Craving Apples
Genesis 2:15–14; 3:1–7
March 5, 2017
First Sunday of Lent
T HE FIRST SYMBOL from our Lent in a bag is an apple. I have never craved apples but I do understand about craving. I know what it’s like to feel a powerful desire for something.
● Have you ever been unable to sleep because all you can think about it the car you’re going to test drive tomorrow?
● Or what about daydreaming about the married woman who looks good and gave you a good look yesterday?
● Have you ever wanted a DQ Blizzard so desperately that you were willing to drive a half hour just to get it? Now that we have a DQ in town, we don’t have to drive so far to satisfy our craving!
Cravings are not the same as hunger. In fact they are quite different. Hunger is controlled by the stomach. Cravings are controlled by the brain. We think our way into craving something, desiring something, that isn’t ours.
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EVE AND ADAM FELT a powerful desire for what they could not have. They had run of the garden. They had all that humans could want or desire except for the fruit of one tree. We think apple but we don’t really know. They were not hungry. Not deprived. They didn’t steal apples from the store because they are starving.
This is simply a case of desiring, craving what they can’t have. Isn’t that the way it is? We want what we cannot have. It all starts in our brains.
Eve talks with the serpent about the only thing off limits in God’s world. She quotes the command of God. She knows exactly what the boundaries in God’s world are. But she distorts it. God had only said not to eat of the tree, but Eve claims the command is to not even touch the tree — an almost unreasonable demand. Unreasonable demands are easier to violate!
Eve thinks about how unreasonable the command is. She rationalizes away the prohibition. She then gazes longingly at the forbidden fruit. She eats. They eat.
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EVE AND ADAM ARE LURED by the promise of absolute freedom, the ability to become gods. Eat the fruit and they will have no boundaries except those they make. We carry the traits of our earliest ancestors. We do not like boundaries. We long to be free of restrictions. We want to choose our own way — with no consequences, of course. We learn still more about ourselves.
She ponders “the forbidden,” like a child who ignores a parent’s warning because she is fascinated by a pretty — but deadly — blue flame. Eve does not trust God’s love in the prohibition. She thinks that her judgment is wiser than God’s judgment. She thinks doing what she wants to do is more valuable than trusting in God’s care.
We have all stood in the same place. And we have all made the same choice. The word is never used anywhere in our story, perhaps because the message is so clear. We call this sin!
They can’t excuse their behavior and blame it on someone — or something else. They try to shirk their responsibility and place it on the serpent. Again, we find ourselves in the story. I wouldn’t have turned to porn if she was more loving. If they would pay me a decent wage, I wouldn’t steal. It’s the teacher’s fault I made a bad grade.
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ANOTHER WORD FOR CRAVING might be coveting — yearning to possess or have someone or something. It’s one of the big 10 rules — do not covet. It might be most frequently broken. We covet what other people have like their house or their car, their job; their well-behaved children or their spouse.
On this first Sunday of Lent we are faced with the reality that we crave (covet) what we don’t need. Our neighbor has newer clothes, a newer house. The girl at school has a boyfriend. The boy in band has a nicer phone. The church down the street has a bigger youth program. The grass is greener on the other side of the fence. Adam and Eve crave the one and only fruit, the one and only tree, the one and only prohibition that God has not granted to them.
Eating the fruit gave Adam and Eve knowledge but that knowledge didn’t bring them happiness, freedom, wisdom, and power. What they get is empty and false. We grab what we don’t need, can’t have, and discover the same. Happiness and freedom elude us. Wisdom comes at great price. We’re left we guilt, heartbreak, debt and brokenness.
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WE CONFESS THAT WE CRAVE what we don’t need. In the process of reordering our thinking, we must move to the other end of the spectrum. The opposite of coveting is looking outwardly — not comparing ourselves with others.
This week of Lent, as you pull the apple out of your bag, think of ways to live the opposite of craving. As you go through the week, give up blame: I am not going to pass the buck. I will take responsibility for my actions.
As your family reads this Bible passage again, talk about how you can cast off a spirit of poverty: Believe with God that there is always more than enough and never a lack. As you share the devotional words plan specific opportunities to give of yourselves in service to others.
Instead of craving more, every day or week take something from your collection of stuff and donate it to one of the charity thrift shops in town.
Craving starts in the brain. So does looking and living outward.
— Keith Cardwell
