By Doug Redford
Some years ago, the host of a nighttime radio program promoted a contest that included a prize of 100 grand. An individual could win the prize by becoming the tenth person to call the station at a specified time. A woman called the station (after listening for several hours) and was informed that she was indeed caller number 10. However, her prize was a 100 Grand candy bar, not money!
Sometimes playing tricks on people can be done in good, clean fun. Perhaps most of us have played a practical joke on someone or have been the victim of one. We think of the fun children have on Halloween in going door to door in their costumes and shouting, “Trick or treat!”
There are other times, however, when deception is not at all fun; it hurts and hurts deeply to the point of the deceived person or persons feeling devastated. Go back to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, and God’s command to them not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil or “you will certainly die” (Genesis 2:17, New International Version). The serpent (a tool of Satan) told Eve in a blatant, brazen lie, “You will not certainly die . . . you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:4, 5). It is hard to fathom the first couple’s remorse at being evicted from their beautiful home and realizing that they had been, as we would put it nowadays, “scammed.” Jesus told the truth about Satan when he said, “When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44).
The symbols of Communion point to what Jesus has provided to heal the breach created by Satan’s deception. The “fruit of the vine,” representing Jesus’ blood, is his antidote to the fruit of the tree that poisoned humanity’s relationship with God. Only through Jesus can we “participate in the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4). That is what Satan promised Adam and Eve in the garden, but it is something that can be gained only on God’s terms, not the enemy’s.
At Communion we reaffirm our allegiance to the one who has told his followers essentially what the serpent told Eve, “You will not certainly die.” But Jesus’ words are words of truth and hope, supported by his death for our sins and his resurrection from the grave. Trust Jesus.
Doug Redford has served in the preaching ministry, as an editor of adult Sunday school curriculum, and as a Bible college professor. Now retired, he continues to write and speak as opportunities arise.
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