Sermon Text: Genesis 3:1-15
Date: February 22, 2026
Event: The First Sunday in Lent, Year A

Genesis 3:1-15 (EHV)

Now the serpent was more clever than any wild animal which the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Has God really said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree in the garden’?”

2The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees of the garden, 3but not from the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden. God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it. You shall not touch it, or else you will die.’ ”

4The serpent said to the woman, “You certainly will not die. 5In fact, God knows that the day you eat from it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

6When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was appealing to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took some of its fruit and ate. She gave some also to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7The eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized that they were naked. They sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for their waists. 8They heard the voice of the Lord God, who was walking around in the garden during the cooler part of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.

9The Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”

10The man said, “I heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, so I hid myself.”

11God said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree from which I commanded you not to eat?”

12The man said, “The woman you gave to be with me—she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”

13The Lord God said to the woman, “What have you done?”

The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

14The Lord God said to the serpent:

Because you have done this,
you are cursed more than all the livestock,
and more than every wild animal.
You shall crawl on your belly,
and you shall eat dust all the days of your life.
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.

A Battle Was Lost, but the War Is Won

I’m no military strategist, nor do I even have any interest in the history of that area, but even a buffon like me can understand the difference between fighting a battle and fighting a war. There are conflicts that we face, be they literal wars between nations or more figurative wars in our lives, where we need to pick our battles to win the overall goal.

An army may choose to cede a piece of land to the enemy because it allows them to preserve a more strategically important point that will be necessary to bring the conflict to an end. A parent may choose to make an exception to their family’s dessert or treat rules for the sake of order or to teach a lesson. A business may decide to retreat from part of its business plan because it’s not panning out, and it will end up ruining the company if it keeps throwing good money after bad. Trying to eat healthy doesn’t mean you have to be flawless in your eating (and in fact, little variations from the goal might actually be worthwhile).

Little decisions can make a big difference, but little losses don’t necessarily mean the end of the world. That piece of pizza isn’t going to torpedo a month of good eating choices, and a piece of candy on a road trip to keep some peace will not result in a permanently unruly child. But there are times when, in the moment, it can feel bigger and more important than it actually is.

In many ways, that is how we can view this scene in the Garden of Eden. Is it a big deal? Absolutely. Is it as big and as dire a deal as it seems? No. Let’s spend some time in the garden to understand why.

When God created the world and our first parents along with it, he did it for one primary purpose: to have a special relationship, a fellowship, with human beings. This relationship would consist of love freely given and freely received. In other words, God did not create robots that couldn’t help but do what God wanted them to do. He created people with free will who could choose to show their love and thankfulness for God—or not.

We’re told that Adam and Eve were created in the image of God, that is, that they had perfect harmony with God. They understood what God wanted and didn’t want and agreed with it. They saw eye to eye with God in all things and had a perfect relationship with him. Again, not in a way that they couldn’t think otherwise, but in a way that they willingly and joyfully submitted themselves to God’s wisdom and will. What joy there was in those first days in the Garden!

God gave them one command—do not eat from this one tree in the middle of the garden. Martin Luther describes this command and this tree as Adam and Eve’s altar, the place where they worshiped. And that may sound a bit strange, as it was something to be avoided, but Luther’s point was that this is the way that God provided for Adam and Eve to worship him and thank him for all he had given to them. It was essentially as if God said, “Do you want to show your gratitude to me? Then just don’t eat fruit from this one tree, and that will be enough.”

It seems like a small request—and it was—but it was more about the principle of the thing than the act itself. Would Adam and Eve, in their newly created perfection and freedom, seek to do what God said was right, or would they cave when pressed on it? Satan’s appearance in the garden puts this to the test. He begins by asking misleading questions (“Has God really said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree in the garden’?”) and when that doesn’t trip them up he moves on to outright lying, claiming that this command from God is not good and, in fact, proves that God is holding out on them, denying them blessings that they have a right to have.

And it works. [Eve] took some of its fruit and ate. She gave some also to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. And in that moment, everything changes. They see things differently than they did before. Shame replaces carefree naivety, and, more heartbreakingly, the perfect fellowship and harmony with God are replaced by fear. The man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.

In the conversation with God, we can see just how far they had fallen and how corrupt their nature had instantly become. Instead of taking accountability for their sins and coming to God in sorrow and repentance, a blame game quickly ensues. The woman blames the serpent, and the man blames the woman, and even God, who made her!

As a result of all of this, death comes into the world. Death, as we are familiar with it, is the separation of body and soul at the end of life, but death in a more immediate and spiritual sense is the separation of people from their loving Creator. This is tragedy in its purest sense, tragedy that you and I still deal with today. As daughters and sons of Adam and Eve, we’ve inherited their sin and truly brought more than our fair share of sin to the table ourselves. The end result of any and all of this sin is eternal death in hell—eternal separation from God forever.

Earlier, I made the rather suspect claim that this scene at the tree in the garden is not as big a deal as it seems. But it isn’t. Not because it wasn’t disastrous or long-lasting; it was. Truly, no single action has had more far-reaching consequences than Adam and Eve eating that fruit. But this was a single, disastrous battle lost; the war was yet to come.

In our Gospel this morning, we see the most direct interaction between Jesus and Satan recorded in Scripture. Satan is trying the same tricks on Jesus that he used in the garden and has used on all people since then, but Jesus stands firm where we have fallen. In Eve’s initial response to the serpent, as she quotes God’s command back at him, we can see an attempt to do what Jesus did in the wilderness—answering every temptation with the Word of God. The difference is that where Eve and Adam faltered, Jesus held the line.

And this perfect keeping of God’s law was part of what God promised would happen that day in Eden. From the moment that God interjects himself into the situation, he’s looking out for Adam and Eve’s well-being. We’ve already talked about how he gave them room to come to him in repentance—something they were unwilling or unable to do. But when God turns his attention to the serpent—to Satan—he still has Adam and Eve and all those who would come after them in mind. In his promise of Satan’s ultimate downfall, he promises mankind’s ultimate victory.

Genesis 3:15 is famous for being the first promise of the Savior. And right from the get-go, there is no mistaking what the outcome would be: 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. God promises that the interaction between the Savior and the serpent would be one of crushing. The promised Savior would have his heel crushed. I don’t know if you’ve ever had a heel injury, but they can be nasty and make a lot of things more difficult. The Savior, in his calling as mankind’s champion, would endure great suffering and pain.

But you can and probably will recover from a heel injury. From a crushed head? Not so much. Though Satan would get a few licks in on the Messiah, ultimately the heel is injured as the foot comes down on the serpent’s head. Satan’s defeat would be final and without doubt. After the promised Savior had done his work, Satan would be roadkill.

As we begin this Lenten trek, we are going to be focusing a lot on Jesus’ heel being crushed because that’s what’s right in front of us. The suffering and torment of body and spirit that Jesus will undergo will once again leave us in anguish and crying out in mercy for him. But just as we said last week, that we need to remember this weak-looking man is the same one who shone with divine glory on the Mount of Transfiguration, we need to remember what is going on behind the scenes in the spiritual realm, in ways we cannot see and can barely comprehend.

As Jesus, who lived his life in perfect compliance with God’s law, suffered the debt of hell that he did not deserve, he is doing it for us. As he cries out in anguish from the cross, pleading to his Father who has turned a deaf ear and a blind eye to his suffering, we see what we deserve, but Jesus does it for us. And what is actually happening there, as his heel is crushed in death, is Satan’s head—all his work and everything he tried to do—being crushed. It may not look like it on Good Friday, but Easter will reveal what was actually happening at Golgatha. He will crush your head, and you will crush his heel.

So there we see Jesus as the fulfillment of this promise in the Garden of Eden and the fulfillment of God’s will that we not be abandoned to hell for our sins. Truly, Satan won a victory with Adam and Eve. He brought sin and death into the world and has caused our existence here to be miserable in so many different ways ever since. But that was just one battle, just the opening volley, in a war that he has lost in spectacular fashion. The ending was never in doubt, but from our perspective, it’s even clearer than it ever was: the war is won. Jesus won. Thus, you and I win.

The One who defeated Satan’s temptations in the wilderness is the one who has completely rescued us from his plans and power. You and I are safe now and forever because that ancient serpent has been hurled down in defeat, head crushed, never to bother us again. And as for us? We will be safe and sound, away from the spiritual battles that rage around and within us, when Jesus brings us home to himself.

Until that day, as you fight in these skirmishes and endure hardships brought about by Satan and his temptations, remember that Jesus already won the war. You are victorious, you are free, because Jesus has conquered for you. Thanks be to God! Amen.

Soli Deo Gloria