March 15, 2026

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“While Jesus was having dinner at Levi’s house, many tax collectors and sinners were eating with Him. With Him were His disciples. There were many who followed Him. When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw Him eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they asked His disciples: ‘Why does He eat with tax collectors and sinners?‘ On hearing this, Jesus said to them, ‘It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.’”

(Mark 2.15-17)

TODAY’S REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

Have you ever thought that Jesus associated with the lost, the sick, the disrupted, the recognized sinners, the distraught of Israel and thus of the world so that those who believed they were found, well, orderly, pure and at peace of Israel and thus better than all others in the world would see themselves for who they were? Could it be another way of looking at that double-edged sword where we see that sin exists so that righteousness may be recognized and that without Christ we are not it? Can a person not like themselves so much that they believe no one else can like them at all? Can we a person like themselves so much that they believe no one else can like them better than they all feel about themselves? In both instances, God is removed.

The Apostle Paul wrote, “There is nothing in all of creation neither death, life, angels, demons, present or future circumstances—can separate us from the love of God revealed in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 8.38-39) And while this spiritual truth stands as a beacon in the darkness of the shadows of death, it must seem like a faint glimmer of hope for those who have been convinced by the Enemy of God and Humanity, indeed of all creation, that they are indeed separated. This is that tangible, intangible which The Serpent presented in the Garden of Eden to Adam. If you have followed my reflections in the past, you will know of my reading of “The Fall in Eden” as being an attack on God’s creation. While the question was posed to Eve, it was Adam who was the real target. Adam failed. Eve was not alone. Adam was the head. Eve was the body. (I pray you see the vital imagery which Paul used when describing the Church as the body and Christ as the head.) The two could not be seen as separate but together. Adam was there as a voyeur instead of a protector. He put himself in that position. How Eve found distance between herself and him is an untold story. It wasn’t much of a distance. It was enough. Perhaps they were walking through the Garden and passed by those two trees which were distinctively different from all others. They were not cedars, figs, magnolias, fruit, hardwoods or scrub. They were “the tree of the knowledge of good and evil” and “the true of life.” They may have borne a resemblance to other trees. They were not like other trees. Even in their names, we should have been aware of their differences. They were as different as night and day, light and dark, life and death!

And there it is! How many times did we fall prey to “the lie” which The Serpent presented to Adam? He hissed to Eve with a quiet hiss. We know how we are when we are close enough to hear but not close enough to listen. We attempt to be inconspicuous in our desire to “lean in.” We just have to hear better so that our listening may be complete. The Serpent knew this and thus he softly hissed with the flick of his tongue. Eve was not afraid of The Serpent. There was nothing to fear in the Garden apart from “the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” The warning from God was to avoid eating its fruit “lest you die.” What was death? What was life, for that matter? Life was an accepted assumption because it was the only reality Adam and Eve had for “life on earth.” Did they have any knowledge of their origin or of their Originator? They knew of Him. He walked and talked with them in the Garden. They were comfortable in His presence. There was no reason to ask why or question why. It just was. It was bliss. It was peace. It was what is was. Except when it wasn’t. I spoke that “when it wasn’t” moment. It was when Adam felt a separation from all other creation. It was when he recognized he was different from other creatures who came to him in pairs, duets, couples, partners and community. He may not have understood the meaning and purpose of their reality. He understood that he was not like them. Yes, we could talk about communication skills and intellect and homo erectus. Still, there was something different. There was a yearning inside and God sensed it. God knew it to be a truth even for Himself. He declared to “It is not good for man to be a stand alone creature.” Did God sense that Adam’s perplexity was creating a separation between He and Him? Did God sense a taste of death in the heart and mind of Adam? Was there a sense of incompleteness even though Adam was made complete? So, God separated out the complexities of Adam and created a human community. There was “male and female,” “man and woman,” “loved and beloved.” They would become helpmates, sojourners, friends and lovers. Together they would accomplish what God had given them as one to do together. They were to steward and shepherd all of creation. They would not do it alone. God was with them. The Spirit was with them. The unity of all creation was with them. So, in that moment of brief separation, the Enemy brought Adam close. In that moment, the Serpent made a separation between God and humanity. “Did God really say ‘You will die?’“

Imagine for a moment, that the question sounded like this. “If God is love and truly loves you, cares for you, provides for you, honors you, blesses you and gives you meaning and purpose, investing His fullest energies and resources to bring you to life, do you think He would just wipe it all away with a sweep of His hand and return you to the dust of the earth from which you came?” In a conversation the other day about this line of thinking, I remembered a line spoken by Carl Sagan who postulated, “If we are the only life in all of the universe, wouldn’t it be a terrible waste of space?” What if all of the universe in its diversity, complexity, beauty, power and mystery was created just for us? Is that a waste? Jesus would say, “If a bad father knows how to give good gifts to his children, imagine how much greater when God is the giver!” David would sing, “You have prepared an overflowing feast for me in the presence of my enemies and my cup overflows!” Surely God would not separate you from Himself by killing you! Did you hear it, mighty ones of God? Were you listening? The question blurts out from the cross, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani” or “My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?” Jesus as a true man of God was experiencing the threat of separation from the God of His Creation. He had been made, by His submission to His Father’s will, a human to be born of a woman and fathered by a man. He would bear the weight of the sins of the world past, present and future. He would carry the brunt of the governance of the world upon His shoulders as it stood against Him. The weight of it all was meant to fix Him in place as a part of the earth and return Him to dust. It would happen if He believed, “God will surely not let You die.” Except Jesus did. He did believing that choosing life for others was the price were dying for. For Him, refusing the knowledge of good and evil knowing He was fully God as much as He was fully man was to choose the barrenness of the Tree of Life.

How? The Serpent told Adam and Eve and they tell us. The Serpent said, “God knows that if you eat of this fruit, you will no longer be different from Him, no longer separated. You will be fulfilled and become just like God yourself.” Except, while gaining knowledge they would also gain death and death would separate them from God. They would not be like God. They would be like dust. They would cease to exist as they were. And while the “Tree of Life” appeared barren and stood like a gnarled piece of wood with two branches protruding to make the form of a cross, it was true life. Those who chose to take up that tree and follow God’s commands would have life and have it abundantly. Jesus knew it. Satan feared it. We had to learn it. Those who said “I am well and better than all the rest” were the real sick people Jesus was talking about. Those they labeled as unclean, unwell, undesirable and unworthy suffered under the illusion of the ones who continued to eat of “the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil.” They would surely die and were dead already. Jesus would call them “whitewashed tombs.” For the rest who believed in Him, He washed the illusion away and gave them a taste of reality. He made sure of that reality by taking up the tree of life and becoming the fruit it would bear. It would be there and then that “nothing could separate us from the love of God” if and when we believe. What shall we believe? As in the words of Jesus, “As with man these things are impossible, but all things are possible with God.“

TODAY’S PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING:

Father, in these days we are finding the need to believe even more than ever before. We all have known trouble, some in greater ways than others, but You are offering us the assurance that we will not be consumed by it forever. Regardless of the “time” we are in and the “time” we have been given, we ask for Your Holy Spirit which Jesus asked You to share with us, to lead and guide and direct us in the paths we should go. Teach us what we still need to learn. Empower us to put that learning into action. Bless our actions not as a works righteousness but as righteous works of faith, hope and love in Jesus’ name. AMEN.