Lent arriving late this year has been underway for less than three days, which means those of you who have given up chocolate or eating out or drinking or heaven forbid, Facebook, have a long way to go. It has been observed by some (mostly math majors who can count) that Ash Wednesday to Easter is more than forty days. The church balances the equation by saying Sundays are mini Easters and therefore don’t count as part of the forty, which means you can be on Facebook 24 hours a day, as long as you do it all on Sunday. In Genesis the first humans are not satisfied with creature status and lust after godhood. Betting paradise it won’t be as bad as God said their willfulness unbalanced the equation. The rest of us followed suit and psalm 32 names the consequence of not letting God take the lead. In Romans 5 the death that came to all due to Adam’s disobedience is contrasted with the life that came through the one man Jesus and it’s a good bet Jesus trumps Adam in ways we cannot fully comprehend this side of the forever future. And the Gospel is the story of the duel in the desert which will be repeated on the cross. The good news is that because Jesus dies he is the last man standing and in the end it’s Satan who takes the fall.
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