The Serpent
Genesis 3:
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[e] and her
offspring;
he shall
bruise your head,
and you shall bruise his heel.”
(and to
Adam):
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.”
A blessed Ash Wednesday to you, dear Christians. Today we remember we are dust and to dust we
shall return. It is a day of
repentance. It is a day of sorrow over
sin, and turning away from sin and toward Christ in faith. It is also the beginning of Lent, a season of
repentance, in which we prepare to observe Holy Week, Good Friday, and
celebrate with joy the Resurrection of Christ our Lord.
As is our tradition, we have a midweek series following a
theme. This year, we are looking at the
passion of Christ through the lens of different animals that either appear in
the passion narrative, or else have a close association with it.
The Bible is full of stories that include the animals. They are mentioned as part of creation (days
5 and 6). They are saved with Noah in the
flood, 2 of every kind, and after the flood, also given us for food. They are divided into clean and unclean
categories. They are used in sacrifices,
and they are a major form of wealth for the partriarchs – Abraham, Issac and
Jacob were all herdsmen. Even King David
grew up as a shepherd.
God cares for the animals, and distinguishes them from
plant-life. For in them is also “the
breath of life”. When Jonah wanted
Nineveh destroyed, God asked, “should I not care about the thousands of people
that lived there and also many cattle”?
Surely humans are worth more than animals, even many sparrows, for
instance. After all we are created in
the image of God, and they are not. But
God still regards his creation, and has a special place in his heart for the
animals.
But animals are also used as pictures of spiritual
truths. Christ and Satan are both
pictured as a lion. The Lion of the
tribe of Judah, and the lion looking for someone to devour. Jesus is the lamb who was once slain. We have birds and insects and fish and horses
and all manner of animal life in the pages of Scripture. They are a blessing to us as fellow
creatures, and part of the earth we are given to subdue and rule. But they also serve to teach us about the God
whom we serve.
This Lent, we will take six of these animal stories, and
examine them in connection to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ – especially in
connection with his passion – his trial, his suffering and his death for
us.
The first of these animals, the Serpent. The first animal that takes any prominent
place in Scripture is the one the Devil uses to tempt our first parents into
sin. There is nothing inherently evil in
snakes, but here the Devil either possesses a serpent or comes in the form of
one, slithering into Eden to sow his seeds of doubt.
Treacherous but clever words, filled with truths but also a
deadly lie, “you will not die”. The
Serpent becomes a bitter reminder for us of temptation and sin, of the bitter
fall of Adam and Even into sin and death.
That sad day in which everything changed, the bliss of Eden was
shattered, and the human race became doomed to judgment.
But don’t just blame the Serpent, or even old Adam and
Eve. Though you and I inherit their sin,
we also participate in it. We are guilty
of original sin, yes, but also of the actual sins we commit. The same serpent who worked on them works on
us. The same devil who drove a wedge
between God and man would do the same today, and when you sin you become his
willing accomplice.
And we are also like our first parents in trying to shift
blame for our sins, “It’s not my fault, it’s the woman you gave me” “It’s not my fault, the Serpent tricked
me!” It’s not my fault, because I was
born this way. It’s not my fault,
because it was just too hard not to sin.
It’s not my fault, since the game is stacked against me – the
commandments can’t be serious. And bedsides, I’m only human. And the next guy’s a worse sinner than I am. Did God really say?
Yes, that old evil foe has some tricks up his sleeve, some
lies in the repertoire of his forked tongue.
He knows what levers to pull, and he will stop at nothing to see you,
too, fall – not only into sin, but away from faith in Christ, away from your
baptismal birthright of salvation. He
would like to see nothing more. His eternal misery wants nothing more than your
company. Since he can’t hurt God, he
goes after the ones God loves.
But he is crushed. He
is a defeated foe. A roaring lion with
no claws, no teeth. For Christ has
conquered. Christ has won the victory
over sin and death and devil.
Oh, sure, the devil bruised his heel, yes. And a nasty bruise it was. Deadly, even.
Pierced hands and feet. A crown
of thorns. A soul sorrowful, even unto
death. Surely the serpent shouted in
triumph when Christ died in humble agony.
But the revelry of hell would be short lived. As one hymn puts it, “The foe in triumph
shouted when Christ lay in the tomb, but lo, he now is routed, his boast turned
into gloom!”
The bruised heel didn’t stop Jesus. The death he died on the cross wasn’t the end
of him. For he is stronger than death,
and he has come not to be crushed, but to crush. To trample the serpent’s head in fulfillment
of the ancient promise of God. And I’d
far rather have my heel bruised than my head crushed.
God accepted the sacrifice of his Son. Jesus’ full atonement for sins was mission
accomplished. Therefore God raised him
up. Therefore Jesus, who laid down his
life of his own accord, took it back up just as easily. Death’s strong bands could no more hold him
than a paper chain could restrain a body-builder, but he burst forth from the
grave in power and glory.
And first on his agenda was to announce his victory. So he descended into hell. He went to meet that old serpent on his home
turf. And what a shock it must have
caused. When Jesus proclaimed to the
spirits in prison, as 1 Peter puts it, after being made alive by the
Spirit. He showed them by his very
presence there in the halls of Hades – “I am alive! You didn’t win after all. Death and sin and you, devil, are done
for. Your fate is sealed.”
And so the same God who cursed the serpent, and proclaimed
to Eve and then Adam the penalties for their sin – pain in childbirth, thorns
in the ground – the same God announces resurrection victory first to the
Serpent, then to the women at the tomb, and finally to the men in the upper
room. He undoes the effects of sin and
curse as he undoes death. He robs the
satanic strongman, ties him up, and plunders his house – winning for himself a
people – his church, righteous and holy by his blood.
Remember you are dust, and to dust you shall return. You were made from the dust, in a sense – for
Adam was formed from it. That’s not such
a bad thing.
But the dust and dirt is where we return after death takes
our bodies and decay does its work. This
sinful flesh must go its way. But that
isn’t the end of us.
For the Christ who crushed the Serpent is the Christ who
rose from death, and who will bring you, even you, from the dust of death in a
resurrection like his. And the serpent
can’t stop that.
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