Communion With the Christ:: The Season of Lent: God Loves Us In Spite of Our Selves.

"Therefore just as one man's trespass led to condemnation for all ,

so one man's act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all." Rm: 5:18

The ancient Season of Lent, which has come down through the ages and covers several weeks, teaches us powerful lessons about the salvation which our God has ordained for us all, for any who will but freely receive it through Jesus Christ.

The Season of Lent began during the Post Apostolic period of the Early Church. In the early years the Christian Church the early Christians generally began to hold the Sacrament of Baptism once a year on Easter Sunday.

All those who had come to believe in Jesus and wanted the Sacrament of Baptism would be instructed to take a 40-day period of time to consider through prayer and reading Scriptures how their lives were to be transformed in light of who Jesus Christ is and all that he had accomplished on their behalf.

This 40-day period became what we now call the Season of Lent, lent meaning "in the Spring of the Year" which is when Easter is observed.

Lent is far more than a season of legalistic performance based religious self-examination, it is rather a time of fully embracing the grace of God and the reality of the risen Christ and the Season of Easter.

One of the lessons which Lent points us to, and speaks to us about , is the answer to the dilemma of human sin and humanities misconceptions about our God.

From the very dawn of creation, there in the Garden of Eden, the great dilemma of sin was introduced and passed on to humanity through our first parents Adam and Eve who gave ear to Satan in the guise of a serpent. Satan twisted the words of the Lord God and his motivations all in an attempt to distort the view that Adam and Eve had toward the Creator. Gen: 3:1-7

Adam and Eve should have resisted Satan’s words and trusted the Lord God and in what he had spoken to them, but instead they assumed a mindset which saw God very different than the truth of who he is, as St. James wrote “resist the devil and he will flee from you”.

Satan used their understanding that their Creator God is Holy, and suggested to them that Holiness could be obtained by them through disobedience to what the Lord God had spoken to them , though the fruit of the “Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil” that all they need do is take it.

“your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good from evil” (5)

Adam and Eve then acted on the deception and chose to eat of fruit from the “Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil”, but instead of rising to the place of God as Satan implied that they would, they now came to grasp the truth about themselves. They now see the truth, that they are “naked”, and in the process their minds and thoughts about the Lord God are now transformed negatively, a misperception is now in place regarding God and his love and grace toward them.

Satan created a distorted view of the creator God and his motivation in the minds of Adam and Eve. God's view of humanity was not altered, but rather, humanities’ view of God.

Their view of God had become distorted and seeing themselves for what they truly were, as it is recorded in the Genesis narrative.

"the eyes of both of them were open and they knew that they were naked;” Gen: 3:7a

Adam and Eve now seeing themselves for what they were (and are) , that is , that “they knew that they were naked” led them both to conclude that, their inadequacies would matter to God and that the Lord’s reaction toward them would be one of anger and rejection. A latent hostility toward God had now crept into their minds due to this misconception of God.

The pair attempt to find their own solution to being “naked” by covering their self-realization of their true state of being “naked”.

“and they sewed fig leaves together to make coverings for themselves” (7b)

Hiding from God

This distorted mind set, regarding the Lord, which they now had toward God manifest itself when Adam and Eve heard the voice of God calling out to them as he walked in the garden, out of fear they withdraw from God and hid themselves.

This altered view and perception of God, that is, that, he would reject them and be angry with them, is why they “when they heard the voice of God as he walked in the garden they hid themselves among the trees of the garden”, even when they heard the voice God calling out to them.

God knew what had happen and that they both had taken and eaten the fruit, God knew that they were both “naked”, that is, he knew and understood exactly who and what they were, yet, he came to them, calling to them, lovingly seeking them out.

The Lord God did not charge into the garden in an angry pursuit of them, instead he strolled in at the eventide of day, when all things begins to quiet down and turn to resting, that is , “in the cool of the day” . This shows us our God's graciousness, calmness, patience and love toward his human children and his desire to reach out to them, letting them know that all would be well.

This timing of the Lord’s approach and calling out to them should have put them both at ease and signaled to them that God was at peace with them and was drawing near to bring them the understanding of his love and grace, rather than impending harsh judgment.

The Lord God did not withdraw from them even in spite of them being “naked”, rather, God came and sought them out. They being “naked”, that is, what they truly were did not matter to God, he still wanted them and wanted to fellowship with them.

When God finds them hiding among the trees and when the truth is then made known. God asked.

“who told you that you were naked?” (11a)

It is, as if, that God is asking “who told you that your state of being, that of being naked, mattered to me?”

The Hope Revealed

God then allows them to live with the consequences, but first he offers hope and the solution to the human condition which Adam and Eve had chosen for themselves and their children , and the way to regain a proper view of our God.

This promised hope is in itself and revelation of the Grace of God which seemed to be beyond the grasp of Adam and Eve, had they understood that God was truly loving and gracious toward them they would not have hid among the trees of the garden, rather they would have called out to God and sought his help.

This declaration of the promised seed is called by some Theologians the Protevangelium, the first preaching of the Gospel.

God gives them hope in a form of a promised “seed” who’s heel would be “bruised”.(vrs.15)

This “seed” would be the hope of not just Adam and Eve, this promised seed would be the one to deal with the estrangement between God and humanity and correct humanities distorted view of the Lord God.

Problem Started in a Garden

The story of our first parents Adam and Eve is the story of all humanity.

The problem of sin which has plagued humanity ever since to varies degrees, with the net effect being that humanities estranged toward their God and sufferings innumerable traumas throughout human history.

This enslavement to and of sin and death and the estrangement which resulted was begun in an idyllic garden setting. Here, our first parents, and each of us following suit in their sin

Not even the garden setting with all of Adam and Eve’s needs met, with no undue pressure or difficult demands placed upon them could they chose rightly. All the demands which were upon them was to “dress and keep the garden” there, at that time was no heavy burdens to assume.

Not one us, even the most pious of humanity , even in ideal conditions has proven able to resist sin, as St. Paul intoned.

“All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” Rm: 2:23

St. Paul address this collective culpability of all humanity in his Epistle to the Christian Church in the city of Rome around 57 AD.

"Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all have sinned" Rm:5:12

Through the sin of Adam, that is, taking the taking of “Tree of Good and Evil”, the “one man's” sin and death passed to all. We all have made the same choice as Adam and death has followed along with a distorted view of God which has perpetuated a latent hostility toward God in the minds of humanity.

The Solution Revealed in the Wilderness

The problem of sin and death and misperceptions about God which began for humanity in the Garden of Eden find’s its solution revealed in the Wildness of Judah, one of the most inhospitable places in all the Holy Land.

“Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil” Matt: 4:1

It is here, in this dry and wind-swept desolate place that Jesus Christ is led by the Spirit to openly demonstrate that he is the promised “seed”, the one who would bring humanity and God together and restore what God intends for us, and give us an undistorted view of who the Lord God is and what he is like.

It is important to understand the setting of the Wilderness, this area of Judah was in Hebrew Cosmology, which is how they saw and thought about the world, thought to be the habitation of evil spirits. It is as if Jesus was invading Satan’s own territory and declaring himself the Messiah , the "promised seed" and the rightful ruler of all.

Jesus enters the Wilderness, and confronts Satan. But Jesus, unlike Adam accepts the words of God and yields himself to trust them in spite of what Satan says as he attempts to twist and distort God’s word and cast doubt into the mind of Jesus. As Adam failed in a garden Jesus, succeeded in a wilderness.

Each temptation which Satan brought forth against Jesus was met with a Scriptural response.

“the tempter came to Jesus and said to him “If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread”(3)

“but Jesus answered and said “it is written” man will not live by bread alone, but by every word which proceeds out of the mouth of God” (4)

Whatever the temptation was Jesus always responded to the temptations by truing to the word of God showing his complete trust in what God has spoken.

Where Adam failed by disobeying in the Garden setting of God, which was the very best of conditions; conversely Jesus succeed in the Wilderness setting. Jesus did what Adam nor any of us could not do, he perfectly obeyed God even in the worst of conditions.

Jesus is not the Messiah because he defeated Satan, but rather Jesus defeated Satan because he is the Messiah.

Healing the Misperceptions

Jesus came not to fulfill some judicial demand of a law, no, rather, Jesus came as God did in the Garden seeking out his naked children who were hiding among the trees of the Garden due to the distorted view of God which they held and their misunderstanding of the Creator as the majority of humanity still holds to.

Jesus came bringing grace and calls out to all humanity through the Gospel to show us the Father's loves to and for us in spite of us all being “naked”.

In Jesus, God shows us all that in spite who and what are he loves us and wants us. Jesus comes to us and calls out to us through the Gospel showing us the depth of God’ divine love.

Jesus is healing our distorted view of God and bringing the forgiveness of sin that our God has always had for us. Jesus’ obedience, like Adams’ disobedience, has been passed onto each and all. As Adam chose for all, so Jesus chose for all.

God looks to Jesus, and in his Holy Son the Father sees us, each and all dressed in the robe of his divine Son. What we are, that “naked” does not in any way a challenge God’s grace toward and for us nor his love. The Cross of our Lord is the ultimate expression of God’s love toward us.

“ while we were yet sinners Christ died for us” Rom:5:8

The Cross is not directed toward God, but toward us, to show us what he is like, a loving God who would die for us in spite of us.

God did not wait for us to “sew fig leaves” together to cover our “nakedness” that is, to reach some morally high level so that we might be acceptable to merit his grace. God through the Person of Jesus came ,and comes to us, and calls out to us so that we might know that he loves us in spite of we all being “naked”.

This is a lesson of the Season of Lent that our God loves and seeks to heal the distorted view which we may have of him in spite of ourselves and come to know we are loved and accepted by him all through Jesus.

Benediction: May we each and all have our misconception and views of God healed knowing that he loves us in spite of ourselves, today, tomorrow and forevermore. Amen.