Sermon for
Reformation Sunday, October 25, 2026
Peace to all of you
who are in Christ Jesus.
Amen.
Genesis 2:15-17, 3:15-23 15The Lord God took the man and
settled him in the Garden of Eden to work it and to take care of it. 16The Lord God gave a command to
the man. He said, “You may freely eat
from every tree in the garden, 17but you shall not eat from the Tree
of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, for on the day that you eat from it, you
will certainly die.” … 3:15I 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. 16To the woman he said: I will
greatly increase your pain in childbearing.
With painful labor you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, but he
will rule over you. 17To Adam
he said: Because you listened to your wife’s voice and ate from the tree about
which I commanded you, “You shall not eat from it,” the soil is cursed on
account of you. You will eat from it
with painful labor all the days of your life.
18Thorns and thistles will spring up from the ground for you,
but you will eat the crops of the field.
19By the sweat of your face you will eat bread until you
return to the soil, for out of it you were taken. For you are dust, and to dust you shall
return. 20The man named his
wife Eve because she would be the mother of all the living. 21The Lord God made clothing of
animal skins for Adam and for his wife and clothed them. 22The Lord God said, “Look, the
man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil. Now, so that he does not reach out his hand
and also take from the Tree of Life and eat and live forever—” 23the Lord God sent him out
from the Garden of Eden to work the soil from which he had been taken. (EHV)
The Lord
sanctifies work for those He redeems.
Dear redeemed of the Lord,
When
Martin Luther wrote the Small Catechism, he included a table of duties which we
have considered over the last several weeks.
He outlined the duties we owe to each other in our families,
communities, and church. Essentially,
all of these duties, or we might say vocations, are means in which the Lord
blesses us all through the work and services we perform.
Now, as you might imagine,
work isn’t always considered a good thing.
Many times in our lives, we feel some resentment because of the demands
of our vocations. After sin entered our
world, what had been a pleasant assignment from God was no longer
appreciated. For that reason, this
morning, we examine work, recognizing that The Lord sanctifies work for
those He redeems.
The first portion of our
text takes us to the day God created man and placed him in the Garden of
Eden. Adam was put there with the task
of being the caretaker of the Garden. The
verb means to watch over and protect what was under his care. In that Garden, Adam was free to eat of any
tree. Imagine an orchard with every
possible fruit and nut available on the planet from which Adam was free to eat
just by reaching out his hand and plucking his supper from the branch. Needless to say, his labor was very easy. Still, he could use all his skill and talent
in pleasant occupation as he cared for the creation surrounding him.
The only restriction
placed upon Adam was that he was not allowed to eat from the Tree of the
Knowledge of Good and Evil. This was by
no means a burdensome restriction, but instead a place where Adam could honor
God’s will for his life. There was
nothing about the fruit of that tree that was superior to any other fruit of
the Garden, and Adam was at peace.
The second portion of our
text takes us to the day Adam and Eve were enticed by the devil’s deceit to
transfer their trust in the Lord to the serpent. You know the story well, I am sure. Satan tricked Eve into imagining that God was
withholding something desirable from her and her husband. Then, since the fruit looked as pleasant and
tasty as any other fruit in the Garden, Eve lusted after its supposed benefit
of the knowledge of evil. Adam, who was
with her, failed his wife by not interfering with the devil’s lie, so they both
ate, and both were poisoned by sin and the desire for evil.
This is where we enter the
scene today. As you would readily
expect, actions have consequences. God’s
initial command to Adam not to eat had included the warning that to eat of the
fruit of that one tree meant certain death.
Thus, both Adam and his wife would now face death. Yet, to the surprise of many, God didn’t
immediately strike that first couple down dead.
Certainly, He could have, but in His mercy, God brought a remedy to
their sin-broken condition. Thus, we
read God’s condemning statement to the serpent: “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.”
For his deceptive ways,
Satan would be conquered completely and eventually banished to eternal torment. From the woman, a descendant would be born
who would destroy the devil’s power. How
or when was left unspoken for the moment, but the promise was there that God
would provide a Redeemer for mankind. We
know this to be the first promise of God sending His Son, born of a woman, to
redeem and save all who would believe in Him.
But now what? What would be the circumstances for the world
until that Redeemer came? Or we might
say, until the end of this corrupted world?
That’s where we see the consequences of sin come into play. Everything about life in this world has
changed. “To the woman he said: I
will greatly increase your pain in childbearing. With painful labor you will give birth to
children. Your desire will be for your
husband, but he will rule over you.”
Some would call this punishment for allowing herself to be
deceived. Some say it is God chastening
women for Eve’s sin. I think it best
just to call it a consequence of turning against God. Rather than a punishment, it is more simply
discipline that causes one to seek the Lord and return to His kindness
again.
But never for one moment
doubt that this was a change. It appears
that prior to the fall into sin, giving birth to children would have been easy
and pain free. Raising children in a
holy state would have been a breeze with neither child nor parent ever being
guilty of sin. Instead, for the rest of
time, everything connected with bringing children into the world is filled with
difficulty and pain. Furthermore, the
roles of men and women became conflicted because of the sin that now infects
each of us.
To
Adam he said: Because you listened to your wife’s voice and ate from the tree
about which I commanded you, “You shall not eat from it,” the soil is cursed on
account of you. You will eat from it
with painful labor all the days of your life.
Thorns and thistles will spring up from the ground for you, but you will
eat the crops of the field. By the sweat
of your face you will eat bread until you return to the soil, for out of it you
were taken.
Adam certainly didn’t
skate free from consequence. The work
that once had been pleasurable and easy would forever after be difficult and
full of trouble and pain. Instead of just
picking fruit off the trees year-round whenever you needed a bite to eat, now
you eat only after you do the planting, cultivating, harvest, and storage, or
someone does it on your behalf.
Regardless, every form of toil, every vocation known to man is now
burdened by the curse of sin. As Paul
noted, “All of creation is groaning with
birth pains right up to the present time.” (Romans 8:22) Therefore, every aspect of our toil and labor
is beset with conflict, disagreements, struggle, and every job seems harder
than one would wish. Even when we find the
perfect job for ourselves, distresses haunt us daily.
So, why do I tell you all
this and what does it mean for our vocations today? As I said, The Lord sanctifies work for
those He redeems. When God removed
Adam and Eve from the Garden, He didn’t toss them on the dung heap of
history. In fact, He reestablished Adam
in his work. It would no longer be as
pleasant and easy as in the Garden of Eden, yet his authority over the land
continued. Furthermore, Adam and all
people following would eat from the labor of their hands, and through that work
God provides for all people.
With the promise of a
Savior believed, Adam was now returned into fellowship with the Lord, and as a
believer in the promised Messiah, his works are counted as good before the
Lord. Indeed, the apostle Paul wrote, “We are God’s workmanship, created in
Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared in advance so that we would
walk in them.”
(Ephesians 2:10) Therefore, because of
Jesus and what He has done for us by His life and sacrifice on the cross, and
because the Holy Spirit has connected us to Christ through faith, the work we
do is also made holy before the Lord, as long as it is done out of faith in
Christ and in accord with God’s commands.
Through the sacrifice of
His Son, God has redeemed mankind from sin, death, and the devil’s
control. In our text, this is
foreshadowed by the first shedding of blood to cover their shame. “The Lord God made clothing of animal
skins for Adam and for his wife and clothed them.” God sacrificed the lives of animals so that
Adam and Eve could live without continual shame. It was a reminder that their sins would be
covered by the sacrifice of a much greater Lamb, God’s own begotten Son.
Though Adam and Eve had
turned against God when they listened to Satan’s deceptions, God did not
abandon them. Indeed, He continued to
care for them and even preserved them from destruction. The Lord God said, “Look, the man has
become like one of us, knowing good and evil.
Now, so that he does not reach out his hand and also take from the Tree
of Life and eat and live forever—” the Lord God sent him out from the Garden of Eden to work
the soil from which he had been taken. If Adam had foolishly eaten from the Tree of
Life after falling into rebellion, he would have been forever banished to the
devil’s lair. He would never have been
able to escape the torments of a cruel world corrupted by sin and its
curse. Therefore, God forced the man and
woman out of the Garden and away from any chance that could happen.
God was protecting them as
well as us, and in doing so, God gave them work to do, each with his or her own
talents, abilities, and vocations. The
variations continue still today. Regardless,
the work God gives us remains pleasing to Him when we serve out of faith and
trust in our Savior. When we walk with
Jesus by faith, and serve Him with all the talents and abilities He gives us,
then no matter how difficult our toil might feel, or how persecuted we might be
in a world that hates to labor for others, we are comforted knowing that The
Lord sanctifies work for those He redeems.
Amen.
The peace of God,
which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in
Christ Jesus.
Amen.
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