Sermon for Pentecost 3, June 9, 2024

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.  Amen.

Genesis 3:8-15  ⁸They heard the voice of the Lord God, who was walking around in the garden during the cooler part of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.  ⁹The Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”  ¹⁰The man said, “I heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, so I hid myself.”  ¹¹God said, “Who told you that you were naked?  Have you eaten from the tree from which I commanded you not to eat?”  ¹²The man said, “The woman you gave to be with me—she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”  ¹³The Lord God said to the woman, “What have you done?”  The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”  ¹⁴The Lord God said to the serpent: “Because you have done this, you are cursed more than all the livestock, and more than every wild animal.  You shall crawl on your belly, and you shall eat dust all the days of your life.  ¹⁵I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed.  He will crush your head, and you will crush his heel.” (EHV)

Christ Jesus is our hiding place.

Dear children of the heavenly Father,

            My mother told me that whenever I was in trouble for misbehavior as a little boy, I would run and hide on top of my bed.  I suspect that Adam and Eve were probably about as well hidden from God’s all-knowing eyes as I was from his mother’s.

The events of our sermon text take place in the immediate aftermath of the fall into sin.  Prior to Adam and Eve’s encounter with the serpent, they would have welcomed God’s question, "Where are you?"  In fact, they had enjoyed daily walks with the Lord.  All that changed the moment they listened to the devil’s challenge.  Their perfect nature now shattered by sin, Adam and Eve couldn’t even look at each other without guilt and shame overwhelming them.  They made a bumbling attempt to hide their embarrassment behind some fig leaves, and they and all their descendants have been trying to hide their guilt ever since.  

“The man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.  The Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?’”  Since God is all-knowing, hiding from His judgment proved futile for Adam and Eve.  That once friendly question now struck terror in their hearts.  Their relationship with God was completely corrupted.  The only thing they learned from the devil’s trickery was that they could no longer be in God’s holy presence and live.

Terrified by God’s question, Adam had no choice but to respond.  The man said, “I heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, so I hid myself.”  Fear shows itself in a lot of different ways.  Adam’s reaction is perhaps the most common among all of us.  He first tried to hide his shame in the midst of the surrounding woods, but then he hid behind an accusation: “God, You made me naked and THAT made me ashamed!”  It was a misdirection play; instead of confessing his guilt, Adam tried to camouflage the shame by accusing God of neglecting something Adam needed. 

There are many ways people try to hide; sometimes, if one is brazened enough, he might even deny that he is afraid, and some people go to great lengths to try to prove that.  Others try to ignore the fear, and if you do either long enough you can almost convince yourself that there is nothing to be afraid of—no God, no sin, no judgment, no punishment, and nothing after this life.

Adam tried another way to hide, perhaps the most common; he went on the attack.  God gave Adam another opportunity to confess his sin, gently asking, "Who told you that you were naked?  Have you eaten from the tree from which I commanded you not to eat?"  One would hope, since Adam had so recently fallen away from holiness, that he would have thrown himself down confessing his sin and begging for forgiveness from his beloved God.  Instead, Adam hid behind an accusation; The man said, “The woman you gave to be with me—she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate it.” 

That one sin had completely shattered man’s innocence.  Sin isn’t a minor hiccup.  It wasn’t a little dirt under his fingernails, just a slip of his lips, or an external smudge or stain.  The fall into sin caused a complete change of heart from love to hate, from faith to fear.  Adam was guilty of not properly leading his wife.  He was guilty of listening to the devil’s lies, guilty of eating the forbidden fruit, guilty of wrongly accusing God.  He was guilty through and through.  With nowhere to hide, and no way to cover his shame, Adam piled up sin upon sin as he accused, defied, and attacked his Creator.

Perhaps you’ve seen this type of behavior in yourself; you get caught in a corner, so you fight back.  You get caught with your hand in the cookie jar, and you say you had to take what was forbidden—because you were hungry, or in need—so it’s not your fault.  Your wife catches you looking at another woman, but you blame her for not being attentive enough.  Your boss catches you helping yourself to a little of the company’s products, assets, or time, and it’s not your fault—the company wasn’t paying you enough.

Yet, maybe that’s just a guy thing.  Maybe a woman wouldn’t do the same.  The Lord God said to the woman, “What have you done?”  The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”  Sadly, just like the man, Eve deflected her guilt, “God it’s all Your fault because You made that wicked snake!”  Or, “You know God, if that man You made for me would have helped me, we wouldn’t be in this predicament.  Men!”  Perhaps some of you ladies out there have tried something much the same. 

Now, God has always desired a relationship with His special creation.  Since the fall, though, none of us dare be caught in His presence, and by nature, none of us even want to be there.  So how about you; where do you try to hide from God’s question?  Is it in your work?  “O Lord, I have so much to do that I just can’t come hear You.”  Still, isn’t that also just accusing God for not providing better for us. 

Or maybe for you, it’s volunteer work.  That sounds better, doesn’t it?  “O Lord, I can’t come to meet You today, because I have all these less fortunate people to take care of.  I have all these good kids who need my help.”  In other words, it’s saying, “Well God, I have to do it, because You surely aren’t getting the job done.”

Some may try to hide their guilt in other things: a glass of beer, a game of chance, a little recreation to take your mind off your troubles, a vacation, not just from your job but from having to listen to God too.  God lays some discipline on the human race for our sin, but we don’t want to face the reality of that.  Life seems so unfair, so we try to hide the pain, dull our hurts, all so we don’t have to feel the load of guilt and repent of our sin.  Anything but that!  Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is too great for me to bear.” (Genesis 4:13)  The very first child of the first sinful man and woman tried another way to hide from God—he accused the Lord of being unfair.  Yet, no amount of hiding can cure our guilt or shame.

The fact is, sin has corrupted every one of us—man, woman, and child—infected us so completely that most of the time, we don’t even notice we are doing these things: hiding from God, covering up our shame with distractions that hide nothing, attacking God, and blaming everybody but ourselves.  It’s all just guilt-driven attempts to hide the sin that corrupts us completely.  So, where do you hide your guilt? 

Fortunately for us, God didn’t throw His hands up in anger and abandon us to our fate.  One major difference between God and man is that God exists to love.  The Lord had warned Adam that disobedience would bring death, and it did.  However, death isn’t the end God wants for us.  Therefore, He turned to the one who led the rebellion and “The Lord God said to the serpent: ‘Because you have done this, you are cursed more than all the livestock, and more than every wild animal.  You shall crawl on your belly, and you shall eat dust all the days of your life.  I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed.  He will crush your head, and you will crush his heel.’”

In spite of our wickedness, and the guilt of our false accusations and finger pointing, God showed His love for us, and He has a plan to save us.  God first issued the decree of justice to the devil who had instigated the trouble.  The serpent would spend its earthly life in a shameful position, on its belly in the dirt, never able to rise and walk again, and for his rebellion, Satan was cast out of God’s heaven forever.  Still, there would be a continual warfare between the woman and the devil and between the Seed of the woman and the devil’s followers, but ultimately, and for our sake, One Seed of the woman would crush and destroy that deceiving, lying snake.

God said to the serpent, “I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed.”  God wasn’t declaring that women would always be afraid of snakes.  He meant that there is a continual war for our souls.  Those who repent and follow God will face constant attacks from the evil ones, attacks that are neither pleasant nor gentle.  Why do you suppose Christians are mocked for their faith?  Why are there religious wars?  Why do your neighbors sometimes want you to do things you know are against God’s will?  Because there is continual war between the sons of God and the children of men.

Today, we live in a world where many of the devil’s children flaunt their sin and rub our noses in their imagined freedom to do whatever they want.  However, what they think is freedom is really the devil’s chains dragging them ever closer to hell.  As they come to attack us, you and I really need a hiding place.  Therefore, be glad, my friends, that Christ Jesus is our hiding place.

In response to the devil’s treachery, and mankind’s weakness, God issued the first promise of a Savior: “I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed.  He will crush your head, and you will crush his heel.”  The Son of Man would reverse totally what Adam had done.  The perfect obedience that Adam lost, the Son would restore.  The love of God that mankind no longer possessed would be lived every moment of the Son of Man’s life.  God’s promise is true in Jesus alone.  The perfect trust and perfect faithfulness we need is all there in the Son of God and the Son of Mary.

The apostle John saw this battle as a war in heaven, and the battle was won by the blood of the Lamb. (Revelation 12:7)  The Lamb of God went to war against Satan and all his minions, and Satan got in a few blows.  God had promised that the serpent would bruise His heel.  Satan tried to inflict damage by tempting Jesus.  He tried to get Jesus to give up the fight by turning the people against him.  Finally, the devil convinced God’s chosen people to reject the Seed of the woman and kill Him on a cross.  Yes, Jesus suffered indeed.  His body was ripped, and pierced, and bled empty.  And the worst blow came as the Father turned His back against the Son, so that the full wrath for the sins of the world would be finished.

Perhaps, the serpent thought he had the victory when Jesus was dead.  You can imagine Satan and his followers celebrating, “We did it!”  But wait!  What about the rest of the promise?  Oh yes, Jesus didn’t stay dead!  The Son of Man wasn’t killed by those who rejected Him.  He willingly gave up His life to take the punishment and death we had earned and to crush Satan’s head.  The victory was won by God’s own Son, so Satan can no longer accuse us.  Oh, he still whimpers and growls, but the Gospel always defeats him. 

In Psalm 91, we read, “Surely he will rescue you from the fowler’s trap, from the destructive plague.  With his feathers he will cover you, and under his wings you will find refuge.  His truth will be your shield and armor.” (Psalm 91:3-4)  Indeed, Christ Jesus is our hiding place.

Jesus wants you under His protection night and day.  Most important, He has the power and ability to protect you from all harm, and because you all have been brought under Jesus’ wings by faith, no one can accuse you of sin, for all sins, guilt, and shame were washed away at your baptisms.  God credited your sins to Jesus, punished Him for you, and now gives you Jesus’ perfect holiness in return.  Thus, your heavenly Father now welcomes you with open arms, for you have been washed clean and perfumed with the sweet-smelling sacrifice of His Son.  Satan can no longer accuse you of anything.  He is toothless. 

Furthermore, Death no longer has any hold over you either.  You died with Jesus at your baptism, and there, He raised you to life everlasting.  Each time you sorrow over your sins and remember that Jesus paid for them all, you are returning to the cleansing bath that gives you life.  You no longer have to hide from God, because He sees only the righteousness of His Son covering your human frailty with the shining, white robes of Jesus’ holiness.  Hold on to your Holy Spirit-given faith in Jesus; Christ Jesus is our hiding place.  Amen.

The peace of God which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus unto life everlasting.  Amen.