Genesis 2:15–17, 3:1–7
Psalm
32
Romans
5:12–19
Matthew
4:1–11
This is the written version of the
homily given at Flohr’s Evangelical Lutheran Church (ELCA) in McKnightstown,
Pennsylvania on Sunday, February 22, 2026 by Fr. Gene Tucker, Interim Pastor.
“KNOWING THE WAYS AND THE CAPABILITIES OF THE ENEMY”
(Homily
texts: Genesis 2:15 – 17, 3:1–7 & Matthew
4:1-11)
“…what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand?”[1]
Our Lord made that comment in
connection with His teaching about the cost of being a follower, a disciple, of
His. “Count the cost”, He is telling us.
We could easily adapt His comment so as
to apply it to the spiritual warfare we followers of Jesus are bound to
encounter as we follow in His ways. For, as sure as our new life in Christ, which
begins in faith and which is a call to a new and amended life, will also
involve the attacks of the Evil One.
Any commander of an army, which would
include the Lord’s army, will do well to instruct those in his command about
the ways and the capabilities of any potential adversary. Fortunately, Holy
Scripture provides us with just such an instruction manual. Holy Scripture (the
Bible) records the ways and the methods of our eternal foe, the Devil. It also
records the successes and the failures of those who’ve followed the Lord in
times past. (Those accounts serve as examples and warnings to us today.) And,
Holy Scripture also records our Lord’s triumph over our spiritual enemy.
Let’s look, now, at a chapter in the
instruction manual that God, our ultimate commander-in-chief, has provided us.
It’s the account of Adam and Eve’s’ failure in the Garden of Eden, as the Evil
One tempts them.
Among the lessons we can glean from
Genesis, chapters two and three, are these:
Evil has an appealing aspect to it: Consider that the tempter’s appeal is
to our need to eat. He says to Eve (in essence), “Look at that fruit, isn’t it something
you’d like to eat?” So, Eve is persuaded to take a bite. If we think about it,
each of the classic Seven Deadly Sins has an appealing aspect to it, ones that
arise in the course of living a full, human life. Think of one of those sins,
the sin of Gluttony. Gluttony is the misuse of the need for food. Sloth,
another one, is the misuse of the need for rest.
God’s instructions are twisted and
altered:
Notice that Satan asks Eve what God’s instructions were. She couldn’t remember
them exactly. But then, the tempter twists and alters what God had said,
suggesting that God’s word couldn’t be trusted to be true.
Separating one person from another
makes them easier to conquer: The Genesis account suggests that Adam was
standing right next to Eve when the temptation took place. (I am fond of saying
that “Adam was the chump”, and is equally culpable with Eve, because he said
nothing when the tempter suggested that God’s word wasn’t true.) This point
brings us back to the image of military combat: Dividing an army makes that
army easier to defeat,
(The analysis given above isn’t meant
to be an exhaustive study of all of the aspects of the Genesis account. But I
think it does hit the major points in the narrative.)
Now then, God, in His infinite wisdom,
provides us with an account of triumph, as Jesus is tempted in the wilderness.
Some similarities arose when we
consider the Genesis account and the Matthean account of the Lord’s temptation.
Let’s look at three of them.
An appeal to the need for food: Satan comes at a time of weakness in
the Lord’s time in the wilderness, for Matthew tells us that Jesus had been
fasting for forty days and forty nights. So the tempter comes and says, “Tell
these stones to become bread”. Note the similarities to Eve’s temptation.
An appeal for safety: By suggesting that the Lord throw
himself down from the pinnacle of the Temple in Jerusalem, Satan is suggesting
that the Lord seek safety. Just so, Adam and Eve are tempted with the need for
their welfare, made in the suggestion that they eat of the off-limits fruit,
An appeal to assure one is in control: By their temptation in the Garden,
which amounts to an appeal to put themselves in control of their futures and
their destiny, Adam and Eve are tempted to eat of the fruit so that they will
“be like gods, knowing good and evil”. In a similar way, the Lord is tempted to
take control of all of the kingdoms of the world. But, in this case, there’s a
hook involved: Satan is the one who will be in control, ultimately. The same is
true of Adam and Eve.
Where Adam and Eve fail, Jesus
triumphs. We, too, can overcome whatever temptations will come our way as we
follow the Lord, but we will need God’s help to do so.
AMEN.
[1] Luke 14:31
