Yes! You Can Live Without Chocolate! ~ Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7 ~ First Sunday in Lent

My wife suffers the unfortunate condition of being allergic to chocolate.  Truth be told, her allergy is more devastating to me than to her.  She doesn’t like sweets of any kind.  I, however, like them more than enough for both of us… 

So it’s probably better for me than it is for her that we allow no chocolate in the house.  That’s our rule.  It’s sweet, it’s delicious, and it’s horrible for me, and it makes Elizabeth sick.

But is life without chocolate really all that bad?

All throughout life, there are so many rules—and it’s in our nature to despise most of them.  “Rules are meant to be broken,” the old saying goes—which is not that far from reality.  The mere presence of a rule can be enough cause to want to break it. 

“What harm will it do if I tell our secret?”

“Who are you to tell me to stay behind the yellow line?”

“How can I have fun if I can’t feed the bears?”

That contempt for authority is exactly what we see in the story of Adam and Eve…

What we have here in Genesis is the most simple of stories.  God puts Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, and gives them a job to do: they are to till it and keep it.  Their work is to make the garden fruitful—and care for it on God’s behalf.  They are free to eat of every tree in the garden, except for the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. 

This isn’t a bad deal for Adam and Eve.  It’s a great deal and a great life.  They get to live in paradise—and they are co-workers with God.  It’s great privilege with great responsibility.  But, as we quickly see, there is something more to be desired, above and beyond being God’s people, and doing God’s work… 

Soon, their attention turns to the only forbidden fruit in the garden…  And gradually, they become consumed with desire—to the point that nothing else matters.  The serpent then exploits that desire to cast suspicion and doubt upon God.  “You surely will not die,” it says; “you’ll be like God.”  And we all know what happens next…

But the story of Adam and Eve is not a story about what wretched fools they are.  It’s a story about us! 

We share their contempt for God’s authority.  It’s not our nature to serve another’s interests.  And it certainly isn’t our nature to entrust ourselves to a ruler we cannot see, understand, or control.  What is our nature is to deny God the right to rule our lives.  We make gods of ourselves, and do whatever we can to make the world revolve around us.

We make ourselves the authority on what’s right and wrong.  And if we acknowledge God at all, we put expectations on God.  God ought to do right by us, in exchange for our faith.  Then we blindly believe that God completely endorses our own standards of right and wrong. 

Secondly, it’s not our nature to be content with what we have.   Sin is born when our hearts burn with desire for what is not ours, for what we cannot have, and what we really do not need.  That desire then leaves you feeling insecure, inadequate, worthless, cheated, bored and unlovable.  Then it consumes you to the point that nothing else matters.  But the pain of desire doesn’t go away if the desire happens to be met.  Look at Adam and Eve.  They took what they wanted—and then there’s shame.  There’s fear.  The husband and wife are now pitted against each other.  And more consequences await them…

For the sinner, life is about freedom, fulfillment, and fun.  But boy, is there a cost…  Can we be happy if we’re never content?  Can live peacefully with one another if we’re constantly looking out for number one?  Do we really know what’s best for ourselves and the world?  I think not…  Look at the mess our world is in right now…  There must be a better way…

God is fully mindful of the hurting in this world—and the sin that pits us against God and one another.  This is why Jesus was born.  This is why he revealed God’s truth to the world—and then laid down his life as the perfect sacrifice that cleanses all sin. 

In spite of all our rebellion and our stubborn insistence to live life our own way, God remains gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.  What more do we need?

Today is the fifth day in the forty-day season of Lent—a season to turn from sin and return from Christ. But this is also a season to be real about the hurts, the fears, and the desires in our hearts.  What are they?  What do you need?  What do you desire?  What is the chocolate that you crave?  What do you fear to lose? 

Faith is all about surrender—knowing that we are sinful; accepting the fact that we cannot control everything; admitting that we do not know what’s best for us and that we are not the authority on right and wrong.  Faith trusts in God’s love and God’s desire to do good in our lives.  Faith trusts that God knows our every hurt and every need—and knows how best to provide.  Faith lets go and lets God be gracious and merciful. 

Will you trust God to take care of you and meet your needs?  Are you willing to focus on taking care of others’ needs, believing that God is providing for your own?

Do you trust God to die to every love and craving and desire that is not of Christ, so that you may live more fully in him?  Do you trust him to dramatically change everything in your life if that’s what it takes?

God’s will is then to take the emptiness that exists in our lives and fill it with the peace of Christ; the hope of Christ, and the love of Christ. 

I can live a good life without chocolate—and there are most certainly things in all our lives we can live without just the same, to enjoy the One who is our greatest treasure.