Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7

Romans 5:12-19

Matthew 4:1-11

Sometimes on Sunday mornings I’m puzzled to work out what the

connection is between our three Bible readings.

However, today they do appear to be very clearly linked. So, to begin I’d

like to look at some of the similarities between the temptation of Eve and the

temptation of Jesus. I know some of these temptations do seem to be a bit

weird but I want to suggest that in fact they represent temptations that all of

us experience.

Firstly, Eve is tempted to take the forbidden fruit and Jesus is tempted to

satisfy his hunger by turning stones into bread. Of course, these aren’t

exactly challenges that we face but we are all capable to attaching too much

importance to our material comforts. Accumulating wealth of every kind

whether it’s better food, a bigger house or a smarter car is something many

of us aspire to even though we are materially much better off than any of our

ancestors. After all, what could be more pleasant than a little retail therapy?

Secondly, I’ve absolutely no idea how high the pinnacle of the temple was

but I can guess that anyone throwing themselves off it and being caught by

angels before they landed on the stones below, would be guaranteed to

become a celebrity overnight. We all want our lives to be significant and

probably like Eve we would like to be considered wise but that’s very

different from an unhealthy desire to be the centre of attention. It’s always

so much easier to focus on our own concerns than it is to take an interest in

other people.

And then thirdly, there’s the temptation to be like God, to be in control of our

own destiny, independent of authority without needing to be accountable to

anyone else. We can all be guilty of thinking, ‘It’s my life, I can do what I like

with it.' Sadly, we only have to turn on the news to see how selfish people in

prominent positions are capable of abusing their power and making other

people’s lives a misery.

So much for comparisons. There are also some important differences

between the two passages. Firstly, Jesus overcomes where Eve fails.

Although in the passage from Romans it is Adam rather than Eve who is held

responsible. Why’s that?

Well you may not have noticed that we skipped the verses about the creation

of Eve in our Old Testament reading. It was Adam alone who received the

instruction not to touch the fruit of the tree. Then Eve was created and after

that she succumbed to the temptation. I’m guessing that she’d only

received the information second hand from Adam. And so he was the one

who was held responsible. The punishment was banishment from the garden

and ultimately death - death not only for him but for the whole human race

who as we well know are also sinful. As we heard from Paul’s letter to the

Romans, “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and

death came through sin, and so death spread to all because all have sinned.”

Another noticeable difference between the two passages is that Adam and

Eve are tempted in a garden but Jesus is tempted in the wilderness. That as

well as the fact that he had fasted for 40 days gives us a very clear

connection to the experience of Moses. As I’m sure you know, Moses fasted

for 40 days on Mount Sinai before receiving the 10 commandments.

Again from Romans we heard, “sin was indeed in the world before the law

but sin is not reckoned when there is no law.” In other words, the main

purpose of the law which Moses received was not make everyone good. It’s

purpose was to demonstrate our innate human sinfulness. The generation of

Jews coming out of Egypt very quickly turned to worshipping a golden calf.

They were constantly moaning about their circumstances and they were

much too frightened to trust God to take them into the promised land. Even

Moses lost his temper and was refused entry. Only two faithful men, Joshua

and Caleb, were able to lead the next generation in some 40 years later.

So it seems that when Jesus fasted in the wilderness he was, in some sense,

picking up the pieces where Moses left off. This becomes even more

obvious when we realise that he overcame all three temptations by directly

quoting the words of Moses. For example, “One does not live by bread

alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” is taken from

Moses parting speech to the nation. It refers to the manna that the Jews ate

for 40 years. The full reference from the book of Deuteronomy is this, “He

humbled you by letting you hunger, then by feeding you with manna, with

which neither you nor your ancestors were acquainted, in order to make you

understand that one does not live by bread alone, but by every word that

comes from the mouth of the Lord.”

Again “Do not put the Lord your God to the test,” reads in full as “Do not put

the Lord your God to the test as you did in Massah.” Massah, which literally

means a test, is the place where the Jews complained about the lack of

water after which Moses was told to provide for them by striking a rock.

So Jesus resisted the enemy’s three temptations and was, at the end, waited

on by angels before he entered the promised land. In contrast, Adam and

Eve were banished from the garden and kept out of it by Cherubim holding a

flaming sword.

So having overcome the temptations, Jesus, as we know, continued to lead

a righteous life. In every way he was obedient to his Father - gathering and

teaching disciples, healing the sick and performing other miracles but this

ministry on its own wouldn’t have been enough to rescue us from the

consequences of our sins. And in particular, it wouldn’t have rescued us

from an eternal death. The only solution was for Jesus to voluntarily take the

punishment we deserved and that brings us of course to the crucifixion.

Here again, there is some very significant symbolism which connects Jesus

with Adam. Adam eats the fruit from the tree, Jesus is suspended on a

wooden cross. Adam is ashamed to realise that he is naked, Roman

soldiers strip Jesus of this clothing. (The gospels don’t mention any modest

little loin cloths.) Adam is condemned to cultivate the ground which

produces thorns and thistles. Jesus is crucified with a crown of thorns upon

his head. As John Henry Newman wrote in our opening hymn, ‘a second

Adam to the fight and to the rescue came.’ In fact Jesus often referred to

himself as the Son of Man which quite literally means the Son of Adam.

St. Paul summarises the exchange which took place at the cross in these

words, “ . . . 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. For just as by

the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one

man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.”

That then is the Good News of the Gospel which we are invited to believe. If

we are willing to repent which means turn around, our sins can be forgiven

and we can be restored to a right relationship with God. We simply have to

believe that Jesus died in our place. It’s a free gift which we did absolutely

nothing to deserve.

But once we’ve been forgiven, how do we manage to lead a righteous life?

As we know only too well, all of us and not just the people in the news, are

subject to the same temptations. As I outlined at the beginning, we are

naturally inclined to run our own lives without reference to God, to be

materialistic and to value ourselves before everyone else.

Well, what did Jesus do? In our Gospel reading we heard how it was

knowing the scriptures and being able to use them to refute the enemy that

made all the difference. I like to think that he must have spent the best part

of his first thirty years studying the Old Testament because he frequently

quoted from it. On the road to Emmaus, for example, he was able to explain

everything that Moses and all the prophets had foretold about him.

So what about us? I want to suggest that the erosion of morality which

we’re hearing about in the news is directly related to our erosion of

confidence in the Bible. This is the book that has shaped our nation for

generations and has given us the values which we have somehow assumed

to be thoroughly British - our integrity, our sense of fair play, our concern for

the marginalised to name a few. Now however, we are beginning to wonder

whether we can seriously be considered to be a Christian nation at all.

Nevertheless there is some encouraging news. It seems that among the

younger generation the Bible is beginning to make a come back. The

Society for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge, recently reported on its

website. ‘Bible sales in the UK have climbed by 134% since 2019, with

people of all ages, and especially younger readers, picking up Scripture with

renewed interest. This isn't just a publishing story: it's a sign that many are

searching for meaning and stability in a changing world.’

So to finish here’s my challenge for Lent. Instead of giving up chocolate or

alcohol (and I’ve nothing against that), how about deciding to read some of

those less familiar parts of the Bible for yourself? I guess we all know the

gospel stories very well because we hear them every Sunday but how about

tackling some other parts of the Bible that you don’t know so well? Perhaps

not Leviticus or Revelation but possibly some other narrative texts that aren’t

too difficult. Genesis and the first half of Exodus for example. Or maybe

Paul’s journeys in the book of Acts. Instead of experiencing the Bible as a

number of apparently disconnected passages on Sunday mornings, I think

you could be surprised to see how well these stories hang together. And I’ve

absolutely no doubt that reading them will have a very positive impact on

your faith.