Blog 20 May: Genesis 3:9-15,20

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Please read this passage before reading this homily. 

God said to Adam, “You have eaten of the fruit I had forbidden you to eat.”

Adam said, “The woman you gave me gave me to eat; it is all her fault!”

God said to the woman, “Why did you do that?”

She answered, “The serpent tricked me; it is his fault!”

The serpent did not answer any questions; it would not blame anyone.

How often do we blame and scapegoat others for our failures?  Why do we think that blaming others takes away our responsibility and complicity?

The Scriptures teach us that the Son of Man took upon himself the guilt of us all without blaming us for his troubles.   Now we can admit our sinfulness and find everything forgiven.  Adam and Eve had scapegoated their fault and were expelled from their paradise.   We have shared in their complicity and imitated their scapegoating.

The Son of Man, the Lord Jesus, replaced Adam and accepted responsibility for all the evil in the world.  By his honesty he has undone our tendency to do evil and replaced it with his obedience and honesty.  In other words, just as we have imitated Adam in his rebellion and pride, so now we have the ability to imitate Christ in his honesty and obedience.  We, who once lived like the old Adam, now live as the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ.

When we scapegoated, we lost strength.  When we accept responsibility, we grow into adulthood.  Then when God calls us as he goes for his evening walk and asks, “Where are you?” we can readily respond and say, “Right here.”