Bible Text: Genesis 3:1-7, Matthew 4:1-11 | Preacher: Rev. Jenn Geddes
I have always enjoyed following Oxford Dictionary’s word of the year. While it has only been going on since 2004, usually they are quite correct that the word of the year becomes part of our regular vernacular. The word for 2016 was no exception. The word was, “post-truth” and while we may not use it in our regular vocabulary, yet, it is closely related to another new term that seems to be taking the world by storm, fake news. Post- truth is an adjective “relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion or personal belief.” It is believed that three things have contributed to post-truth: the 24-hr news cycle, the false balance in news reporting, and social media. That makes it sound like a new phenomenon but there is a part of me that sees the story in Genesis as an example of post-truth. In that there is one character that uses emotions and misinformation to trick or manipulate the situation, and while I believe that it is a story that is used to teach us some valuable lessons about ourselves and who God is, it is also a complex and crafty story.
Ellen Davis, author of “The Soil That Is Scripture”, encourages us to read the Bible with patience and suggests that instead of reading the Bible like we would fiction or non-fiction, we should read it like we would poetry. She suggests, “slowing down to ponder each phrase, to wonder why this word was chosen and not another, how this line or paragraph or story builds on what precedes and leads into what follows.” The story of Eve and Adam, the Serpent and the forbidden fruit is a great one to use as we look carefully at the truth within the pages and the post-truth that our world has come to believe. This can be a challenging task because most of us want clear, straightforward answers, with black and white examples and instructions, but that is not the case for most of Scripture. I remember being about 10 years old and asking my Mom a tough “faith question.” I believe my question was, “If God created the world then who created God?” My Mother, was baking at the time and she paused before mixing the ingredients and thought. Then she replied with something that has stuck with me for decades. She said, “You see this recipe right here? Well this recipe gives you all the ingredients and instructions but it does not tell you how good it will taste, you have to bake it to find out. The Bible is like that; it gives the ingredients and instructions but it does not give you all the answers. It’s up to you to find those out.” The story in Genesis likely creates more questions than answers, but with patience, wonder, curiosity and the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we can glean some important facts about the text.
Within the first verse it says that the serpent was very crafty. It seems like a strange word to use- almost modern. I can think of world leaders or corporate CEOs who I might call “crafty” and mean it as an insult. However, the author was quite deliberate because in the original Hebrew the word crafty is ‘arum and it is the root to the word ‘arummim which is the Hebrew word for naked. When we hear that the serpent is crafty it is supposed to trigger a link between the serpent and the naked, innocent humans in the garden.
Then, as the serpent tries to persuade Eve it says, “You will not die, for God knows that when you eat of this fruit your eyes will be opened and you will be like God.” Here is a fine example of how the Serpent is using post-truth, trying to convince Eve that her innocence is worthless when compared to God’s knowledge. Now, the creation story in Genesis is complicated, in part because there are two stories. There is “the God created the world in seven days and created both men and women together story” as found in chapter 1 and then there is the other account of creation as found in chapter 2 in which God creates, roughly in the same order, until it gets to Adam, who God creates first and after a while creates Eve, because Adam is lonely. It is in the second creation story in which we find the warning about the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. In the first creation story God says that every plant, animal and fruit is for humanity to enjoy. In the second creation story God warns Adam, not Eve, about the tree. We couldn’t even argue that Eve misheard God because Eve wasn’t created yet. And so, to blame Eve for biting into the fruit is rather unfair and perhaps the serpent knew that. But also note that it says that while the serpent only addressed Eve, Adam was there, standing right there with her, HE could have warned her, but instead he is silent. Then when they consume this forbidden fruit it says their eyes were opened. And all of a sudden it appears that the serpent was telling the truth all along, and God was the one who lied, because Adam and Eve did not die as God had predicted, but their eyes were opened as the serpent had said would happen. But then again, their innocence did die, their close relationship of walking in the garden with God died, they were no longer the same people they once were. I could go on, but I want us to compare the story in Genesis 3 with our story from Matthew’s Gospel.
Jesus manages to demonstrate a much stronger resistance to post-truth. The devil takes advantage of Jesus’ hunger and attempts to trick Jesus into following his commands. The devil states that even if Jesus threw himself off the top of the temple that angels would come to his rescue. The devil claimed that he was capable of giving Jesus all the kingdoms of the world if only Jesus fell down to worship the devil. Jesus’ strength really is a foreshadowing of what will happen in that great mystery of death when Jesus rises on Easter morning.
For Jesus, this is really a preparation for his public and earthly ministry. While it says at the close of our Gospel reading that the devil left him, Jesus will endure many examples of being tested and tempted. Think of all the times that it says religious leaders asked questions in hopes of tricking him, or the various ways they criticized him, or even the way his followers struggled to understand him. But Jesus overcomes all of that so that he himself is known as the way, the truth, and the life.
We are faced with a time in history in which post-truth tempts us, and we struggle to understand what is real and what is fake. Crafty leaders manipulate and trick us into believing them over truth. But Lent provides us with this time of reflection, and an opportunity to rebuild, even resurrect broken relationships, with each other and with God. Even the Bible does not always give us clear answers, and stories are often more complicated than they first appear but the Word of God is not fake rather full of truth, Amen