and clothes and make-up she would
help me with my algebra homework, and after a while I finally started to get
it.
But
one dark and story day our
math teacher handed out a surprise at the beginning of class. "This is a
test," it said. "You have the whole hour to complete it. Read the
entire test first. Because some questions may be difficult, you may then answer
in the order you wish." Well, not me! I was not going to leave any
question unanswered! I immediately jumped into the first one, a word problem,
the tricky kind that gives you more information than you need to solve it, so
you have to decide what matters and what doesn't. But I solved it. "I can
do this," I thought, feeling some confidence. The teacher just sat there,
smiling. I hated that smile.
I
was on a roll and had just
started question two, when I heard some people laugh. Well, it was a hard test.
Suddenly a couple of kids walked up to the teacher's desk, plopped down their
papers, and left! "Fools!" I thought. I
could hear my father saying, "Never give up without even trying!" But
when I read question number three it said "Name as many states as you
can." What was that doing on a math test? It took me a while, but I got
all fifty. I was getting worried, though. Two pages, thirty questions, one
hour. The clock was ticking, and my brain was spinning. Some of the questions
were math problems, but just as many were out of left field, like "List
five plays written by Shakespeare."
Every question seemed like a trick question. Most distressing of all,
others were turning in their tests now, too, one after another, and I was
barely into question six! Most of the class was gone, but I wasn't going to
give up so easily. And the teacher just sat there smiling. Did I mention that I hated that smile?
The
end of the hour neared, and
I still had about ten questions to go. Only about three of us were left. With
about two minutes remaining, the teacher stood up and said, "Put down your
pencils, please." So we did. And
she said, "Read the instructions again, please." So we did. And she
said, "Now look at question number thirty." So we did. And it said,
"This is a test to see if you can follow directions. Do not answer any
questions. You have already made an `A.' Turn in your paper and leave without
speaking to any of the fools who didn't follow the directions." We looked
back at the directions once more: "Read
the entire test first." I called that test "The Dummies'
Revenge" because when I walked into class the next day, they were all
smiling at me. I hated those smiles too!
But I always followed the directions after that. And even now, every
time I take a test in seminary, I still look at the last question first.
Our
scriptures today urge us to
follow the directions God has given us. They are about sudden tests and
unexpected trials. They are about making the right choices, choosing good over
evil…choosing right over wrong…choosing God over all the other
deities we might serve instead. We make our choices and then our choices
make us. We are urged to consider the consequences. They are about
temptations, and as Thomas à Kempis observed, "Temptations discover what we are." Today we have two stories to compare: from
the Hebrew Bible, the temptation of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden; from
the New Testament, the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness. Then Paul
compares Adam One with Adam Two. Adam One makes the wrong choice. He ignores
God's instructions. Disaster follows. Adam Two is tested, but he knows God's
instructions well and follows them. He passes the test with flying colors.
These
are curious stories, deeper
than a traditional understanding. The story from Genesis we know all too well.
We might call it, "Help, I've
Fallen, and I Can't Get Up." It is a prototypical story, of course
- historical, not in the specific sense, but in the universal sense. The Hebrew
word "Adam," means "human," or "humankind"
"Eve" means "living," "alive," maybe even "lively."
It doesn't take a subtle mind to get the point, though many have missed the
point: this is a story about all of us. We are all Adam and Eve,
"Human" and Alive," and this story happens all the time, which
explains why things are they way they are.
But
the story raises a lot of questions. It also looks a lot like any family with teenagers, a "coming of
age" story. God tells Adam and Eve they can eat from any tree in the
garden except that one over there, "the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and
Evil." What's that about? Doesn’t God want us to know the difference
between good and evil? Is it like the
story of Peter Pan…that we are better off naïve and immature … that
we might never die if we just never grow up? Does God want to protect us from
the world God created? Or is it saying that life is messy, and it’s our
own fault?
God
says they may eat from every tree in the garden except one, and immediately we know what's going to
happen. Immediately, we ourselves want that forbidden fruit. It's irresistible!
Any parent knows a child will test the limits and that the words "you
can't" is usually met with "I will." My children are as different as daylight from
dark. Our son is eight years older than
his sister and he was such an easy baby.
He slept though the night at eight days, and never went through the
terrible twos. Of course I assumed that
meant I was a wonderful mother…it never occurred to me that he was
incredibly attention deficit and passive aggressive and just couldn’t
have cared less in the first place about anything I had to say. Mary Cate was cut
from and different cloth entirely. When
she was a wee toddler my father asked me if she knew what the word
“no” meant, and I told him that she did, and that when she said it,
she meant it!
Raising
children is a contest no
parent ever wins in the end … because children do grow up to be their own
persons and make their own choices, some of which the parents won't like. But
they will eventually set their own limits, and you can only hope they will
catch most of what you've tried to teach them, that one day you might be
friends and they might even thank you for trying your best - and forgive you
for your mistakes. But they will inevitably be them and not you. And maybe
that's what God means later in verse 22: "See, Human has become like one
of us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might reach out his hand and take
also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever."
But
how does the forbidden fruit make
“Adam" and "Eve" like God and the heavenly court God
addresses? Does it make them independent …free-willed…autonomous?
Isn't that the goal of growth? Why is that a bad thing?
Every
family knows this pain too
… that autonomy means separation. Children must find some distance to
become persons apart from their parents, and their parents must let them go
when the time is right, which is almost always sooner than the parent wants it
to be and always later than the child wants it to be. And while most families
eventually renegotiate to a mature adult to adult relationship between parents
and children, it is seldom easy and never the same as when they were
young. So does God resist humanity
becoming mature? Or is the story trying to say there are better ways to mature
than disobedience and disconnection?
Maybe the story is not about humanity coming of age after all. The Bible has many ways of describing sin,
not just as breaking the rules, but also missing the target, and especially,
taking the wrong direction. And we are good at all of them, or bad, as the case
may be. Maybe the story is as simple as we've always heard it. God made
"Adam" and "Eve." God gave them clear instructions, which
they disobeyed. The result was disastrous.
More
has been made of the woman
being at fault than the story wants to emphasize. They are both at fault, of
course. No excuses for either, and we should especially note that when Adam
tries to blame "that woman you gave me," God will have none of it!
The serpent in the story (who is never identified as Satan or the Devil by the
way) is any snake in the grass that tries to get between partners, between us
and God. But it all comes down to making a choice, and the choice they make
… the choices we make … are the choices that make us who we are,
which often isn't so pretty.
The
story of Jesus' choice is curious, too. The Spirit leads him into the wilderness to be tested. The
Spirit leads him. We all know those wilderness experiences, too, where
directions aren't clear and our hungers get the best of us and our faith is
tested. But does God lead us into that wilderness of temptation? And if so, why? It seems like the contest between God and
Satan over poor Job in the Old Testament, only we are
Job … we are one stuck in the middle. The devil tests Jesus at the same
place we are tested – in our neediness… in our vulnerabilities
… in our insatiable hungers…in our preference for the easy way out
… in our lust for power and status and meaning. Jesus answers by quoting
the directions he chooses to follow - the word of God. He will follow no other
God … not hunger … power … or wealth.
But
is Jesus tempted as a human in
this story or as God? Is this story about how we stand the test by following
the directions? You all know that I
believe the Bible is God's word to us. Most of you believe that, too. In a
survey released about a year ago, 86% of the sample believed the Bible is
relevant today, and 80% said the Bible could address most of the world's
problems. But 80% also said the Bible could be confusing at times. We know the
Bible can be dangerous in the wrong hands … that it has been used as a
hammer to crush people who are different or who disagree. I think that the 80%
of folks who thought that the Bible can be confusing are right on target.
The
story of Jesus' test in the
wilderness suggests that we can meet the tests of life by knowing scripture.
But it also reminds us, Satan can quote scripture, too. I mean, in many places
the scripture is clear, the guidance is direct, and it is a simple choice
whether we obey or disobey. Try it for yourself. Obeying brings life.
Disobeying brings death in one of its many terrible forms. But in other places
the Bible is easily misinterpreted and manipulated to exploit people. And in
relation to the complexity of real life where we are already compromised, and
our sins affect our friends, and the answers aren't so clear, quoting the Bible
can be hurtful and hate filled.
Knowing
the Bible isn't enough. We
must also know the God of the Bible. We must be led through our wilderness
experiences by the same Spirit who led Jesus through his. You can memorize the
Bible and not understand it. You can quote it and still not get it. You can
support whatever you want by choosing your favorite proof texts, but that
doesn't mean you're following the directions. As much as we may affirm that God
inspired the authors who wrote it, they are all dead and gone. We can't ask
them what they meant. We need the living, still speaking God to help us hear it
and understand it and apply it. Even then, we will need more to pass the test.
This
is where the story gets interesting. In the wilderness, the human Jesus is tested, but so is the divine
Jesus. In fact whenever a person is tested in the Bible, God is tested, too.
God tested Abraham by commanding him to sacrifice his son. But God was also
being tested. Did God want human sacrifice? Would God allow the promise made to
Abraham and embodied in Isaac to be killed? God created Adam and Eve and gave
them - us - a choice. We are God's own creation. Will God allow it to go wrong,
to end in disaster? Who is finally to blame for what humans do? Satan didn't
make us! And nowhere is it clearer that God is tested in our tests than in the
story of Jesus out in that desert. He has come for our salvation. Will he rise
to the occasion? Will he meet the test? The answer is Yes!
Always! One hundred per cent! We may struggle and fail, but
Christ will not!
Listen
up now, because here is the
point: you will be tested, too. You will spend your time in the wilderness.
Knowing the Bible can guide you. But knowing the God of the Bible is even more
important. And knowing the Christ of the Bible is the most important thing of
all because he has already passed the test for us. You see, if you read through
all the directions first that God has given us in this book, you will find a
"question number thirty" in there. It's clear and concise: "Everyone who calls on the name of the
Lord shall be saved" (Romans 10:13). Let’s pretend we are at a good old time
revival right now. Can I have an
“Amen?” Would you say that verse from Romans with me? "Everyone who calls on the name of the
Lord shall be saved." Isn't that wonderful news? Let me hear it one
more time: "Everyone who calls on
the name of the Lord shall be saved."
It
isn't rocket science. You
don't even have to solve all the word problems or list the fifty states. The
answer to the only question that matters is grace. Sure, do the best you can.
Make the choices you know to be right, because the consequence of wrong choices
is an experience of separation and death. But know this: Christ has already
passed the test for you. In Christ, God will not let you be separated forever.
God will not abandon you in the wilderness. God will not let the creation God
loves come to nothing. Even where we make the dumbest mistakes and flunk
outright, God is faithful and with us and giving us a grade: A+! Don't worry
about the agony of defeat; you're guaranteed the thrill of victory. The
rulebook says, "Everyone who
calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved." My friends, that is the only answer you need to know for the
ultimate final exam.
May
we pray?
Loving God, free us from the fear of failure by reminding
us of your love. Free us from the oppression of obligation to the joyful
discipline that brings blessing. Let us obey you, not because we fear
punishment but because we know that you know what is best for us. And lead us
by your Spirit to grow up into life by means of your grace through Jesus Christ
our Lord, on whose name we call and by whom we are saved. Amen.
Mary Anne Biggs, Pastor
Nekoosa United
Nekoosa