Jesus said, “And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.” John 3:19
Thought for the Day: The Fall of Man
When God created Adam and Eve in his image, they had an intimate relationship with him in the Garden of Eden. They knew his voice. He spoke with them directly and gave them these commandments: be fruitful and multiply, fill and subdue the earth, have dominion over the other (non-human) living creatures, work and keep the garden of Eden, eat of every tree in the garden except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
God created humans, specifically Adam and Eve, to have a relationship with him and with each other. Their purpose in life consisted in following the commandments of God. Man was made to work the garden, fill the earth, and enjoy God. If Adam and Eve had continued following God’s commandments, they would have enjoyed eternal life with him and not experienced death. When we consider how Jesus describes eternal life in John’s Gospel it sounds very similar to what eternal life originally was in the Garden of Eden.
Unfortunately, the situation changed in the Garden of Eden when doubt entered the picture through the deceptive ideas of the serpent. Who is the serpent? Revelation 12:9 says the ancient serpent is the devil and Satan. Devil means slanderer and Satan means the accuser. The slanderous accuser cleverly got Eve to doubt what God had said: “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” Eve responded, “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 midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die’” (Genesis 3:1-3). It is interesting that Satan twisted around what God had said so that the truth of God was obscured. Instead of one tree being off limits, Satan suggests they are all off limit to Eve. But Eve corrects Satan. She knows exactly what God said—except for the phrase she adds: “neither shall you touch it.” Either Eve doesn’t remember correctly, or, more likely, she is embellishing for the sake of making her conversation with the accusing slanderer more interesting, especially in regard to God’s one negative commandment with a severe punishment. God never said they could not touch the fruit, only that they could not eat of it.
Now that Satan has Eve embellishing God’s word, he takes his deceitful conversation one step further: “You will not surely 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.” Satan insinuates that God’s commandment is motivated by selfishness. The conversation began with Satan trying to get Eve to doubt God’s word. Now he goes in for the kill, opening the door for even greater doubt—doubt that the punishment will fit the crime, doubt that God does what he says he will do, doubt that God speaks the truth about himself, about his commandments, about the consequences of sin, about the way he has ordered the world to function. To doubt God’s word meant that Eve needed to evaluate it by some other standard, some standard that was greater or wiser. The only other standard she had was Satan’s, which was lesser and substandard. To doubt God was ultimately to reject the truth of his word and trust Satan’s, entering into the rebellious state of evil, sin, and death itself. Planting false ideas and images of God is Satan’s chief weapon to destroy God’s purposes for humanity. A right conception of God is basic to fighting back against our ancient adversary. Failure to know the truth about God and what he requires of us destroys relationships, wrecks society, and leads people to eternal doom.
I once heard a sermon on one of Jesus’ resurrection appearances when Jesus appeared to Thomas, the disciple nicknamed “doubting Thomas.” One of the preacher’s points was that doubting is a noble human trait. I think he meant to say that “questioning that causes deeper investigation of God is noble,” but that is not what he said. He said that “doubt is a noble human trait.” I cringed, thinking of Eve doubting God’s word. I thought of doubt as an insidious tool of Satan. I thought of how easily Adam fell into the same doubting of God’s word as Eve did. Doubt is not noble; it is ignoble in regard to obedience to what God says. The consequences of Adam and Eve’s doubt directly affect us because it made us, their offspring, less than human—less because to be fully human is to be in full relationship with our Creator.
Adam and Eve hid from God after sinning. In a sense they were the first to demand their right to privacy—a way to try to hide from the righteous judgments of God. The closer we come to God the more aware we become of our own sin and the more we want to hide from him. Because we are created in the image of God, we can only truly know ourselves and the truth of who we are when we know God. In hiding from him we cease to know who we are and are cut off from his word of truth that helps us understand reality and interpret the world in which we live.
Adam and Eve doubted God’s authority and the only restriction he gave them. They doubted the punishment: death. Doubt led to action and their action led to God’s punishment: “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—” therefore the LORD God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life (Genesis 3:22-24). And so humanity is banned from the Garden of Eden and blocked from the way to the tree of life. Adam and Eve would not live in intimate relationship with God. They would not know eternal life. They had become like God, knowing good and evil, being able to decide what it right and what is wrong in their own eyes, setting their own standards while choosing to ignore God’s. Displaced and distraught, they needed to know the way and the truth and the life.
Yet in the banishment of Adam and Eve, God displays his amazing grace. He allows them to exist for a greater purpose and glory that will ultimately be on display for the world to see in the crucifixion of his Son. Their sin and ours will be paid for and reconciliation will happen, through their offspring. Throughout biblical history God reaches out to people, forming relationships with Noah, Abraham, Jacob, Moses, Joshua, Samuel, David, and other Old Testament figures. But none of these relationships compares with what God does through his Son, Jesus.
Self-examination, repentance, prayer, and worship:
Before you pray, take some time to reflect on temptations in your life. Perhaps there is something that is tempting you to sin. Ask the Lord to strengthen you with his Holy Spirit that you may not fall into sin, and then pray a prayer like the following:
Almighty God, whose blessed Son was led by the Spirit to be tempted by Satan: Come quickly to help us who are assaulted by many temptations; and, as you know the weaknesses of each of us, let each one find you mighty to save; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Spend time in worship before studying the Gospel of John below.
Study: John 2:1-12, The Wedding at Cana
1On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. 2Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples. 3When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, "They have no wine." 4And Jesus said to her, "Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come." 5His mother said to the servants, "Do whatever he tells you."
6Now there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. 7Jesus said to the servants, "Fill the jars with water." And they filled them up to the brim. 8And he said to them, "Now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast." So they took it. 9When the master of the feast tasted the water now become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom 10and said to him, "Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now." 11This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him.
12After this he went down to Capernaum, with his mother and his brothers and his disciples, and they stayed there for a few days.
Reflection Questions:
1) The Marriage Service declares that the bond and covenant of marriage was established by God in creation, and our Lord Jesus Christ adorned this manner of life by his presence and first miracle at a wedding in Cana of Galilee. Why do you think Jesus chose a wedding feast for the setting for his first miracle?
2) What do you think the meaning is behind changing water into wine? (We will look at this on March 24.)
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