Quitting the Blame Game: Genesis 3:8-15 - Second Sunday after Pentecost

 ⁸[Adam and Eve] heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.⁹But the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?” ¹⁰He said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.” ¹¹He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” ¹²The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate.” ¹³Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent tricked me, and I ate.” ¹⁴The Lord God said to the serpent, 

 “Because you have done this,
  cursed are you among all animals
  and among all wild creatures;
 upon your belly you shall go,
  and dust you shall eat
  all the days of your life.
 ¹⁵I will put enmity between you and the woman,
  and between your offspring and hers;
 he will strike your head,
  and you will strike his heel.” (NRSV)

Ever since I was a kid, I’ve loved watching The Price Is Right. During summer breaks or sick days home from school, my TV was always tuned to Channel 2 at 11:00. 

 

In one pricing game, you can win five nice prizes without doing anything at all. It’s called Temptation—because they tempt you to guess the price of a great big prize, using numbers from the prices of the four, less-expensive prizes—which is extremely difficult. Get one number wrong and you walk away with nothing. I’m the kind of person who’d take the prizes and go home… But not everyone is like me.

 

It got me thinking—if the Garden of Eden happened today, we’d make it into a game show or a reality tv contest. Will Adam and Eve eat the beautiful but forbidden fruit?

 

But what happened in Eden was no game…

 

We often refer to Genesis 3 as “the fall of humanity.” If you want to know why the world we live in is so messed up, it’s because of two entitled brats named Adam and Eve. They had paradise at their disposal, and God gave them one simple rule—which they broke, thus messing everything up for the rest of us.

 

But Genesis 3 has nothing to do with assigning blame…

 

There is certainly a lot of blaming happening within the story: when Adam realizes that he’s been “busted,” he blames God for giving him the woman, who he also blames for his eating of the forbidden fruit. Eve blames the serpent for her eating of the forbidden fruit. 

 

Neither Adam nor Eve take any responsibility for their actions. The serpent may have tempted them, but the serpent didn’t force-feed them the forbidden fruit. They are the ones who took it and ate. When they eat, they do so with the attitude that God has somehow wronged them by denying them the ability to be like God. 

 

We love playing the blame game just the same. Everything would be well and good in our lives if only this person wouldn’t have done this, or if they would have done that. The world would be a better place if those people either changed and became just like us, or if they’d never been born in the first place. 

 

The benefit you and I get from playing the blame game is that you can take a position of superiority over the people who have (or whom you perceive to have) done you wrong. “I’m the righteous, innocent victim, you’re the devil himself.” You get to be the judge. You take the position of God—which is exactly what Adam and Eve wanted when they took the forbidden fruit and ate.

 

Let me be clear: I’m not saying that we should stop calling out evil for what it is and let evildoers off the hook. You cannot have healthy communities if sinners are not held accountable for their actions; and some sinners commit graver evils against their fellow human beings than others. There must be justice. Without justice, you can’t have society.

 

But no one wins the blame game. As long as you play the game, you are giving someone else power over you that they ultimately do not (and should not) have. Blaming and unforgiveness go hand-in-hand—because the focus is on the evildoer and the wounds they inflicted. Blaming and unforgiveness keep the past in the present, so that there is neither healing nor hope.

 

God punishes Adam and Eve by banishing them from the garden, and rightfully so. Nevertheless, the Adam and Eve story does have a positive ending: God’s curse upon the serpent means that its power is limited. The devil cannot ever exercise controlling authority over anything or anyone.

 

Furthermore, God doesn’t love Adam and Eve any less than before they ate forbidden fruit. From cover-to-cover, scripture tells the story of God’s faithfulness despite our unfaithfulness; a story of unconditional love, forgiveness, and ultimately, resurrection. Death will never ever have the last word. Even though you will suffer evil and you will do evil, it is not in control of your life or your destiny. When you forgive those who trespass against you, you are essentially breaking free from the power of the person who’s done you wrong, and you are becoming a new person. 

 

A life of perpetual blaming leads only to perpetual despair. No one has the power to ruin your life. You don’t even have the power to ruin your life. You will make mistakes and do wrong. You will hurt other people and they will hurt you. But no one has the power to take away from your ability to do good; and no one has the power to stand in the way of God’s loving purposes coming to fulfillment in you. 

 

And yes, we are living in a chaotic world; a society divided between red versus blue, urban versus rural, haves and have-nots… Yes, this is the most challenging time to be church together. But we’re not here to name who’s to blame. We are here because the greatest power working in the world is the love of God in Jesus Christ. 

 

You have the power of the Holy Spirit to both resist and overcome the devil. Together as the body of Christ, we have the power of the Holy Spirit to feed hungry bodies, heal broken hearts, and touch the souls of our neighbors with the love of Jesus, and bring about real and lasting change in this world.      

 

God’s faithfulness endures from age to age. Love wins.