Sermon 3-9-25

Pastor Ray Lorthioir

Trinity Lutheran Church

W. Hempstead, NY

The First Sunday in Lent

The Playing Field

So, have you got your soda, pretzels and snacks ready? For today and the next six Sundays it’s going to be warfare season. On one side we have this Galileean Carpenter who calls Himself the Son of Man. On the other side we have a horde of demons and their human stooges led by a spiritual creature who thinks he’s God. At the end of the season we’re going to find out who the champion is — who is God and who is leader of the human race.

Like any other professional sport, we have to know what the rules of the game are. So that’s where we begin this morning. This earth is the playing field. In fact, the entire created universe is the playing field. But the action has taken place at various times on rather small sections of this earth. Initially the game was played on a small section of earth that was called the Garden of Eden. That garden no longer exists. In one of the time frames of the game it was destroyed along with everything else on the face of the earth by a great flood of water. The remains of that flood fill earth’s oceans to this day.

Team humanity lost in a big way in the Garden of Eden. It was a devastating loss that to this day plagues everything, not only on this earth, but in the entire universe. Then, as now, the championship was a stake. Who would be God? Who would be the leader of the human race? Then as now, victory was measured in love, commitment, faithfulness, loyalty and freedom. At stake was the Image of God that Yahweh had bestowed not only on humans but on the spiritual creatures with which He has populated His creation.

The Image of God is many things. However, it has one main characteristic that overrides everything else — righteousness, Yahweh’s righteousness. We read in 1John 1:5 “This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.” This means that Yahweh is pure goodness. He is pure righteousness. There is nothing evil about Him at all.

And let’s examine something. What is evil? What makes something in this creation evil? To answer the question, first, we have to acknowledge a fundamental point. Yahweh is the Creator of this creation. This creation is His entirely. 

So, when we read the first chapter of Genesis, we find that in its initial form Yahweh declared His creation not only good, but very good. This means that it was just the way He wanted it. Everything in Creation was just the way Yahweh wanted it. Every creature was just the way He wanted it. The first two humans were just the way He wanted them. For, Genesis 1:26-27 tells us that Yahweh created the first two in His Image. Adam and Eve were Image bearers. They were as good as their Creator. Like their Creator, there was no darkness in them.

So, if goodness is when everything is just as Yahweh wants it, what then is evil? Obviously, it’s when everything is not just as Yahweh wants it. Evil is when Yahweh’s good will is defied. What makes something evil is that it is set against Yahweh’s good will and purpose. It’s something He doesn’t want.

Now, if Yahweh knows what He wants. He also knows what He doesn’t want. So, does Yahweh know good and evil? Absolutely, yes. But, here’s the important question. If Yahweh knows about evil, does it enter into His being; into His personality? What we just read in 1John 1:5 answers the question — No. And think about it. If Yahweh is just the way He wants to be, why would He ever be some other way?

This is a hard thing for us to grasp because we have great difficulty being totally the way we want to be. We’re always in the midst of some kind of contradiction within ourselves. And this is a symptom of what was lost in the Garden of Eden. The Image of God was lost. If we still had it, we’d always be true to ourselves, true to each other, and most important, true to our Creator God. However, it’s no problem for Yahweh to be totally true to Himself. As I sometimes facetiously say, if Yahweh were on a diet and someone brought Him a box of the finest donuts, a week later that box would be sitting there untouched and getting moldy.  Yahweh is totally true to Himself. He is totally righteous. In Him is no darkness at all.

Now, in this contest between humanity and rebel spiritual beings there are two prizes or trophies at stake. One is the Image of God. The other is eternal righteous life with Yahweh.

Scripture doesn’t exactly tell us how and why some of Yahweh’s spiritual creatures rebelled against Him. But if we take a look at what Jesus accomplished, there is a strong hint about what happened. It’s found in an ancient hymn quoted in Paul’s letter to the Philippians. We read in Philippians 2:5-7, 5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.”

Scripture tells us that Jesus is God the Son, the only begotten of the Father. Jesus is God, co-equal with the Father and Holy Spirit in every way. As God, the Son, Jesus didn’t have to grasp at Godhood. He’s God.

However, when Jesus came from heaven and was incarnate — given a human body — by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin, Mary and was born as a mortal man, grasping equality with God became not just an issue, but the issue. Incarnate as a human, Jesus refused to grasp equality with God and that’s how He won the victory. Therefore, it has to be grasping at equality with Yahweh that caused Satan’s downfall and the downfall of every other spiritual creature that lost the Image of God. OK. Keep in mind the idea of grasping at equality with God as we explore another feature on the playing field.

We read in Genesis 2:8 that when Yahweh planted the Garden of Eden, He planted two trees in the center of the Garden. One was the Tree of Life. The other was the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. We read in Genesis 2:16-17, “16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, ‘You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.’”

One of the gotcha polemics against Christianity is this: “Why did God put the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in the Garden if He knew it was going to result in the Fall of humanity?” That makes God sound evil. Right? Therefore, let’s carefully examine that tree.

First, it was a tree whose fruit gave knowledge. Now, has Yahweh given a creature made in His Image much of the knowledge that He has? Has Yahweh created such a creature with all the knowledge it needs to have? Absolutely yes. So, why did Yahweh create a tree that offers additional knowledge, and what kind of knowledge does it offer? The key is the word, evil.

As we’ve already said, evil is anything Yahweh does not want; anything He has not chosen. Do any of Yahweh’s creatures made in His Image need to know what He has not chosen? No. It’s only when Yahweh’s creatures fall from His Image that we need to know what He has chosen and what He has not chosen. Therefore, the tree was there to remind Adam and Eve that there were things they didn’t need to know — things best left to Yahweh Himself.

Second, the tree has a commandment attached to it. This was to remind Adam that he was creature and not Creator.

Third, disobeying the commandment had a punishment attached to it. It was a warning to Adam and us that if a creature tries to grasp at being God there are dire consequences.

Fourth, and most important, the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was a tree of covenant. Every time Adam passed by that tree and did not eat of its fruit he freely affirmed his love, his commitment, his faithfulness and his loyalty to Yahweh, just as Yahweh had affirmed his love, commitment, faithfulness and loyalty to Adam. On the other hand, to eat of the tree would be to freely affirm hatred, disdain, faithlessness and disloyalty to Yahweh. But why would Adam do such a thing made in the Image of God and full of Yahweh’s righteousness? He wouldn’t. And that’s where the rebellious creature, the Serpent, comes into the picture.

The New Testament identifies this Serpent as Satan, the spiritual creature who fell into evil grasping at equality with Yahweh. Speaking of Satan, Jesus said in John 8:44, “. . . He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”

There is only one source of truth in this universe. And, that’s Yahweh, its Creator. Since Yahweh made everything, including spiritual creatures, He knows everything there is to know. So, when Yahweh speaks, He speaks absolute truth. To hear and believe Yahweh is to know the real truth. Anything that contradicts Yahweh is a lie from the father of lies.

Scripture doesn’t entirely explain how Satan fell into hatred, disdain, unfaithfulness and disloyalty to Yahweh. However, it’s clear that for some reason He decided to grasp at equality with Yahweh. And Jesus made it clear that in doing so, Satan entirely lost the Image of God and fell into evil. By labeling Satan a murderer and liar Jesus made it clear that Satan has none of Yahweh’s righteousness left in Him. To be sure, Satan is full of his own self-righteousness. But that’s what evil is.

In Genesis 3 we read of the Serpent’s interaction with Eve concerning the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. The Serpent made it clear to Eve that Yahweh was holding something back from Adam and Eve. And Yahweh was. It was the knowledge of evil. Being in the Image of God they automatically ignored evil because they were in Yahweh’s complete righteousness. Why did either of them need to know anything about evil?

Therefore, the Serpent had to deceive Eve into thinking that knowledge about evil was worth knowing because it would make her more like God. Also, since God does not die, the Serpent insinuated that because she would be more like God, Eve wouldn’t die. That was a flat out lie.

What the Serpent didn’t tell Eve was that by eating the fruit she would be expressing her hatred, disdain, unfaithfulness and disloyalty toward Yahweh, and the covenant between them of love and faithfulness would be broken. He also didn’t tell Eve that in eating of the fruit, she would not be able to resist evil, but would become a slave to it. As Jesus said in John 8:34, “. . . ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.’” And St. Paul complains in Romans 7:14-15, “14 . . . we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. 15 For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.”

Genesis 3 tells us that Eve ate of the fruit of the forbidden tree. In some way she convinced Adam to also eat. We know this from what Yahweh said to Adam in pronouncing judgment upon him in Genesis 3:17, “. . . ‘you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, “you shall not eat of it . . .”’” When confronted by Yahweh with what she had done, Eve complained in Genesis 3:13, “. . . ‘The serpent deceived me, and I ate.’” In other words, she had listened to the voice of a deceiving liar. And Yahweh agreed with her complaint.

This brings us to an important point about the contest we’re going to observe. It’s all about words. Words. It’s about who is telling the truth. And it’s about whose word the contestants will believe. It’s about whose word you’ll believe.

So, here’s the contest. It’s about Yahweh’s Word versus all other words. It’s about Yahweh’s Love, Commitment, Faithfulness and Loyalty to us, and our need to return the same to Him. It’s about true freedom. It’s about the Image of God. It’s about true righteousness. It’s about letting Yahweh be God and not grasping at equality with God. It’s about Yahweh’s righteous will prevailing against everything in opposition to Him.

And there’s one more important part of the contest: Life and Death. Whoever wins the contest will live in eternal righteous Life with Yahweh. Whoever loses will die.

We all know about physical death. We can see it. We will all experience it. Upon death our spirits will be disembodied.

But do you know that there is a Second Death? The Second Death is what Hell is called in the book of Revelation. Revelation describes it as a lake of burning sulfur. But aside from the lousy climate, there is something far more significant about the place. Every being tossed into that lake will be separated from Yahweh and His righteousness forever. There will be no turning back. There will be no goodness of any kind in anyone or anything in that lake. Every being there will be condemned to play God and be their own god forever. And that’s why the place will be a 24/7 vicious marital fight/bar fight/gang war/holocaust/world war. If you think things get out of hand here on earth, you haven’t seen anything. For here on earth evil is restrained by Yahweh. The Hitlers, Stalins and Mao Ze Dungs of this earth can only go so far. On the other hand, there will be no limit to evil in the Lake of Fire. For, Yahweh won’t go there to stop it. The place is to be truly feared, unless being your own god is what you truly desire. Then it will be “heaven.” It will be what you always wanted.

As I said at the beginning. The contest we’re watching this Lenten season is a contest between Jesus, representing all of humanity, and all the rebellious spiritual beings and human beings set against Him. And we have to recognize something important about this contest. It’s a rematch. Adam, Eve and all humanity lost the first contest in the Garden of Eden. In the rematch Jesus is our champion.

Adam and Eve were free creatures in the first contest. They were not yet sinners. They were dealing with no compulsion to choose evil over the good. Made in the Image of God, Yahweh’s total righteousness was their natural state of existence. They lost the contest and fell into sin because they were deceived. They believed and acted upon words spoken by the Serpent, instead of holding fast to the Word they had heard from Yahweh. In so doing, they brought all of their descendants down with them into sin. We’re all conceived and born slaves to sin because we’re born in Adam’s Original Sin. Because of that Original Sin, we are all fallen from the Image of God to what is called the Likeness of God. Thus, we’re all forced to play God, defining good and evil for ourselves. And it’s in playing God that our slavery to sin becomes obvious.

Just as Adam and Eve were free creatures, in the rematch Jesus is also a free creature. For, He was not conceived and born in the normal fashion. By special action of Yahweh, a woman born in Original Sin, Mary of Nazareth, gave birth as a virgin to the only man who has ever been born without Original Sin and fully in the Image of God — Jesus of Nazareth. In the rematch, the ancient Serpent will also attempt to deceive Jesus — and not just once. Will Jesus hold fast to the Word of Yahweh? Will He avoid being suckered into grasping for equality with God — something Adam and Eve couldn’t avoid? Will He be able to resurrect all of humanity from the dead? Will Jesus be able to regain the Image of God for all humanity? Will He be able to restore the totally righteous Image of God to all who will believe in Him? Will He be able to rescue from Sin, Death and the Power of the Devil all who put their faith in Him? That’s what the rematch will be all about.

Today’s Gospel reading — Jesus fasting in the wilderness — is the first quarter of the great rematch. Having set the playing field and the rules for the contest today, we don’t have time to do a play by play analysis of the first quarter. We’ll do that next week. We’ll see if the Serpent can successfully deceive Jesus into grasping equality with God, or if Jesus will hold fast to the one thing He must do to win the contest for us.

Forty years ago you had to watch a Sunday football game live on TV if you wanted to see it. But then came something called Tivo. It enabled you to record the game and watch it later. That’s what Scripture does for us. The game has already been played. And I think you all know the score — Christians 100, Lions nothing. But being able to play back each play over and over and analyze it is something special. For Scripture shows us how much our Lord has done for us, and how great His salvation is. Therefore, from the record of Scripture may we take comfort in this Lenten season of repentance that Jesus has truly atoned for our sins and we are forgiven unto eternal righteous life with Yahweh forever. Amen.

All Bible quotes are from the ESV.