Lent 2025 Day 3: Fri 7 Mar
Genesis 3:1-6
3 Now the snake was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, ‘Did God really say, “You must not eat from any tree in the garden”?’
2 The woman said to the snake, ‘We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, “You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.”’
4 ‘You will not certainly die,’ the snake said to the woman. 5 ‘For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’
6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.
I have always wondered why the serpent lies, after all such a crafty animal would have probably been just as able to deceive Eve by speaking the truth. Perhaps, the lie is the point of this passage, to remind us of all those little lies we tell ourselves when we want to betray our own conscience? After all, does history not often bear witness to this? Do politicians not constantly choose to misrepresent the truth to make their actions look better, more impressive, more decisive, more justified? And does not our own experience of ourselves do the same? I am sure most of us would admit to exaggerating a claim or two in the heat of an argument… And perhaps that is the point, that when we try to bury away the pangs of moral intuition, we are so ready to find plenty of justifications. Now, even of course had not yet learned this perfectly human habit, so she corrected the serpent; but I dare say that seed of mistrust in God it had planted in her was enough, for she took very little convincing after that first lie.
What does being like God mean, in the serpent’s next attack? Surely Adam and Eve both knew right from wrong already, as creatures empowered with an intellect. I think knowing good and evil goes beyond that, it speaks to our tendency to know something is wrong in principle, but finding “good” reasons to override such concerns. That is how they would become “like God”, not in power, or wisdom, or knowledge, but rather detached from the moral arc of Creation, law to themselves, not out of any rightful inheritance as children of God, but by grasping at a power that was not theirs.
Father, protect us from the lies of those who want to steal us from you, but more importantly protect us from the lies we tell ourselves, that we might follow not the path of the Serpent, but that of your Son Jesus Christ.
12:50 Du lieber Heiland (Arioso)
5. Recitative A (Chorus I)
O you dear Saviour,
when your disciples foolishly protest
that this virtuous woman prepares your body
with ointment for the grave,
in the meantime let me,
with the flowing tears from my eyes,
pour a water upon your head!
6. Aria A (Chorus I)
Repentance and regret, repentance and regret
rips the sinful heart in two.
Thus the drops of my tears, desirable spices,
are brought to you, loving Jesus.
7. Evangelist Then one of the twelve, named Judas Iscariot, went to the high priests and said:
Judas What will you give me? I will betray him to you.
Evangelist And they offered him thirty silver pieces. And from then on he sought opportunity to betray him.
Ends at 18:08
Paul