Daily Devotion for Lent 2018 - Day 3, Friday

Scripture Reading: Genesis 3 (NRSV)

Pastors often have "Ash Wednesday

cuticles" the next morning.  This is

after a thorough washing.  It is a 

reminder that sin's consequences

are hard to overcome.

Sin enters into the story here.  People in a perfect setting have to mess it up.  One difficult chicken and the egg type question that occurs to me from this story is, "How would Eve know that disobeying was wrong if she hadn't yet eaten of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil?"

The serpent is not yet identified with Satan yet.  That tradition comes later with the church although some say it is hinted at in Revelation when the devil is referred to as the "ancient serpent."

Would Jesus have thought of Satan as the serpent in the Garden of Eden?

I think it is likely considering the mystic vision Jesus experiences in his fast in the desert following his baptism.  Mark's version is the most succinct taking up all of one verse in Mark 1:13: " He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him."

Matthew and Luke both have longer versions taken from Q while John remains silent.  The longer versions include temptations to create bread out of rocks (Jesus was fasting in Matthew and Luke), to take charge of all the nations of the earth and to throw himself from the pinnacle of the temple.  Unlike Eve and Adam in today's reading, Jesus remains steadfast in his faithfulness, answering each temptation with scripture.

As we all experience temptation from time to time, how we deal with it ideally becomes strategic.  If we choose no tactic ahead of time, we are more likely to fall under the charms of whatever is striking our fancy.  However, if we consider it ahead of time, we, too, might have answers that will allow us to resist.  

These stories of temptation resisted and submitted actually help us to see where we would like to go.  They give us the courage to remain whole in the face of anxiety.  We don't have to wilt under pressure.  This may be more helpful than you think!

God, give me grace to accept with serenity

the things that cannot be changed,

Courage to change the things

which should be changed,

and the Wisdom to distinguish

the one from the other.

Living one day at a time,

Enjoying one moment at a time,

Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace,

Taking, as Jesus did,

This sinful world as it is,

Not as I would have it,

Trusting that You will make all things right,

If I surrender to Your will,

So that I may be reasonably happy in this life,

And supremely happy with You forever in the next.

Amen.

Prayer by Reinhold Niebuhr, Union Theological Seminary, 20th Century