+ In the Name of Jesus +
Genesis 3:8-15
God’s Real Solution for Humanity’s Worst Problem.
Pentecost 2 (Fall River), June 2
and Pentecost 3 (St. Stephen’s BD) Proper 5, B, June 9, 2024
- You’ve heard of the shell game. Three cups are placed upside down on a table. One has a ball in it. Three Card Monte is a similar game played with playing cards (https://www.casino.org/blog/three-card-monte-trick/). One is a queen, two are regular cards. You pay to play with the promise of doubling your money if you can find the queen. But the game isn’t really about your powers of observation, or how sharp your eye is in following the queen as you look at the back of the cards. It’s about the dealer’s skill in shuffling, sleight of hand and misdirection. The promise of doubling your money is what draws people in—but really, you can’t win.
- In the same way, the real issues behind temptations are often not on the surface. Take the very first temptation. It wasn’t about an apple or forbidden fruit. Yes, that was the object of temptation—but the real issues were the goals of the temptation—the outward goal and the hidden goal. The outward goal was the devil’s empty promise: “The day you eat from it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” The devil’s hidden goal was the opposite of what was promised: Destroy their likeness to God. Bring corruption on the crown of God’s very good Bring God’s judgment down on the people he loved so much. The fall of Satan and how it relates to the fall of humanity is one of the Bible’s great mysteries—yet the temptation and fall seems to show the consuming nature of evil. The devil knew what a fall meant for him—and he decided to ruin as much as he could. He knew God’s power and unchanging nature—God cannot be hurt, so he tried to hurt God through hurting his beloved creation—humanity. And all these things the devil continues to try and do—and we see it in our own lives, too. He tempts us to throw away some good, genuine gift of God and exchange it for something that is flashy, attractive, and fake.
- Adam and Eve lost that image of God, that likeness to God in the fall. We see it in their actions. If it weren’t tragic, it would almost be comic—weaving together fig leaves to cover their nakedness, and then trying to hide from an all-seeing, all-knowing God. The image of God is being like God in holiness and goodness. Originally it may have had some additional wisdom and ability with it. Now, the image of God is mostly gone. Adam and Eve were afraid. They felt exposed—not just physically naked, but guilty. No longer loving to each other, but accusing. Not delighted to see their Creator at the end of the day and tell him about their work and their discoveries in his very good creation, but wanting to hide form him.
- When I teach the gospels, I always marvel when Jesus asks a question. Why does Jesus have to ask a question? It’s because he wants his disciples to think, isn’t it? In Genesis 3, God calls to Adam and says, “Where are you?” What was really happening? God knew very well where Adam and Eve were—in the farthest corner of the garden, hiding behind a bush in their aprons made of fig leaves. God’s question, “Where are you?” was his call for them to confess. But he didn’t get a confession from them, did he. He got accusation—Adam accused Eve and God. “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.” “See—she wrecked everything, and so did you, God.” See how sin had corrupted Adam’s nature. He doesn’t say, “Lord, I did this. See my shame. Lord, have mercy.” Eve doesn’t say it either. She points to the serpent. Later, with people like King David, we see how God works faith and repentance in the hearts of his broken people. When we say, “Lord, I did this. Lord, have mercy.” It is a cry of repentance. It is also a cry of faith.
- It’s faith in God’s promise. It’s faith in God’s solution. Before he told Adam and Eve about the consequences of sin in the world, toil, sweat, pain and death, he told them about his solution. “I will put enmity between you [Satan] and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” “The offspring of the woman will crush the serpent’s head.” This promise has its fulfillment in Jesus, who is the one conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary—the seed or offspring of the woman. This sentence from Genesis has been called the first gospel, (Protoevangelium), and it is the foundation for every promise of the Savior to follow—to Abraham, “through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed” (Genesis 12:3, et al). To David, “your descendant will reign on your throne forever” (2 Samuel 7:13ff). To Isaiah, “A virgin will conceive and bear a son and will call him Immanuel, God with us” (Isaiah 7:14).
- So what about sin? Sin in the world? (You see it on every page of the newspaper and on every Internet news page.) Sin in your life and mine? (We see it in our frustrations and failures every day!) Corruption! Failure! Bitterness! Rebellion and pain! “The seed of the woman will crush the serpent’s head.” The devil is still around. Temptation is still around. But you have been freed by Jesus. In Revelation, the devil is pictured as a dragon bound with a great chain. Like a mad dog chained to a tree, he has his range, but he also has his limits. The devil does not have the full power of deceiving the nations—because we have Jesus, and because we have the gospel of Jesus that tells us we are free. It tells us we have someone who defeated temptation for us. It tells us we have someone who fought and still fights for us. He bound the devil, and still binds him, and he takes us, his people away to freedom. Temptations still come. Do you have to fall for them? With his Word, Jesus has sharpened your conscience so that you know sin and so you can better avoid it. With his Word he has also declared the power of his victory to you. The closer you get to him, the farther you get from evil. Christians will struggle with temptation and sin as long as we live on this earth—but with Jesus Christ we already have the big victory, the eternal victory—and many victories as we walk with him day by day.
- What about the consequences of sin? What about the toil, sweat, pain and death? Again, we have Jesus. Jesus says, “Come to me all who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). Jesus says, “I am the resurrection and the life” (John 11) and “I go to prepare a place for you, that where I am, you may be also” (John 14). Sin, death and the devil are conquered enemies—Jesus has won the victory over them all, and he is pleased to share that victory with us. That’s why God’s people are called “saints,” even when they struggle. That’s why the New Testament consistently says that those who have died have “fallen asleep.” The victory is already ours. Jesus has taken away the sting of death and the power of sin. That means you have a Savior—one who gets you out of your worst trouble—one who gets you out of what you got yourself into—and with him, you can’t lose.
Amen.
