“The Blame Game”
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord
Jesus Christ. Amen. Although it is not as popular in the United States, the rest of world
is preoccupied right now with the world championship of the world’s most popular
sport. The modern game of soccer arose in the 1800’s among the
universities of England. It became the world’s most popular sport because
with the rise of the British Empire soccer spread from England throughout the
world. Today’s Old Testament Reading records the beginnings of another game,
even more popular and widespread among us humans. A game which has
captured all humanity, a game which has spread out from the Garden of Eden,
passed down through the generations, a game at which you and I and all of us are
truly world champions: “The Blame Game.” “The Lord God called to the man, ‘Where are you?’ He answered, ‘I
heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.’
And he said, ‘Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree
that I commanded you not to eat from?’ The man said, ‘The woman you put
here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.’” Can’t you just see Adam pointing his finger, as he puts the blame on
Eve and then even on God himself? “The woman you put here with me—she gave
me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.” That was the beginning of the
finger-pointing, fighting, arguing, the beginning of “The Blame Game.” Before the Fall into sin, Adam and Eve lived in perfect harmony as
husband and wife. Theirs was first perfect marriage—and the last perfect
marriage. For, when sin entered into and infected our world, sin also
entered into and infected marriage, and all our relationships with our fellow
humans. Ever since, our relationships with one another are all too often
marred by finger-pointing, fighting, arguing. No longer the perfect
harmony of Eden, but the sad disharmony caused by sin. In Ephesians, Paul describes sin as “the barrier, the dividing wall of
hostility.” The fall into sin brought hostility into our lives, hostility
between us and our fellow humans, and also hostility between us and our Maker.
As Adam says, “The woman you put here with me.” For many years the Berlin Wall ran down the middle of Germany, dividing
a nation. In the same way, imagine sin as “the barrier, the dividing wall
of hostility” running right down the middle of your life, dividing you from God,
and dividing you from your fellow man. But, Paul says, “He himself is our
peace . . . who has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility.”
Just as the Berlin Wall was broken down, Jesus Christ has “destroyed the
barrier” of sin, “the dividing wall of hostility” separating us from God, and
from one another. Today’s Old Testament Reading has the first sermon recorded in the
Bible, given by God himself, in Genesis chapter 3. Every good sermon
should have both Law and Gospel. First, the Law, proclaiming the bad news
of our sin, to bring us to sincere repentance. The Law is like the
diagnosis of a terminal illness given by a doctor, the diagnosis of your
spiritual sickness, and your need for the cure only God can give. Then
comes the Good News of the Gospel, to bring you to sincere faith in Jesus Christ
as your Savior. The Gospel is like a doctor’s wonderful good news of a
miracle cure. This first sermon recorded in the Bible follows this Law-Gospel
pattern. After Adam and Eve fall into sin by yielding to the temptations
of Satan, and rebelling against God by eating the forbidden fruit, God first
sternly proclaims to them the bad news of their sin: “Who told you that you were
naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from? . . .
What is this you have done?” But then immediately God proclaims the Good News of the Gospel,
promising to send the Savior, when he says to Satan in the last verse of the
reading: “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your
descendants and her Descendant. He will crush your head, and you will
bruise his heel.” Although that is very bad news for Satan, for Adam and Eve and you and
me and all of sinful humankind it is THE Good News, the Gospel.
Theologians call this verse, in Latin, the Proto Evangelium, the “first
Gospel,” because in this verse for the first time God promises to send the
Savior of the world. As Paul explains in Galatians, “The Scripture does
not say ‘and to descendants,’ meaning many people, but ‘and to your Descendant,’
meaning one person, who is Christ.” God promises that one of Eve’s descendants will be much more than just
a man. He will be the God-man, who will crush Satan and defeat him. Adam
and Eve were really the first Christians, because they believed God’s promise to
send the Christ, the Messiah, the Savior. The fact that Adam and Eve understood the promise this way is revealed
in the next chapter. When Eve gives birth to her firstborn, Cain, she
says, “I have gotten a man, the Lord.” The Lord promised Eve that one of
her descendants would be the God-man, and she believed the promise, so when her
first child is born she thinks the promise has already been fulfilled and
exclaims, in faith, “I have gotten a man, the Lord.” But, “with the Lord a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years
are like a day,” and it would be many centuries, many millennia, before the
promise would finally be fulfilled. As Paul says in Galatians, “When the
time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman.” That first promise of the Savior, given back in the Garden of Eden, was
fulfilled by the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
When it says that Satan shall “bruise” his heel, it means that like a man being
bitten while crushing a snake underfoot, in the process of defeating Satan, the
Messiah himself would be wounded. As Isaiah said, “He was wounded for our
transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities.” But, on the third day
he rose from the dead, triumphant from the grave. He defeated sin, death
and the Devil for you, he earned forgiveness for your sins and a place for you
in heaven. He made all things right again between you and God and between
you and your fellow humans. Paul advises Pastor Titus: “Remind the people . . . to be peaceable and
considerate.” Like the final horn of the final game of the World Cup,
Christ’s death and resurrection signals for you the end of “The Blame Game.”
You will no longer put the blame on others, because you trust that God put the
blame for us all on his own Son. As Peter says, “He himself bore our sins
in his body on the cross.” “Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger . . .” Paul says in
Ephesians. “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each
other, just as in Christ God forgave you.” “As God’s chosen people, holy
and dearly loved,” Paul says in Colossians, “clothe yourselves with compassion,
kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and
forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the
Lord forgave you.” That is the end of “The Blame Game.” Return to Top | Return to Sermons | Home | Email Church Office
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