"Original Sin" That is the label we Christians use to speak of the sin that started it all. When God created Adam and Eve there was no sin. They lived in a state of blessed innocence. The only commandment was, "Do not eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil." In their innocence they had no first hand knowledge of good and evil. Then the serpent invented something new: temptation. "Look isssn't the fruit of that tree plump and juicsssy. Surely God won't kill you for eating it. God isss Good. It will make you big and strong like God. Go ahead eat it. Hissss." And they ate. Now they knew first hand what evil was. They had disobeyed their Creator; betrayed their Father. The eyelids of innocence were drawn back and they could see, but they did not like what they saw.

Original Sin refers to the origin of sin, but it also refers to the results. Innocence and purity were taken away. With the comprehension of good came the first hand experience of evil. Humans knew the evil of betrayal and guilt. And they knew the separation of evil; alienation from their God and Father. Sometimes I like to call original sin "original separation." Because of that sin, humanity was separated from its creator. As a result of that sin Adam and Eve were cast out of the Garden of Eden where they had walked and talked with God. They went to live east of Eden, a God forsaken land where people live by the sweat of their brow. A place where the wild beast of death captures all eventually. To this day their descendants are born in that land separated from their Heavenly Father.

Original Sin speaks of the origin of sin and its results, but it also speaks of our sin. Adam and Eve started a trend. Sin has become a family tradition for humanity. Paul said, "Therefore as sin came into the world through one human being and death through sin, and so death spread to all humankind because all sinned."(Romans 5:12) The first sin was a prideful betrayal of the God that had given life and everything else good. Every sin since then has basically been a repeat of that same betrayal. They say you always hurt the ones you love. God has loved us most and had been hurt the worst.

That's "Original sin," but what's "Original grace?" A good friend of mine in college was a Lutheran, Harold Jefferies. He's now a Lutheran Pastor. If Methodism can be characterized by "good works" then Lutheranism can be characterized by "grace." Grace, by the way, refers to any unmerited gift, unearned gift from God. With Harold everything was grace. I remember one time he even interpreted the fall as an act of grace. The fall, the source of all sin, sickness, and death, a means of grace! "Preposterous," I said. Of course this idea of Original Grace did not originate with Harold. He had read it somewhere. According to this idea of original grace, if the fall had not taken place, then we would have never known the joy of being saved. It was an act of grace for God to allow the fall so that we could experience His amazing grace through salvation.

Now you and I might not go as far as my friend Harold, but I have to say I appreciate the spirit of his suggestion. Even in the origin of sin God's delivering/saving grace is present. God took the origin of sin and made it also the origin of grace. Of course we would have been better off if Adam and Eve had not eaten that forbidden fruit. But God was loving and gracious enough to offer us a way out of our situation of sin.

Just consider how graciously God punished Adam and Eve. According to the law, Adam and Eve were to die for their sin. And God after all is a just God, so justice would be served. But like a loving parent the punishment was given lovingly and with the most grace possible. God could have wiped Adam and Eve out of existence right then and there. God could have called for the earth to swallow them or fire to come down from heaven to consume them. God had every right to do that. Instead of some instantaneous means of death, God decided to let them die of old age. "Old age," what's that. Before this no one had ever aged before. This was an entirely new concept for Adam and Eve. So Adam and Eve began to slowly age and die. By the grace of God they died of old age; a very old age if you remember. This gave them a chance to live, have children, and even to mourn their sin.

Humanity has been sinful from the beginning, but God has been gracious from the beginning. In the beginning God made the rules simple, "Don't eat from that tree right there." But that was too hard for the first humans, and I seriously doubt you and I could do much better. Even that simplest act of righteousness was beyond them. So God had to punish, but God's punishment was gracious. Adam and Eve had children and they had children and so on until one of their descendants was Jesus, the son of man and Son of God. God graciously sentence Adam and Eve to a slow death which gave them time to produce descendants who eventually produced a Savior for all humanity.

And what Adam and Eve couldn't do Jesus could. They couldn't resist the temptation and remain righteous. But Jesus could. It is no accident that the first temptation was to produce food. Adam and Eve were surrounded by food but they still succumb to the temptation to eat the forbidden fruit. Jesus, after fasting for 40 days, refused to give in to temptation and make bread from stones.

The other two temptations were also fulfillments of what Adam and Eve failed to do. The serpent told Adam and Eve that the forbidden fruit would make them great, like God. Similarly the devil offered Jesus an opportunity to grandstand and to have the greatness of an earthly king. But once again where humanity failed, Jesus prevailed. Paul said, "As the trespasses of one led to condemnation for all, so the act of righteousness of one leads to acquittal and life for all."(Romans 5:18)

Like Adam and Eve, and Jesus, we all face temptations. Original sin reminds us that we humans tend to give in to temptation. It is a family trait. The mother and father of the race did it and we do it too. Like them we try to be like God and know good and evil. And like them we are ashamed when our eyes are opened to what we have done out of pride and self centeredness.

Original Grace reminds us that God sent his Son to do what we couldn't. We couldn't stay righteous, but Jesus did. Humanity sinned when it was tempted, but Jesus told the Devil where to go. Humanity disobeyed God and shamed itself, but Jesus obeyed God and made his Heavenly Father proud.

We all face temptation and we all give in to it. When you give in to it, remember that God offers us the righteousness of Jesus to replace the unrighteousness we possess. God offers us forgiveness and a way to come home to our Heavenly Father when we have wandered away. But when you face temptation remember that you can't stand up to it. The mother and father of our race gave in to temptation. And the rest of humanity has followed in their footsteps. That is except for Jesus. He not only resisted temptation, but he even drove the tempter away. And he can do the same for us.

When you are tempted, don't trust in your own abilities or strength, because you are sinful from your origins. Instead trust in Jesus and his strength, because God is gracious from the beginning. Where humanity fails, Jesus prevails.

Matthew 4:1-11

Jesus taught his disciples to pray "Lead us not into temptation." But personally, if I were going into temptation I would want Jesus leading me. After all he seems to know how to overcome it. That is what our Gospel lesson today is all about. Jesus was tempted by the Devil himself. And Jesus did what no other person in the history of the world has ever done. He faced a lifetime of temptations and never sinned.

Of course when Jesus said, "Lead us not into temptation" he meant pray that you don't have to face temptations. But we do face them. Sometimes we place ourselves in situations where we are tempted and sometimes temptations seek us out. And the truth is that we are weak and will give in at some time. But Jesus didn't give in to temptations.

So my point is that we should follow his lead when we face temptations. We should look at how Jesus faced temptations. We should learn from his example. Then when we face the same temptations, which we do, we can resist them as well.

The first temptation Jesus faced was to turn stones into bread. Jesus had been fasting in the wilderness for forty days and was famished. It would have been a simple thing for the Son of God to turn stones to bread. A little fission and a little fusion, some basic chemistry and he could in a whim rearrange the subatomic particles of granite and quarts into wheat and rye. He had helped creates galaxies out of nothing, what was making a sandwich out of something. And he was hungry you know, and food is one of the basic needs of human physiology.

But Jesus knew he was not on earth to feed his face. He was in the desert to prepare spiritually for the battles ahead. He was there to fast and pray so that he could go and reveal the coming of the Kingdom of God to the world. Then he would die and rise again to bring that Kingdom into being. That was his purpose.

We face the same basic temptation ourselves. It is the temptation to satisfy our hungers and appetites with cheap substitutes. Jesus would not starve to death. He knew that. He was in the desert because he hungered and thirsted for the guidance of the Father and the Spirit. But the Devil offered a cheap substitute in its place.

Isn't that how the Devil tempts us? That is why sometimes people drink or take drugs instead of dealing with their emotional problems. It is so much easier to buy a beer and numb yourself then to really delve into your problems. Isn't that why some people overeat because they are lonely or depressed. It is so much easier to fill the emptiness in your gut than to fill the emptiness in your heart and soul. Isn't that why some people go from cheap physical relation to cheap physical relationship because they are not willing to make the commitment and take the risk of devoting themselves and opening themselves up to a person and really love them. That is why so many people today live together because they would rather play at marriage instead of making a real commitment to each other.

Jesus' response to this temptation is enlightening. He doesn't say, "not now" or "don't bother me." Jesus instead addresses the real issue here. He says "Humans don't live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God." Notice that Jesus doesn't disregard or pretend that the physical appetites are not important. They are a part of us. But they are not a substitute for the basic need for God. Yes, physical food keeps our bodies alive, but we need God to live. If we can really learn that lesson then we can overcome the temptation to accept a cheap substitutes for God.

Jesus' second temptation was to throw himself down from the pinnacle of the temple so that all would see that he was the Son of God. It must have been hard for Jesus. To know that he knew all and to have so many people discount him and ignore him. Can you imagine what is was like. Here he is the author of the universe and the religious leaders were ignoring and even persecuting him. He was there to show them what God was all about. If he did what the Devil said maybe they would listen for a change. Maybe the Devil had come to a change of heart and was really trying to help Jesus here?

But Jesus noticed that the real thing that would be served would be his own pride. He was sent to tell people about God, but throwing himself from the temple would only serve himself and not his Father. His purpose was to show people God's greatness not by grandstanding but by suffering for the sins of the world. The religious leaders would probably listen if he did that but then how would he die for the sins of the world?

Jesus response was direct, "Do not tempt the Lord thy God." Pride is a strong motivator. We all want to be noticed for the brilliant, creative and beautiful people that we are. And we are tempted to say, "Look at me and what I can do." When they were small my daughters liked to show me what they can do they say "Look at me Daddy, look at me." And to an extent that is good and I looked and applauded when they accomplished something because it built their self esteem. But we need to recognize where self esteem ends and pride begins.

The secret to Jesus' response is the recognition of the temptation for what it was. Yes, this action pretended to serve God, but it really didn't. Jesus noticed that and named it. And he told the Devil, "Your tempting me. Don't do that." We need to realize when we are being tempted by pride and name it just as Jesus did.

The third temptation was to worship and seek after earthly power. The Devil said, "I will give you all the kingdoms of the world if you will bow down to me." Jesus was the rightful King of Kings. But The Devil had temporary power over may thrones. In a sense the Devil was a pretender to the throne of the King of Kings. And the Devil was offering to give up that throne.

Many times we are tempted to worship earthly thing instead of seeking heavenly. We worship our earthly jobs and careers instead of serving God in our spiritual vocations. Sometimes we seek earthly power and riches instead of storing up treasures in heaven. Sure there is some short term benefit to it, but in the long run the Devil is the one being worshipped.

We can learn from Jesus' response to this temptation. First of all he told the Devil where to go. Some Christians don't realize that we have that power too. They think, "Sure, Jesus is the Son of God. He can tell the Devil to scat. No trouble." What they don't realize is that the same Jesus lives in every believer's heart and through him we have the power to say "In the name of Jesus scat."

The second part of Jesus response was "Worship the Lord your God and serve him only." We too need to keep in mind the ultimate goal of all our actions. We are to worship God. Sometimes the wrong action seems right at a certain time because some good is served in the short term. But in the long run the Devil is always the winner when we do the wrong thing for the right reasons. So let us be sure all our action glorify God.

Lead us not into temptation. We should pray that our life's path will not go through temptation, but at some point it will. When we are tempted, let us remember Jesus' response to it. Let us recognize when we are being offered a cheap substitute for what we really need. Let us realize that we live by God's word and not only bread. Let us realize when our pride is being fed. And let us keep in mind that all our actions should serve to glorify God.

Jesus is our example. He lived a sinless life. Let us follow his lead in our battles with the Devil.

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