Lent 2025 Day 5: Mon 10 Mar
Genesis 3:16-19
16 To the woman he said,
‘I will make your pains in childbearing very severe;
with painful labour you will give birth to children.
Your desire will be for your husband,
and he will rule over you.’
17 To Adam he said, ‘Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, “You must not eat from it,”
‘Cursed is the ground because of you;
through painful toil you will eat food from it
all the days of your life.
18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
and you will eat the plants of the field.
19 By the sweat of your brow
you will eat your food
until you return to the ground,
since from it you were taken;
for dust you are
and to dust you will return.’
What is punishment? There are many different strands of Scripture we could look at as we try to answer this question, but as Christians we ought to be selective. The Gospel of John tells us that Christ explains the Father to us, so we must let Jesus also guide our reading of Scripture. Thankfully we are not alone in this endeavour, as we are prompted by the Spirit and taught by centuries of Church tradition.
Punishment, then, when it comes to God is best understood as correction, making things right, restoring something that has broken. If you have ever been under the surgeon’s knife, or had some powerful medication, you will know that sometimes healing is not a painless endeavour; so it is with God, sometimes allowing our misguided actions to have grim consequences is part of the economy of healing.
Adam and Eve had the unfortunate need for such chastisement. As many wise people in the early Church were fond of reminding us, it would have been no mercy to allow the couple a consequence-free life lived in their corrupted state. With no correction, a crooked sapling will only grow more crooked, so something needs to be done to save the tree.
As we are yoked to Christ, we are given the best opportunity to grow into our full natural vigour, but when we take a wrong turn, there are ways to be brought back, from the pangs of a guilty conscience, to the consequences of our own actions. We would do well, however, not to make the mistake some of Jesus’ hearers made, and see all misfortune as a punishment from Heaven — we are not the only people on this planet, so sometimes what hits us is not healing love, but evil.
Loving God, through Christ the Great Physician you bring us healing in many forms. Keep us listening to your promptings, and give us discernment to understand how your Spirit works around us.
23:03 Wo willst du (Chor)
9b. Chorus I
Where do you want us to prepare to eat the Passover lamb?
9c. Evangelist He said:
Jesus Go into the city to a certain person and say to him: the Master says to you: my time is here, I will hold Passover in your house with my disciples.
Evangelist And the disciples did as Jesus had commanded them, and prepared the Passover lamb. And in the evening he sat at dinner with the twelve. And as they ate, He said:
Jesus Truly I say to you: one among you will betray me.
Ends at 24:50
Paul