Grace Evangelical-Lutheran: Genesis 3,1-19. Invocavit

Friday, March 6, 2020

Genesis 3,1-19. Invocavit

✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠

The Word of the Lord Endures Forever

Verbum Domini Manet in Aeternum

Genesis 3,1-19 1620

Invocavit 024 Quadragesima 40 days to Good Friday

Swidbert, Apostle of Friesen, Frankish Empire (Netherlands, Germany, and Denmark), ✠ 713

1. März 2020

1. O Heavenly Father, Our Great Provider, in these times of strife, disease and Lenten meditation, pour upon us mercy and grace, so that the healing hands of Your Son who suffered may bring us comfort and contemplation. Amen. (VELKD Weekly Prayer for Sexagesima 2020 § 1)

2. »And to Adam Yahweh said: „Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you: ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.“«

3. This past Wednesday the Church entered the season of Lent. On Ash Wednesday we heard just as new wine is put into new wine skins, so the gospel that Jesus brings is put into a new testament. In today’s Gospel pericope we hear how after His baptism Jesus was in the wilderness fasting for 40 days, and during His fast the Devil tempted Him 3 times.

4. In many ways, our human history begins at the Fall. Because Adam had eaten from the tree of which the Lord had commanded him: You shall not eat of it, the ground is now cursed because of Adam. By the sweat of his face he would eat bread till he returned to the ground. We all share in Adam’s curse: for out of the ground you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return. We hear the same Word of the Lord when the ashes are smudged upon our forehead: Remember that you are dust and to dust you will return. The whole of human history can be summarized with these two words: paradise lost. Not only do we live in this lostness but we tell stories of this tragedy from the Near Eastern religious tales, to the Greco-Roman mythologies and to the 20. century British authors who gave us Middle-Earth and Narnia.

5. Satan succeeded in tempting Adam to disobey God, and in doing so brought our human downfall. It his hubris, Satan tried to get the Son of God to disobey His Heavenly Father. Jesus entered our human history of paradise lost to relive the great epochal moments of our history. In John Milton’s poem Paradise Lost, Satan declares: Better to reign in hell then to serve in heaven. Jesus however shows that serving in heaven is itself a paradise, and even the Son of God will serve His Father’s will for in that service there is contentment and happiness. The first Adam yielded to temptation and brought death and the grave upon all his descendants. The second Adam, Jesus, resisted temptation and brought life and fellowship with God. Adam lost paradise, and Jesus restored paradise. Or as the Epistle to the Hebrews describes it: »We have a Great High Priest who has passed to the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, who is able to sympathize with our weaknesses and who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to His throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need« (Hebrews 4,14-16).

6. The Lord pronounced the Serpent’s curse for causing Adam to sin: »I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.« Jesus was born to fulfill this curse upon the Devil and deliver the promise of redemption for mankind. During Lent we follow Jesus as He goes up to Jerusalem to redeem us and restore paradise. Long is the way and hard, that out of Hell leads up to light (Milton). The road of Lent is an arduous 40 day journey with our Lord.

7. „Dear brothers and sisters of our Lord Jesus Christ, on this past Wednesday the Church began the holy season of prayerful and penitential reflection. Our attention is especially directed to the holy sufferings and death of our Lord Jesus Christ.

8. „From ancient times this season of Lent has been kept as a time of special devotion, self denial and humble repentance born of a faithful heart that dwells confidently on His Word and draws from it life and hope.

9. „Let us pray that our Dear Father in heaven, for the sake of His Beloved Son and in the power of His Holy Spirit, might richly bless this Lententide for us so that we may go to Easter with glad hearts and keep the feast in sincerity and truth“ (Altar Book 483).

10. On Ash Wednesday we heard how God the Father looks down upon this earth and sees us as a hidden treasure worth selling all to redeem us. Today we hear that the Son of God appeared to destroy the works of the Devil, which He began to dismantle by triumphing over his 3 temptations. Next week we will hear how Jesus further demolished the works of the Devil by freeing a pagan Canaanite girl from demonic oppression. Christ’s victorious train is marching on and up to Jerusalem where He took up His Passion of suffering and the cross. Amen.

11. Let us pray. O Lord Jesus Christ, You appeared to destroy the works of the Devil; send us the Holy Spirit to guide us along Your holy path throughout Lent so that by traveling with You to the cross we see the joy of eternal life that is pure gift to us. Amen.

To God alone be the Glory

Soli Deo Gloria

✠

All Scriptural quotations are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 4. Edition © 1990 by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, and the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 28. Revised Edition © 2012 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart.

Milton, John. Paradise Lost.

Grace Evangelical-Lutheran

Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church

Friday, March 6, 2020

Genesis 3,1-19. Invocavit

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