Table Talk—June 10, 2012

The Second Sunday after Pentecost

Genesis 3:8-15

“Where are you?”  vs. 9b

     The Lord God sounds ever so much like a divine parent, a father whose children have raided the cookie jar, realized their error, and have hidden themselves in guilt, fear, and shame.  “Where are you?”  the Lord God calls out in invitation.  Right away the children respond as the man makes excuses:  “I heard; I feared; I was shamed; I hid.”  The Lord God inquires like a concerned parent so as to discover the cause of such fear and shame.  From the man, the Lord God receives blame because the Lord provided the woman to be with the man.  From the woman, the Lord God receives blame because the serpent (who was a creature of the Lord God) deceived her.  Both man and woman are full of blame.

     Adam and Eve's pointing fingers of blame are inclusive: neighbor (Eve), creation (serpent), and Creator (God) are all responsible for the condition the fallen couple now suffer. The man and the woman are no longer “blameless” beings; their very character is changed.  Their relationships with Creator, creature, & neighbor once marked by trust were now marked by blame as they are held in suspicion and fear.

     Jesus Christ has borne the sin of the world; he has taken the blame.  Now you, whose relationship with the Lord God, your Father, was once marked by blame, can—as Luther writes in the Small Catechism—“believe that He is our real Father and we are His real children… [and] pray with trust and complete confidence.”   “In Jesus” is the answer to the question: “Where are you?”  The Father and the wayward children of fallen humanity are united “in Jesus.” 

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