"Where are you?" - Genesis 3: 1-21

When I was 5 or 6, I had a baby tooth that was not getting loose while, at the same time, a new adult tooth was fighting against it for ownership of that place in my mouth. Mom took me to our dentist. I remember the office – the dark paneling and the teal curtains. I remember sitting in the chair and staring at the door that was approximately six football fields away. I don’t remember what he said, but I remember him taking an instrument that strongly resembled Dad’s Channellock pliers and turn toward me. Knowing what Dad did with that tool, and envisioning what was to come, I clamped my mouth shut with the force of an alligator. He tried to pry my mouth open. Growing increasingly frustrated that he was being stymied by a kid, he came in for one, last try.

I am 49 years old and over the course of 50 years, I have punched exactly one person – this dentist. I twisted as best I could in his dentist chair and popped him on the cheek, just like I had seen Bo and Luke do on TV at the Boar’s Nest. I doubt it hurt much, but it got the right results: we left the office with all of my teeth. But as we started home, I began to worry because Mom was silent. Then she spoke those terrifying 6 words that every kid dreads: “Wait ‘til your father gets home.” Worry became panic, and when we got home, I ran up the stairs to hide. At the top of the stairs, around the opening of the stairway, was a railing, and between the railing and the wall were some old bench cushions. I had kind of stacked them to make a tunnel, or as I called it, my secret fort. That’s where I was hiding, in my secret fort, when I heard Dad get home.

Dad was taller than me but not as heavy, yet his size 13 4-E shoes made quite the sound climbing the stairs. I remember he stood there, on the landing, for approximately six weeks before I heard him turn and take a couple of slow steps towards my fort. I could see his black shoes. And he just stood there. It was just a tooth and he had pliers…but I punched a man, an adult, a doctor, and I knew I was in for it. If I was scared in the dentist’s office, this was off the charts. I began to question all 5 or 6 years of my life choices.  I expected the fury of the Greeks against the city of Troy, the Mexican army against the Alamo, Rocket Racoon fighting Thanos, the very wrath of God all coming down on me. To use the lingo of kids today, I was fixin to get lit up. I think I held my breath. Then, Dad called my name, hunkered down at the opening of my fort and lifted the cushion so he could see me. He took a breath and then firmly but gently said, “Come out. Let’s go downstairs. Tell me what happened. We need to talk.”

That’s the image I want you to have when you consider Genesis 3. Adam and Eve had sinned against God and His command to not eat from the tree. They had an entire Garden to chose from, filled with beautiful, delicious, perfect food. Only one exception was given. Everyone thinks it was an apple tree but, in fact, the Bible doesn’t say. It could have been a fig, or a date, or a pomegranate or something else. Regardless, God gave a very clear, simple instruction: “Don’t eat of that tree, for in the day you eat of it you will die.” You eat, you die. Very simple.

We know from elsewhere in the Bible that the devil was created an angel. Angel means messenger, remember, a truth-deliverer of Him who is the Way, the Truth and the Life.  But after he fell from grace, trying to overthrow God, this truth-telling messenger became a lie-spewing devil. In fact, the name “satan” means exactly that – deceiver, slanderer, liar. He takes something that is true and good and beautiful and he twists it into something else that sort-of sounds true, and kind-of looks good, and seems to be beautiful...except it is deadly and deceitfully false.

You notice how the temptation began – just a simple question. “Did God really say?” Satan is not God; He does not have semi-hypnotic power to make you do anything. He just dangles his alternate reality within eyesight, within earshot, within the realm of our thoughts. People think he’s terrifying and ugly. I don’t think so; at least, not when he’s trying to tempt. He inhabits the serpent – remember, pre-fall, the serpent was beautiful, too, as perfect a piece of God’s creation as Adam and Eve at this point. And, being in perfect harmony within that scope of God’s creation, it would not have scared Eve that the serpent began to speak. There wasn’t anything frightening. It was just a question. “Did God really say?”

Being tempted is not a sin. We know this because, as you heard in the Gospel lesson, Jesus was tempted. For the record, those were real temptations according to His human nature. Yet, the Scriptures also say although He was tempted, He remained without sin. Therefore, it is not being tempted that makes us sinners. The devil wants you to think that, liar that he is, that since you’ve been tempted, you’re already guilty so you may as well go ahead and go all-in. But don’t fall for the idea that there’s a line in the sand, that you can dance with temptation up to that line and be just fine. Just don’t cross that line. That’s a temptation in and of itself. I guess in a perfect world, we could always clearly see where temptation stops and sin starts, but we aren’t in a perfect world, and we are imperfect people, and in the heat of the moment we don’t think clearly and faithfully enough to see that mark. Besides, the problem with lines in the sand is that the sand shifts – just when you think you’re safe, the sand shifts underneath and you find yourself across the line. 

Eve and Adam had not yet succumbed to the temptation. But the question gains momentum. The sand starts to slip. Eve tries to add a little bit to God’s instruction, that they can’t even touch it. A little more sand slips from underneath. Satan lies again, “You will not surely die, for God knows that when you eat of it , your eyes will be opened and you will be like God knowing good and evil.”

I wonder what that bite sounded like. Did it crunch like only a piece of perfectly ripe pomegranite can crunch, or did it smoosh like a peach warmed and ripened in the summer sunshine? Did it sound like a thunderclap, echoing through the Garden? Did the birds fly away in terror? Was there a collective roar from all of the beasts? Was the taste sweet? Did it turn bitter in their mouths as they realized what they had done? The text says their eyes were opened. Don’t merely think of this like rising eyelids. Think of this as in a physical response to the full realization of what they had done. Part of what the devil said was true: they suddenly knew exactly what evil was and it was terrifying. But, still, he lied. They were nothing like God…not anymore. They had to do something. They bundled some fig leaves together and they ran for their lives, praying for the first time ever that God would not find them, lest they find out exactly what “die” meant. They had no idea, not yet, but it could not be a good thing. And they ran and hid.

Then, God enters the Garden. It’s the end of the day as the cool breeze begins to blow, rustling through the leaves. Adam isn’t busy playing with animals; Eve isn’t rushing out to meet God. God calls out, three words in English, one word in Hebrew, אַיֶּֽכָּה׃ “Ay’-ye-cah.” Don’t think Jack Nicholson driving an axe through a door, demanding to know; don’t think a preschool teacher calling out to kids playing hide and seek in a playful sing-song voice. I want you to think of my Dad, standing at the foot of my hiding place and calling me by name, knowing full where I was, but wanting me to come to him, confess what I had done, and seek a father’s restoration and love. “Ay’-ye-cah…Where are you?”

Of course, God knows – He knows where Adam and Eve were and He knows where you and I are when we are trapped. This is the Father’s word for sinners, seeking, searching, calling out to the straying, the hiding, because of the unholiness of our sin. God is inviting the sinner to turn and confess, to stop hiding, and as His child instead call out from faith and trust in the Father’s love, “Here I am in all of my horrific nakedness.” When we offer our lame excuses, pretending it wasn’t our fault – everyone elses, including the devil, but mine! – God strips them away too, leaving us with nothing between us and His love. God desires restoration and wholeness. So, God works redemption.

The devil lied that day, but there was a kernel of truth in what he said. He said to Adam and Eve, “You will not surely die.” They did not die that day, but there would be death and God’s once-perfect pinnacles of creation saw it with their own eyes. God took animals, the same animals Adam had named, the animals with which he lived in harmony, the animals he loved and cared for, God took these animals and killed them in front of Adam and Eve, skinning them to make clothes to protect them from the elements and from creation which would also now suffer as a result of the fall. They suddenly knew what death looked like. When those animal skins rubbed against their skin, Adam and Eve would remember and recall that it was their sins that caused their death. “The wages of sin is death.”

The animals were a foreshadowing of another sacrifice that would be for the world’s redemption. Jesus lived in perfect active and passive obedience to the will and law of God, so He could be the perfect Lamb. He fully resisted the temptations that we surrender to from satan, from the world, and even from our own sinful flesh. He the Father’s providing hand. He trusted the Father’s protection without having to do a foolish test. He trusted that all things were given to the Father and needed no other god to worship besides His heavenly Father. He ate no forbidden fruit, but He would drink the bitter cup of suffering. His clothes were stripped from Him and He was left naked, clothed only by the sins of the world. And, on the cross, Jesus knew the full wrath of God against the evil of satan and his lies against God’s people. When He called out to His Father, “Ay’-ye-cah – where are you?” The Father did not answer. He was left alone, suffering hell on earth for the sins of the world. The word of God, spoken in the Garden in the beginning, “And, on that day, you will surely die,” that Word came to its fulfillment with Jesus on the cross: “It is finished.”

Satan is a defeated enemy – make no mistake about it. But, he is not surrendering quietly or easily. HE is still very active and particularly attentive to the faithful child of God. He loves to ask questions as you look at the pantry, the bank account, or the struggling family relationship: “Will God really give you the daily bread you need?” When the news isn’t good from the doctor, or when weather threatens, or when the news preaches impending doom, “Will God protect you from harm and danger?” When it seems that God is impotent, or not listening, or not caring, he whispers, “You know, there are lots of other things that can help at times like this…” 

But, make no mistake: Satan’s greatest temptation is in this question: “Are you really a child of God?” Are you sure that Jesus’ death is enough; have you made yourself worthy of the love of God in Christ, are you presentable enough for Jesus? What about that secret sin you carry  - do you think He forgives that? If you really were a son of God, a daughter of God, a child of the Lord, you wouldn’t continue doing such things. In the 6^th Petition of the Lord’s Prayer, we pray “Lead us not into temptation.” I used to think this was praying God would protect us from being tempted from sinning. While that’s true, if that’s all we think when we pray this, we’re missing the greater meaning behind it. Immediately before this, in the Fifth Petition, we prayed “Forgive us our trespasses.” The longer I serve as a pastor, and the more I care for hurting souls, the more I believe that these two petitions go together like this: “Don’t let us be tempted that our sins aren’t forgiven.” 

Instead, flee to your Baptism. Remember, there you are made a child of God through Christ Jesus. You are united with Christ into His death and His resurrection. His death is your death. He strips your sins from you, washing them away. When God sees you through the cross of Jesus, He sees you as His beloved whom His Only-begotten Son died to save. You are redeemed – you are bought with a price. You are sinless and blameless in His eyes. You are wrapped, not in an animal skin, but in the righteousness of the Lamb.

So, when you are tempted, resist as you are able, by the power and strength of the Holy Spirit. But you will fall. This side of heaven, that is a guarantee. And, when you sin again hear the voice of the Father calling you from your hiding place: “Ay’-ye-cah. Wo bist du? Dónde estás?  - Where are you?” Turn to Him in repentance and faith, trusting the forgiveness of Jesus for you. And then return here, to His house and say, “Here I am” and . Hear His Word of forgiveness for you. Take and eat; take and drink. Then, depart in peace.