Temptation

Genesis 2:15-17, 3:1-7; Matthew 4:1-11

          Boundaries.  Like it or not we all have them, those limits to what we can and cannot do, or, should I say, those limits to what we should and should not do.  And we’re all tempted from time to time to transgress our boundaries.

          The Russian novelist Dostoevsky captured the power of temptation in his classic novel Crime and Punishment.  The protagonist, a young intellectual named Raskolnikov, was extremely poor and had to drop out of the university.  He placed all human beings into one of two categories.  You were either only ordinary or, if fortunate, extraordinary.  Despite his own destitution, he saw himself as one of the extraordinary human beings.  The miserly, unscrupulous pawnbroker who lived near him, on the other hand, was only ordinary. Raskolnikov believed that since he was an extraordinary human being, he was justified in executing what others considered a despicable act—the murder of the pawnbroker. 

          Raskolnikov devised a plan of murder.  And as often happens with such plans, it did not unfold exactly as expected.  He was in the pawnbroker’s apartment when she arrived home.  He was able to kill her alright and to take her money, but her innocent younger sister was with her.  Raskolnikov could not leave an eyewitness, so he murdered the sister too.

          Raskolnikov became paranoid.  He imagined that every person he saw on the streets suspected him of the murders.  He was tormented by what he did, and eventually lost his sanity.

          He was tempted. He transgressed his boundaries.  And he suffered the consequences.

          It is the story of humanity, going all the way back to the earliest pages of the Bible.  The story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden is a goldmine for interpreters of the Bible and for interpreters of human nature.  Adam and Eve are an archetype, a paradigm of your life and mine.  They are a mirror reflecting the reality of the human condition.  What does it mean to be human?  Look at Adam and Eve.  They tell our story.  Foolish are we if we fail to learn from them.

          God placed Adam—actually it is the Hebrew word adam, meaning “humankind”—in the Garden of Eden.  According to this ancient story, God gave Adam and Eve three instructions (Interpretation, “Genesis,” Brueggemann, p. 46).  First, God gave them a vocation.  Their job was to “till and keep” the garden.  They were gardeners.  Their vocation was to enhance the beauty and productivity of the Garden of Eden.  Second, God gave them permission.  “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden,” God told them.  Everything was good and was to be enjoyed.  And then third, God gave them one prohibition.  “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.”  The text tells us nothing about the tree of knowledge.  It is mentioned nowhere else in scripture.  You see, the tree itself is not important.  What is important is the prohibition.  Adam and Eve were given a boundary.

          Vocation.  Permission.  And one prohibition.  Life is about balancing these three instructions from God.  This garden in which we live, this garden we’ve named earth, is an act of utter graciousness.  We didn’t create it.  We don’t sustain it.  It is God’s gift to us, pure graciousness.  And if we look closely at the trees in our garden, they will tell us something about this gift from God.  It has restrictions.  It has boundaries that we dare not cross.  We might wish for a garden with no dangerous trees, no boundaries, but that is not what we were given.

          Enter temptation.  In the form of a crafty serpent.  I don’t know which came first, our dislike of snakes or this text.  But as far as I’m concerned, the biblical writers could not have chosen a more appropriate creature to be the Tempter.  Notice what happens in Genesis 3.  For the first time God is treated as a third person, the one talked about.  These are not words spoken with God.  This is not directed to God.  God is talked about.  Listen to the subtle distortion in the crafty serpent’s question to Eve, “Did God say, ‘You shall not eat from any tree in the garden?’” 

          That’s not what God said, is it?  The serpent was a master of spin, we would say today.  God gave permission, remember?  “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden.”  Everything was good and to be enjoyed, except the one tree.  So, Eve—meaning the “mother of all living”—corrected the serpent.  But it was too late.  Do you see what the serpent has done?  The serpent awakened Eve to the possibility of a way other than God’s way.  There was a way to live other than obedience to the Creator of the garden.

          “You will not die,” the serpent lied to Eve, leading her further down that road.  Besides, the serpent continued, God’s holding out on you.  You see, if you eat from that tree, God knows that you will become like God.

          Suddenly God is no longer Adam and Eve’s partner and provider.  God is a barrier, and somehow they must get around that boundary.  I don’t think I can improve this text, so let me read to you what happened next:

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, and he ate.

And here is the outcome.  Don’t miss this:

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.

          Suddenly Adam and Eve were exposed.  They were found outside the boundaries set by the gracious Creator of the garden, as if a spotlight shined upon them alone.  Shame was stacked upon shame such that it could not be covered.  The prohibition was violated.  The permission was abused.  And the vocation, tilling and keeping the garden, soon will become arduous, backbreaking labor.

          Like Raskolnikov, they were tempted.  They transgressed the boundaries.  And they suffered the consequences. 

Adam and Eve live on the printed page what you and I and every other human being face: the temptation to live outside the boundaries of our gracious Creator.  We may wish we lived in a different kind of garden, a garden without this kind of tree, but this is the kind of garden we’re given.  There are boundaries, and foolish are we, if we fail to learn from Adam and Eve.

        This is a difficult story to tell you.  Kelly and I sat down with some  dear friends Wednesday night after our Ash Wednesday service.  They are from Canada.  They were on top of the world…until last Saturday night. They recently built a lovely home here in south Huntsville.  We’ve been there many times.  They have two daughters, a four year old and an eight month old  whom we love like our own grandchildren.  They are a smart, loving couple and great parents.  Saturday night they went to a birthday party.  They enjoyed their friends and ate some birthday cake.  The kids played, and the adults had a few drinks.  As they drove home, the police pulled them over.  He was driving and tested above the .08 limit for alcohol.  He was arrested for DUI.  Their girls were strapped in the back seat.  In Alabama, driving intoxicated with a minor in the car is considered domestic abuse.  Their girls were taken away from them and placed in foster care.  He spent two nights in jail.  And now their immigration status is in jeopardy.

They are devastated.  Crushed.  Ashamed.  It feels for them like their idyllic life has come to an end.  They feel like terrible parents.  They feel like criminals. A part of me wants to say, “This is too much!  It’s too harsh!  I know these people, and I know they are good people and excellent parents.” But that’s not true.  There was a boundary.  A boundary they should not have transgressed.  But they did.  And, as always, there is a consequence. Here’s what I told them.  I said, “You made a mistake, like we all have.  Own it.  Learn from it.  But do not let it define you.  Forgive yourself and accept God’s forgiveness too. And you will rebuild your lives.”

        You know, that’s why we have Lent.  We are all tempted.  And we all sometimes transgress the boundaries.  And we must pay the consequences.  It’s painful.  It’s shaming.  It may cause us to feel like our life is over.  But here’s the message of this season.  The One who was gracious enough to give us this garden is gracious enough to forgive us and give us a new beginning.  Oh, what wondrous love! 

Closing Prayer

          Our Creator, come to each of us in our gardens.  See us as we are.  Forgive us and free us from the shame that clings to us like a poisonous vine.  O God, for those who need it desperately, do a miracle of forgiveness.  Amen.