Being like God

 

Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7; Matthew 4:1-11

Eve gets a lot of blame over the centuries for disobeying God, while Adam gets a wink – Eve ate the fruit first. The truth is that both disobeyed God’s command to not eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They were happily living in the garden God created for them, until the serpent, the crafty one came along. In the end, they were banished from the garden and life became hard.

It occurs to me that many cultures have a tricky spirit. Out west, it is the Coyote. Spirit animals represent the contrary desire we have that invites us to break the rules, just to see what happens. We are told that Eve and Adam ate this fruit because the evil, tricky one, told them that if they did, they would be like God, knowing the difference between good and evil. Who doesn’t want to be more like God?!

I am reminded of the movie Bruce Almighty, when God gives Bruce the powers God reserves to God-self. Bruce has a little fun: blowing on his soup creates a void in the center, like the space in the Sea of Reeds that Moses and the Israelites walked through. But his God-powers have consequences: bringing the moon closer caused the tides to go crazy; answering all prayers with a “yes” causes a lot of confusion. Imagine Suzy wants to date Bill, but Bill wants to date Marcy, and Marcy wants to stay home and study. If all three get yes answers to their prayers, no one will be happy.

There are consequences for Eve, Adam, and the serpent in our story.  There are consequences for us if we disobey certain rules. And there would be consequences for Jesus, God, and the evil one, if Jesus chose to go against God’s plan, though since Jesus is also God, I’m not sure how that could happen. So also … this time of testing is critical in Jesus’ self-determination.  

By the time Jesus is ready to begin his ministry, John the Baptizer is actively telling people to change their ways, return to God. Jesus is also baptized and heads immediately into the wilderness to fast and pray. Fasting and praying is a common and ancient spiritual practice, which lets us focus on the prayer instead of what we will buy, prepare, and consume for three meals a day plus two snacks.

Matthew and Luke both tell us Jesus fasted in the wilderness for 40 days. If Jesus, a real human, went without food for 40 days, he would die. Even John the Baptizer found locusts and other critters and honey to eat while living in the wilderness, so I imagine Jesus lived on what he found in nature.

The familiar number 40 is the number of years Moses and the Israelites were in the Wilderness. This seems to me to resemble the fasting of Ramadan, where Muslims eat early in the day, then consume nothing until late in the day. The point is that he was in the wilderness for a long time, wrestling with how to be the Messiah, the human, and not God.

Spiritual wrestling in the wilderness always leaves an opening for us to make choices. Some of those choices aren’t ours to make. Some of those choices lead us into trouble, with loved ones, or with the authorities.

In Jesus’ case, he was wrestling with issues of power and control. He needed to come to terms with the idea that he must allow humans to make their own choices as they responded to him, knowing some would be his fans, some would be his disciples, some would ignore him, and some would be his enemies.

Jesus needed to wrestle with not using his divine powers to make things simple. He would not make his own bread out of stones, even though he could, to ease his own hunger. He would eventually make hundreds of loaves of bread to feed hungry people; but he would not do it for his own satisfaction.

Jesus needed to wrestle with having left behind the glory of heaven, where people worshiped him as God. He would have to submit himself to the lack of respect given to country-hick rabbis. He would have to submit to the ridicule of religious leaders who objected to having their way of life, their rules, challenged by him. Eventually, he would have to submit to the humiliation of dying naked on the cross, the worst method of execution the Romans could imagine.

…I can’t imagine this time of wrestling was easy for Jesus. Major decisions in our lives are not easy, or quick. We often find ourselves similarly wrestling with God. Should we choose option A or B? Which one does God want for us? Which one is healthier for us? It can be a challenge to discern what God wants for us. Mostly, I think, when we say we are wrestling with God, we are wrestling with ourselves and our preferences and our fears.

At the end of the wilderness time, Jesus had a plan and a commitment to the divine vision. And the angels waited on him. We can think that the angels only showed up at the end of the wrestling, but I am sure they were there all along, keeping watch.

We, too, can be assured that the angels, God’s messengers, are present, watching over us as we struggle, wrestling with questions, with decision-making. I believe they can help us see God’s plan more clearly, even if they are not visible to us.

… We began with the story of Adam and Eve’s desire to be like God, to know what God knows. Their disobedience brought them consequences that set a distance between them and God.

There are always times when we want to be like God, or at least to pull back the curtain to see what is in our future. Would it help us to know? Would it change how we act while we wait for our future? Absolutely! Which is why it is best for God to be God and for us to be God’s people, patiently and faithfully waiting for God’s next surprise.

It will be far better than anything we imagine for ourselves. Amen