Summary: “If” - “If” - “If” over and over again that two-letter word haunts our nights and days.“If only you will eat the fruit of this tree your eyes will be open.”“If only you eat the fruit of this tree you will be like gods.”“If you are the Son of God command these stones to become bread.”“If you are the Son of God throw yourself down.”“If you are the Son of God, come down from that cross!”And there are more of these not in the Bible yet the same.“If you’re really a man, you’ll have another drink.”“If you really love me, you will show it by giving me what I want.”“If you are really as big as you think you are, you will do this or that.....”It’s always about proving something to one’s self or to another.It always seems to boil down to bad choices that spring from some twisted sense of who we are; some sense of privilege; some kind of thinking that somehow we deserve what we do not have because after all, if we just have a little more which we deserve after all, we’ll be perfect and all will be fine; and with that it all starts: the story of temptation and the story of sin. “I have a right to this or that” we think; “after all I have done and been through, why not?” “I have a right to to feel good and have what I want!”This is what I call “devil talk”. It is clouding the truth just like the devil did in that story from Genesis. There was just a little bit of truth in what the serpent said, and the women knew it. In fact, she corrected the serpent in their conversation, but by that time, the seed of doubt had been planted opening the way to rationalization. With that her fundamental orientation toward God which was her perfection began to erode. Doubt set it, but it was not some doubt of faith, it was doubt in herself, it was doubt about herself and doubt about who she was in creation. And so she had to prove something that didn’t need to be proven and the “ifs” begin. “If you eat.......If you are really...... If you just...... then everything will be fine. It works the other way too. I always think the other side of this sin; of these “ifs” is what the man in Genesis experienced. Can’t you just hear him a little later in the day, outside after they have been chased from the garden hiding their nakedness and hiding from God? “If I had only said “no.” “If I had only said: “What are you thinking, put that apple down right now.” “If I had only said: “What are doing talking that serpent when you can talk and walk with God?” Think of the words of the prayer we have said so often: “In what I have done, and in what I have failed to do”. There is, in the end, only one temptation, and probably all I need to do is name it and then just sit down and keep quiet. Whether it is a serpent in the garden or satan in the desert, it is the same. In the garden, the serpent twists the truth just enough to make to make the wrong choice appear good and beneficial; but it’s still the wrong choice. In the desert, that one called “Satan” uses the same tactic:Everything the devil says to Jesus is the truth, he is the Son of God, he is entitled to be well fed, and protected, recused from danger, and worshiped. It’s all true. The devil isn’t lying at all, but the realization of that truth does not to come about satan’s way. Jesus did not and teaches us no to go after the gifts God has but to go after God. The gifts are to lead us to God, not to take God’s place. So rather than turn stones into bread for himself, Jesus used bread to feed the hungry. The problem in Genesis with the man and the woman and all temptation is that instead of seeking the divine giver, men and women seek the gifts. There is a better choice made by Jesus for us all. Seek the giver not the gifts. If we only seek the gifts, that’s all we’ll ever have for all eternity. If it’s money we seek, that’s all we’ll have when there is nothing left to buy or to own. If we only seek fame and power, that’s all we’ll ever have when no one else is around to look at us, listen to us, or admire us. But if we seek the giver, when it’s all over, we will have all that we will ever need for ever and ever.
