Trinity 11
Gen
4:1-15
8/31/14
My brother Matthew and I couldn’t be
more the same … or more different. When
it comes to the foundational things in life that really matter, my brother and
I are exactly the same. We both seek to
place Jesus Christ at the center of our personal life, and also that of our
family. We are both committed to being
Lutheran because we believe that what the Lutheran Confessions teach is a true
exposition of God’s Word. When it comes to a general worldview and outlook on
life we are the same.
However, when you look at other
areas of life, we are very different. I
love sports and avidly follow them. My brother only pays attention to them
insofar as it helps him to be able to converse with the patients for whom he is
the doctor. I love trains and model
railroading. My brother loves to do things with his computer and to play board
games.
You see very great differences when
you compare the way we have decided to pursue the setting for our lives and families. Matthew and I grew up in a house in a typical
subdivision. In purchasing the home my
parents had as a goal to make sure my dad would have space to build a good
sized model railroad. Basically, I have
reproduced the setting in which I grew up.
Amy and purchased a house in a subdivision and in choosing the house we
had as a goal to make sure I would have space build a model railroad.
Matthew and his wife did something
completely different. When it came time
to build their dream home, they purchased a lot that is partially wooded and is
far out in the countryside. They have a
barn and dozens of chickens that they raise for eggs and meat, along with
turkeys. They have cage after cage of
rabbits in the barn. Their son raised
pigs this year for 4H.
Matthew loves the setting he is in,
just as I love the one in which I live. And as my mom has observed, the great
thing is that no one is going to be jealous or envious of the other’s
life. Matthew consciously chose to do
something different than the setting in which we grew up, so he certainly isn’t
envious of me. I don’t want to have to
drive twenty minutes or to get to everything; I think the animals are a ton of
work; and I hate the smell of well water. So I’m not envious of him. It’s nice to visit. But then we are both glad
to return to our own home.
Things are very different between
the brothers Cain and Abel in our Old Testament lesson today. Cain is envious and jealous of his younger
brother Abel. And once present this sin
works on Cain until it produces something even worse. In our text this morning, we see how sin
operates in our lives. And we are
reminded that the blood of Jesus Christ gives us forgiveness.
Genesis chapter four narrates the
events that occurred after the Fall and Adam and Eve’s expulsion from the
Garden of Eden. As we read on into
chapter four, we are now in a different world, because it is a fallen
world. Adam and Eve have become
different people because they have lost the image of God. They are no longer able to know God as God
wants to be known. They are no longer able to live perfectly according God’s
will. While in Genesis chapter one we
hear God say, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness,” in chapter
five we learn that Adam “fathered a son in his own likeness after his image.”
Things are
different. Sin has entered into the
world in chapter three, and now immediately in chapter four we learn about what
sin does in the lives of human beings.
We learn in our text that Adam and
Eve had two sons, Cain and Abel. Cain
was a farmer, while Abel kept sheep. In
the course of time Cain brought to the LORD an offering of the fruit of the
ground, and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat
portions. Then we are told, “And the LORD had regard for Abel and his offering,
but for Cain and his offering he had no regard.”
We aren’t actually told what was
wrong with Cain’s offering. But in the
description of Abel’s offering, the problem seems quite clear. Abel brought the firstborn of his
flock and he sacrificed the best parts of the animal to the Lord. On the other hand we are only told that Cain
brought an offering. The attitude of the
two brothers was not the same as they made the offering. Abel gave God the
first and the best. Cain just gave
something.
The description of the two brothers
speaks to you and the way you handle God’s gifts. Do you operate in the way of Abel or of Cain?
Does the idea of giving the first and best part to God describe your
offering? Or do you follow Cain’s model
and just give something – something that doesn’t exhibit the thankfulness of
faith?
Cain was very angry about the fact
his offering did not get the same reception as Abel’s. He was envious. He was jealous. And so God said to him, “Why are you angry,
and why has your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if
you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but
you must rule over it.”
God told Cain that there was no need
to be angry. If he acted in a faithful
way, his offering would be accepted and all would be well. However, if he didn’t
then sin was waiting to get the upper hand.
It wanted to take control of him.
Instead Cain needed to rule over it by doing the right thing – by acting
faithfully.
This is the first verse in the Bible
that contains the word “sin.” When scholars examine this portion of Genesis
chapter four, they find that in a number of ways it has been crafted so that it
links back to the Fall in chapter three.
Sin had entered into the world in the Fall, and now in the life of Cain
we see the consequence of this. We see
sin at work. We see it first in the fact
that he didn’t give the first and the best to God. He held back and gave what didn’t
inconvenience him.
But sin is not content to remain as
it is. Instead, it is like a virus that
seeks to replicate itself and spread.
James described sin in this way, “But each person is tempted when he is
lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives
birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.” Sin wants to grow. And it did in the life of Cain.
Cain was envious and jealous of Abel
and the way his offering had been received by God. That sin churned away in him until it grew
and brought forth death. We hear in our
text, “Cain spoke to Abel his brother. And when they were in the field, Cain
rose up against his brother Abel and killed him.”
This is how it is in your life. You are slighted or wronged. But instead of forgiving, you get angry; you
bear a grudge. This sin festers away
like the splinter that is never taken out and causes an infection. The skin
becomes red and hot and painful. Pus
forms and if untreated the infection spreads to other parts of the body. Your anger eventually turns into hate, and
hate is a grievous sin because as John tells us, “Everyone who hates his
brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding
in him.”
Cain murdered Able when they were
out in the field – when they were alone.
But God knew. He said to Cain,
“Where is Abel your brother?” Cain responded to the Creator with sass that
would get him in trouble in any of our families: “I do not know; am I my brother's keeper?” And
then God declared, “What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood is
crying to me from the ground.”
Abel’s blood cried out for vengeance
– it cried out for judgment upon Cain.
Your hatred cries out for the same thing – for judgment and eternal
punishment by God. So does your envy,
and your jealousy, and your anger, and your meanness, and your lust. Because this is so, God did judge it. He did pour out his wrath against your sin.
But he exacted the punishment for that sin upon his own Son, Jesus Christ, who
suffered and died in your place.
Jesus shed his blood on the
cross. But unlike Abel’s this is not a
blood that cries out for vengeance.
Instead, it is a blood that washes you clean. It is a blood that speaks on your behalf and
declares you forgiven. It is blood that
makes you a saint. As John wrote at the beginning of Revelation, God is the One
who “loves us and released us from our sins by His blood.”
In the
Old Testament, God said that life was in the blood and that was why the blood
of an animal would be used in the sacrifices at the tabernacle. Those sacrifices pointed forward to Jesus
Christ. He shed his blood as he gave his
life in your place. His death on Good
Friday was the end of his life. But it
was not the end of life. For on the
third day God raised Jesus Christ with an indestructible life – a resurrection
life that will be yours too on the Last Day through the work of Christ’s
Spirit.
To
forgive you for the times you continue to sin in thought, word and deed, Christ
continues to give you the blood shed for you.
In the Sacrament of the Altar he gives you his true body and blood,
given and shed for the forgiveness of your sins. Through these means the Spirit feeds and
strengthens the new man in you. Through these means you receive the saving love
of Jesus Christ.
And this love moves you to
act in love. John, after talking about
how the one who hates his brother is a murder and does not have eternal life in
him went on to say: “By this we know love, that he laid down his
life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone
has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart
against him, how does God's love abide in him? Little children, let us not love
in word or talk but in deed and in truth.”
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