He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” (Genesis 3:11-13, ESV)
My wife told me about a t-shirt she saw a young boy wearing, It said, “I didn’t do it, It’s my brother’s fault.”
A man gets drunk and drives down the road late at night and hits a family in on-coming traffic and kills a child. We overlook the drunk and we get upset and blame God for not intervening to prevent tragedies. Of course, if God intervened, we would complain that He doesn’t really give us free will.
I was standing on a sidewalk, leaning against the wall, minding my business, and this young child walks toward me with her mother. The child is walking a little erratic and steps over to my side of the sidewalk and trips on my size 10½ tennis shoes and falls. “Oops”, I say and the mom yells at me for being in the way. I hate to point out again that I was minding my own business, leaning against the wall, and the child and mother were invading my space. Yet, somehow, I was blamed. It was my fault for doing nothing (notice how I blame the mother?)
More and more, I notice that we blame everyone and everything about our sins. What’s new? Adam blamed the woman God gave him and in the process blamed God. Eve blames the serpent. Everyone is innocent. This is the story of Genesis. The origin of sin. It is our story and it occurs to me that history continues to repeat itself. God makes something great and tells us the do’s and don’ts, we break the law and consequences happen but somehow God’s or someone else is to blame. Yet, in the end God will transcend our petty complaints.
God gives man free will and man chooses to sin. A t-shirt represents the philosophy of man…”It’s my brothers fault.” A drunk driver chooses to drive and is guilty of causing the tragedy. Parents defend their children at all costs. Whatever happened to sin? It hasn’t gone anywhere. It’s still right here before us.
God chooses to send His Son to redeem us but we have become too sophisticated to admit we have done anything wrong. The amazing thing is that our denial perpetuates our sin and we just grow increasingly neurotic. What’s the answer? It’s time to acknowledge sin is ever-present and claim our need for “the anointed one” (Christ).
Question:
Will we ever look at ourselves and see our sins and take responsibility for them?