A friend of mine posted on Facebook this week: “Okay, fine, be a man. Don’t want your friends to judge you.” It was one of those status updates that was just vague enough for folks to ask her questions about it, but what I suppose happened is that her boyfriend made a crude joke or acted somehow more macho than usual and hurt her feelings in the process. Because, you know, there’s only one way to ‘be a man,’ and it’s not cool to miss the mark on that. Not cool at all, because other guys might see you less than strong, less than powerful, and there will be no end to the teasing.
Where do we get this idea, that there is one perfect man, one perfect woman? Adam and Eve are only two characters in the Bible, and there are so many ways to be human that aren’t covered. But somehow we figure it’s the man’s job to be stoic and provider, and woman’s place to be homemaker and always in need of rescuing. I mean, look at Eve’s first action in Scripture - she misquotes God, who never said not to even touch that fruit, and then decides she knows better and follows the snake’s suggestion to eat for her ethics.
This is a dangerous text in many ways. Most obviously because for centuries folks have been saying it’s Eve’s fault we’re not in the garden any more. One of our confirmation kids, though, blames God. He says God wants us to be dumb and that to stay in the garden we’d have to remain ignorant. So for him the science versus religion fight started early.
But Paul in his letter to the Romans says pretty clearly that through one man sin came into the world, you know, to set Adam up as a story type so that Jesus can be the hero whose opposite energy saves the day. The one man was disobedient, so there had to be one man to be completely obedient, in order to fix what got broken back in the garden.
What was it that got broken? We lived in a garden, to till it and keep it. Adam named all the animals and Eve was crafted from his rib to be an equal partner in garden stewardship. They were naked and not ashamed. Probably it wasn’t twenty degrees and snowing, so it didn’t hurt them to be naked, either. They weren’t dumb, they had to know how to work the land and care for the animals. And placing blame on them for the brokenness won’t help much of anything, because we’re all guilty and equally stuck because sin is now in our DNA. But the trust between us and God was broken when we decided we knew better than God. When being something we’re not was more important to us than being who we are, we broke faith, and so, to be like God, we ate the thing that was promised to kill us. And we have been fighting against God and against ourselves ever since.
It is the same lie that’s thrown at Jesus, the same temptation to be what somebody else thinks he should be. After forty days and nights out in the wild open wilderness, without food, his body ravenous for something to sustain it, Jesus is given this option: turn this stone into bread. Or, rather, the option he’s given is: prove you’re the Son of God. Meaning: we expect the Son of God to provide for his own needs first and foremost, to make himself comfortable, to use his power for his own benefit, so go ahead, man, and order yourself a supreme pizza out of this gravel. Don’t bother to be grateful or patient, you of all people are entitled to it. Get a side of hot wings out of this cactus while you’re at it.
But Jesus knows who he is, and what is his purpose, and so the accuser has to try another tactic.
Up to the pinnacle of the temple they go. The high place of all high places. The closest to God a living person could get. So prove yourself, Jesus. Prove your God is the best there is. Man up and jump already. It says in your very own Scriptures you’ll be just fine. God will grab you like a momma cat and you’ll not even scuff your sandals. C’mon, dude. You chicken or something? Where’s your faith?
And Jesus knows who he is, who God is, and what is his purpose, so the accuser has to try another tactic.
So this time it’s an appeal to his leadership. Why not make your work easy? Why not have all of the kingdoms of the world at your feet, bowing and scraping and living according to your law without argument? Wouldn’t it be better that way? To have world peace, everyone loving their neighbor, everyone turned to you as their head CEO? Clearly they’re a mess, since they all belong to Satan so he can offer them in the first place. Clearly they’d be better off if Jesus would just have them automated and turn their default mode to unwavering faith. That would totally be worth getting Satan’s endorsement on all his merchandise. Small price to pay to have every nation assimilated.
And Jesus knows who he is, who God is, who we are, and what is his purpose, so the accuser is out of ammunition for awhile.
But ever since God spoke at Jesus’ baptism, ever since it was said that this is God’s Son, folks have been assuming we know what that means. Power and prestige. Always on my side. Might makes right. Backing the current religious powers that be. We assume Jesus would use all that power the same way we would. But Jesus doesn’t ‘man up,’ and fall prey to our expectations. Jesus doesn’t use his power to force us into repentance. Jesus isn’t what we expect or deserve. He’s the kid who gets bullied on the school playground even though his Mom is the principal. He’s the little boy with pink fingernails, the girl who buys lunch for that kid who’s always hungry, that football player who sings in the show choir.
But he’s more than that. If Jesus were just a good example to follow, we’d be lost, done for, roadkill on that highway to heaven.
So what Jesus does is to live our story before God. To step into our shoes and face our failures head-on, to walk the way that has been prepared, the way we have tried and failed to follow, the way that leads to his death and resurrection, through the wilderness and on to the promised land. He completes our story for us when we’re too distracted and tired and broken to try. We ate from a tree of misguided ethics in the garden, and were kicked out before we could get to the tree of life. Jesus IS the tree of life, come to restore us, come to feed us, come to be everything we need in this wilderness. He knows who he is, who God is, who we are, and in his blood, sweat, and tears, he gives us back to ourselves, back to God, back to life. Thanks be to God.
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