Beyond Blame

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now have you ever had a difficult time identifying what is good and what is bad?

I know diet experts seem to keep changing their mind in what a good diet is.

People seem to have different ideas in how to be good stewards with what you are responsible for.

And with watching the news, it can be confusing to identify who are the good guys and the bad guys.

But it seems that this determining of good and bad

has always been a struggle since the beginning of time.

You’ll find that the content in our Gospel lesson and our Old Testament lesson

seem to complement each other.

In some ways,

they are the opposite,

and in some ways,

they are the same.

In our Old Testament lesson,

Adam and Eve are being questioned by God

In our Gospel lesson,

the son of God, Jesus, is being questioned by the people.

God asks Adam and Eve why are they hiding.

And the people around Jesus accuse him of being evil.

The people around Jesus ask if he is out of his mind.

And Adam and Eve play stupid as if they didn’t do anything wrong.

Adam and Eve blame everyone else for their actions

though they knew very well what they did wrong.

While Jesus says he’s not evil

as he has been getting rid of evil the whole time during his ministry.

How can they claim Jesus to be Satan?

And I find that’s the question that is to be asked today for the next generation of people.

How is it that God is painted as the bad guy by popular culture

while popular culture itself has shown time after time

to enjoy things that are of Satan?

Why do many people not want to go near Jesus today?

Is it because of the poor things others say about him?

Is it because of how others live out their Christian faith?

Is it because they can’t do the things they want

knowing that Jesus wouldn’t approve?

Is it because of their ignorance about him?

Perhaps the issues

are to blame

on living in our corrupt world

--the same corrupt world from Adam and Eve.

Adam and Eve had free will in a perfect world

and still they chose sin.

Now, it wasn’t like they jumped on it when they first had the chance.

It took a little encouragement for them.

Just a lie from Satan, himself.

In Genesis 3:4-5, the serpent says to the woman,

“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.”

After this discussion,

Eve found the forbidden fruit

to be pictured as something good for her

not something that God would punish.

Much like how sin works today.

Often the thought process is something like,

“Who are we to tell others what is right or wrong

as long as others do whatever they want.

We are letting them be

who they were created to be.”

And sin continues to happen

from generation to generation.

But if Adam and Eve couldn’t have the strength to live well in a perfect world

how is anyone supposed to figure it out in a broken world?

But in the midst of all the blame and the brokenness we live in

how does God interact with his people?

Does he just punish them and abandon them?

No.

God does warn of the consequences

and there will be punishment for breaking the consequences

but in the midst of all the blaming and tearing each other down

God’s grace and promise for deliverance

is all the greater.

Again,

yes, God punishes sin

but his plan of salvation is even greater.

How did God handle the situation with Adam and Eve’s first sin?

We might be quick to think of the punishment God had given to them

that they would live and struggle in a cursed world,

but first

God punished the serpent

the animal Satan used to speak with Eve.

God did not let Satan and Eve continue in their relationship on a good note.

Rather,

he put enmity between them.

God brought Eve back

to have a relationship with her creator.

Jesus would have Eve to live for God’s purpose

not Satan’s purpose

not because she deserved it

but because God was gracious and merciful toward her.

And God has this same attitude toward us

that as we struggle understanding right and wrong

while we may point blame to the wrong places

God leads us to have a strong relationship with him

--Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

And God promised there would be an offspring of Eve