2026-02-24 Lent - Day 7 Lent- 1st Tuesday of Lent Good Morning! I hope you are enjoying this Lenten Season and having a productive self examination of your spiritual life. Today I am going to throw a bit of a twist into our scripture. I am going to show how Christ symbolized that He took our sins on Himself. Let’s first look at Genesis 3:17-18 17 Then to Adam He said, “Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’: “Cursed is the ground for your sake; In toil you shall eat of it All the days of your life. 18 Both thorns and thistles it will bring forth for you. This of course is where God confronts Adam for his sin. Adam and Eve were deceived by the serpent (Satan) and immediately started making excuses. God doesn’t like excuses. With that said, I’m going to throw a bit of a twist into this scripture. Apparently, in the beginning the earth provided plenty of food without working. No planting, no harvest, just walk out and eat. After their sin, God made it clear they would have to work to survive. God cursed the ground and as a result, life got very hard. Notice God says in verse 18 thorns and thistles will corrupt the crops. Figuratively, thorns and thistles represent sin introduced into what was once perfect soil. The serpent (Satan) introduced sin into the world by deceiving Adam and Eve. Now let’s look at Matthew 27:27-29 27 Then the governor’s soldiers took Jesus into the Praetorium and gathered the whole company of soldiers around him. 28 They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him,29 and then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on his head. Let’s break this down. They stripped Him naked. Adam and Eve were naked in the garden and didn’t know they were introduced to sin. Most people don’t realize that Jesus was crucified naked. Hollywood put a loin cloth on Him, but the fact is the Romans not only inflicted pain, but humiliation on their crucified victims. The scarlet robe they put on Him was mocking His Divinity. Scarlet, being the same color as blood. His blood would soon be shed as He became the sacrifice to pay for sin. The crown of thorns represent the thorns and thistles that God cursed the ground with as a punishment for Adam and Eve. All of these things symbolize Jesus becoming the living sacrifice for us. As we self examine ourselves, keep in mind, we are no different than Adam and Eve. We too sin and then try and find excuses. The sacrifice of Jesus paid the price for all! Blessings,