They had lost their
innocence. The first effects of their sin were that their eyes were opened, and
they realized that they were naked. Of course I am speaking about Adam and Eve
in the account of the Original Sin. Adam
and Eve could no longer be comfortable with themselves. They ate from tree of
knowledge of good and evil, and now they had knowledge of evil. In Scripture to
know means to experience. Adam and Eve had an experience of evil. It was horrible.
They were exposed, vulnerable, full of shame, full of guilt. Their choice of
sin was a turning away from the Lord of Life. They chose that which is not
life. They chose death. And all mankind suffered the result of their choice. All
people would suffer from sin and the result of sin, death[1].
We experience
this every day of our lives, as good people, innocent people, die. We
experience this as our children are assaulted by the media, by the immoral
aspects of society, by all who would take advantage of them. But, St. Paul tells the Romans and us, just
as sin and death came into the world through the actions of one man, Adam,
grace and life has come into the world through the actions of another, Jesus
Christ. And what Christ has brought into the world, His Grace, is infinitely
more powerful than the hideous power of sin.
Jesus first
demonstrated His power over evil when He defeated the devil and the diabolical
temptations after His forty days in the desert.
We can see the beginning petitions of the Lord’s Prayer in Jesus’
response to the devil. Jesus would seek His bread from God, not from the world;
and He taught us also to pray to God for our daily bread. Jesus would seek the will of God and not
impose His will upon His Father.
We are all
tempted to sin. That is part of life. But we can fight against sin. We can
defeat temptation. In some ways we all experience each of the temptations that
the devil put before the Lord. The devil
wanted Jesus to trust in His own power, rather than the Father. He wanted him to change rocks into bread. We
also are tempted to trust in ourselves instead of trust in God.
We cannot fall
for the temptation to think that we can do everything ourselves. We have to
trust in God. We have to have faith.
Yes, we must do our best to provide for our future that of our loved
ones, but, ultimately, we rely on the Lord to take care of us. We can resist
the temptation to push God out of our lives. This call to faith is not always
that easy. In fact, it is usually quite
difficult. It is quite difficult to
spend so much time and energy on a person, for example a child, or on a
situation, for example a career, and then trust the future to God rather than
to ourselves. It is tempting to think that we do not need God. We cannot survive without God. We cannot be
happy without Him. And we cannot live
forever without Him.
Like Jesus, we
can fight the temptation to be bought by the world. There are many people who
have sold their souls for wealth and power.
The devil tempts us to join those who do evil, tune down or turn off our
consciences, and reap wealth beyond our imaginations.
This morning we
ask the Lord today to protect us from the temptations of the world, lead us not
into temptation, and to deliver us from evil, the evil one, and the evil within
us. And we trust in God for we know that
we are loved; for we have been purchased, and at what a price![2] ■
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