First Sunday in Lent 2011

First Sunday in Lent
3/13/11
Genesis 3:1-21
Bror Erickson


[3:1] Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made.
He said to the woman, "Did God actually say, 'You shall not eat of any tree in the garden'?" [2] And the woman said to the serpent, "We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, [3] but God said, 'You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.' " [4] But the serpent said to the woman, "You will not surely die. [5] For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." [6] So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. [7] Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.
[8] And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. [9] But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, "Where are you?" [10] And he said, "I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself." [11] He said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?" [12] The man said, "The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate." [13] Then the Lord God said to the woman, "What is this that you have done?" The woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate."
[14] The Lord God said to the serpent,
"Because you have done this,
cursed are you above all livestock
and above all beasts of the field;
on your belly you shall go,
and dust you shall eat
all the days of your life.
[15] I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and her offspring;
he shall bruise your head,
and you shall bruise his heel."

[16] To the woman he said,
"I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing;
in pain you shall bring forth children.
Your desire shall be for your husband,
and he shall rule over you."

[17] And to Adam he said,
"Because you have listened to the voice of your wife
and have eaten of the tree
of which I commanded you,
'You shall not eat of it,'
cursed is the ground because of you;
in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life;
[18] thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you;
and you shall eat the plants of the field.
[19] By the sweat of your face
you shall eat bread,
till you return to the ground,
for out of it you were taken;
for you are dust,
and to dust you shall return."

[20] The man called his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all living. [21] And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them. Genesis 3:1-21 (ESV)


The Lord God said to the serpent,
"Because you have done this,
cursed are you above all livestock
and above all beasts of the field;
on your belly you shall go,
and dust you shall eat
all the days of your life.
[15] I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and her offspring;
he shall bruise your head,
and you shall bruise his heel."

Cursed are you above all livestock, and above all beasts of the field. Genesis 3 sets up the story. One is really lost for understanding the world, themselves, God, and the need for Jesus without understanding Genesis 3. And this history is often ignored, often twisted, often misunderstood, to such an extent that it makes the gospel unintelligible. If you don’t understand the beginning, you are hard pressed to understand the end.
Perhaps I don’t need to explain how this story has been twisted by Mormon’s and so makes it impossible for them to understand the true nature of sin, or the need for Jesus Christ, for God, to sacrifice himself on the cross. They view the Fall as being a fall up, or should I say that it was a good thing. And interpretation that was popular in the 19th century, popularized by literary Satanists, who saw satan as the hero in John Milton’s Paradise lost. This position has to be the most satanic one can have, that Satan is the hero of this story, and not the villain! That interpretation makes God the villain. But this has its seeds even further back, to an early version of John Calvin’s “Institutes” where he posits that the fall needed to happen, and God was happy when Eve ate the apple.
One should understand who John Calvin was and is. He is considered by many to be the greatest theologian of the reformation, the result of many trysts with what Luther called the Devil’s whore, reason. It isn’t that Luther totally hated reason, but when reason over steps her bounds as Calvin was apt to let it, that is when reason is used to twist and contradict God’s word, to deny God’s word, then it deserves to be dismissed with such harsh biblical language such as whore. But John Calvin co-opted the reformation with these trysts, and perverted the gospel for almost all of what is called Protestantism today. And he reasoned that God being all powerful and all knowing preordains every event that has ever happened. That he actually controls our every move as if we were nothing but puppets on a stage. And so he must have willed that Eve eat the fruit. But this does not allow the text to speak for itself, and in the end makes God a liar.
Adam and Eve had the choice, they were more or less free, they had free will in a way that we have never known. They were in tune with nature in a way that we can never imagine. They were able to talk with God, and they had no fear of death. They were able to do everything we are able to do and more. There is no reason the fall had to happen. And there is no reason to believe that God was happy with the fall.
Look at what he says here! He curses everything! The fall totally ruined everything. Not only is the serpent cursed, but the livestock and the beasts are cursed, Not only is Adam Cursed, but the ground he tills is cursed! Not only is Eve cursed, but now the relationships between man and woman are cursed! What was once perfect is now destroyed. The crown of creation fell, and so did creation. The life we live is messed up! And there is very little we can do about it! Because of this sin, everything we do is tainted with sin. Our best intentions end up in ruin over and over again. Really and literally there is nothing we can do about it.
Oh, we can abstain from some of the grossest and more harmful manifestations of it. We can do what we can to avoid pornography. We can resist the temptation to fornication and adultery. We can take measures to overcome drug addiction and alcoholism. We could possibly even clean up our language. But when we get rid of one sin, we find others taking their place. The fall messed everything up. Every failed marriage, every failed relationship between mother and daughter, father and son, every broken friendship, every war, every death and final good bye, can be blamed on “the fall.” And God is happy with none of these.
God doesn’t want this for our lives! He doesn’t want us to suffer in sin. He doesn’t want us to suffer with death. God loves us, and he wants us to know his love, and reflect that love with one another. But sin stands in the way. Sin, shame, and nakedness of the suffering soul make us hide.
And it is for this reason, that his curses come mixed with blessing. The curses set up the rest of the story, they come with salvation, they point to the need and the remedy for our sin. For in the midst of cursing the serpent, God utters the Gospel for the first time, he promises salvation to man. “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring, he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel." He even tells us here how it will happen! It will be her offspring, not his. The offspring that will bruise the serpents head, crush it under his heal, will not belong to Adam, will not be his offspring but hers. It is peculiar phraseology. For we are all offspring of Adam. Everything, including our reason is tainted by the sin of Adam, and sinners can’t save sinners. But here God prophecies the virgin birth, by which he will become one of us, to save us from our sin.
And this is what the Devil is confronted with in the temptations of the desert. Here he tries to convince the second Adam, Jesus Christ, to sin as the first Adam sinned. Behind the temptations, which seem so innocent enough, stands the temptation to do it another way, to redeem the world in another way, to not go to the cross. To fix our problems in all the ways that have failed us from the beginning. But Jesus knows that he must bruise the head of the serpent by bruising his heal. Jesus knows that there is no salvation apart from the cross. He knows that in order to win this battle he cannot take the easy way out, but it will cost him his own life. That if he is going to conquer death, then he is going to have to die to do it, die in order to kill death. Yes, his heal will be bruised, it would not be easy for him. But in dying he killed death, in bruising his heal, he bruised, he crushed the head of the serpent. Sin can’t be covered up with fig leaves, not even the skins of animals can fully cover it, but the blood of Christ, the blood of God, it overcomes all, forgives all, and restores all.
Yes, there amidst the curses, comes the gospel. There amidst the curses is shown the cure. Not hard work, not human effort to avoid sin and avoid death, But finally the death of God the creator of the world, in whose death we find forgiveness, in whose resurrection we find life.
Amen.