"THE BIGGEST COVERUP"
First Sunday in Lent
March 1, 2020
Bethel Evangelical Lutheran Church
Glenshaw, Pennsylvania
TEXT:
Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.
Genesis 3:7 (ESV)
When our son was very young, one of his favorite children's books that we would read to him was about a farmer named Golly Gump, who swallowed a fly while competing in a yawning contest at a state fair. As you might suspect, having a fly in his stomach created major problems for Golly, so he decided to solve the problem of the fly in his stomach by swallowing a spider. Certainly a spider would get rid of that bothersome fly--and indeed it did. The only trouble was that now poor Golly Gump had a spider to contend with. He tried to deal with that problem by swallowing a bird to get rid of the spider, and before the story was over he had also consumed a cat, a dog, and a dogcatcher.
Sometimes I think that we are a lot like Golly Gump when it comes to dealing with the problem of our sin. Instead of honestly facing it as a problem that we can't fix, we try to do something to cover it up and in the process we end up turning it into an even bigger problem. The Old Testament Reading for this morning includes part of the third chapter of the book of Genesis, which has been called the most tragic chapter in the entire Bible. It is tragic because it relates to us the story of how sin entered the world and death became a fact of life. Our first parents, Adam and Eve, were too proud to submit to the authority of their Creator, even though He had provided them with everything that they could possibly need and even though He imposed upon them only one simple command. The verse that serves as this morning's sermon text describes the very first effect that sin had on them. This effect involves a realization and a reaction to that realization.
The text tells us that the first realization that Adam and Eve came to was that "they knew that they were naked." This is something that has been greatly misunderstood through the centuries. Some rather prudish people have even gone so far as to suggest that, before the fall, Adam and Eve were not sexual beings, and therefore they either had no genitalia or had no attraction for each other. But that simply cannot be the case, since the Scriptures bluntly tell us that in the beginning God created them male and female and blessed their union with the capacity to reproduce. No, the realization that came to Adam and Eve when "the eyes of both were opened" was not about sexuality or anatomy; it was about sin. That's the new factor here. Think about it. They had been naked all along and it presented no problems for them whatsoever. Why was it suddenly such a shameful problem now? Very simply, it wasn't a problem before because before they were perfect and had no reason to be ashamed. It was a problem now because now they were sinners, and naked sin is an offense.
God's Law has the same effect on us that the opening of their eyes had on our first parents. You might remember from Confirmation Class that one of the uses of God's Law is its use as a mirror. It lets us see ourselves for what we are and, unfortunately, what we are isn't very pretty. But there is nothing about our physical appearance that betrays our sin. Neither was there anything different about Adam and Eve's naked bodies after they sinned. The difference was that now they knew that they were sinners and, because they were sinners, they were no longer presentable. The change was not so much in what they saw when they looked at each other, but in how they felt about themselves. They felt guilty because they knew that they were guilty. They had rebelled against their loving Father, who had given them everything. No matter what the popular self-help books may tell us, most people who feel guilty feel that way for the simple reason that they are guilty.
How did Adam and Eve react to this realization that they were now sinners? To begin with, they engaged in a futile attempt to cover it up. They thought that by covering themselves they could somehow cover their sin. Later on in this chapter we read how they hid from God among the trees of the garden, and when that didn't work, they blamed each other and even God Himself for their offense. And do you know what's the saddest thing of all? That's still how we deal with sin today--we try to cover it up, we avoid God, we blame each other--and we blame God. And it's all really quite stupid when you stop to think about it. Do we really think that we can cover up our sin so that God will not notice? Are we really under some ridiculous illusion we can hide from Him? Do we honestly believe that every sin we commit is somebody else's fault? We can't even fool ourselves! How could we possibly fool God?
God's Good News for Adam and Eve and for us is that we don't need to cover up our sin. The Holy Spirit Himself has covered us in Baptism with the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ, the Savior God sent to right our wrongs--to heal our hurts--to suffer our penalties. Why should we futilely struggle to cover our sins when Christ has covered them totally and completely by the shedding of His innocent blood on the cross for us? Why should we futilely try to cover ourselves with our own righteousness which, incidentally, Scripture compares with "filthy rags" (Isaiah 64:6 KJV), when Christ covers us in Baptism with the wedding garment of His perfect righteousness? If we try to cover up our sin, we will only make things worse. But if we honestly acknowledge our sin and our Savior, we will find in God not a harsh Judge but a merciful Father. As John the evangelist tells us in his First Letter (in a passage that has found its way into one of our liturgies): "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. [But] if we confess our sins, [God, who] is faithful and just, will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:8, 9 RSV).
We sinners today unfortunately find ourselves in very much the same situation as our first parents or even as old Golly Gump in that children's book. We have a problem, and we think we can cover up that problem by coming up with our own solutions. But our solutions only make for bigger problems. A "do-it yourself" attitude toward dealing with sin is always devastating. Sin that is repented can be forgiven--and will be, for the sake of Christ; sin that is not repented cannot be forgiven, because the offender chooses not to acknowledge the sin in the first place. The season of Lent calls us to return to the Lord our God, not covering up our sins but freely confessing them to Him and pleading the blood of Christ as we beg for forgiveness. That blood of Christ, shed on the cross for us, is all we need to cover our sin and to be received into fellowship with our holy God and Father. In that we have reason to rejoice, even in this season of humility and repentance.
Amen.
May the One who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, making us kings and priests before His God and Father, lead you to a life of repentance and trust. May He also be glorified in the lives of you, His people. He who calls you is faithful, and He will do it. Amen.