✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠
Genesis 4,1-16 4612
13. Sonntag nach Trinitatis 058
Hannah
Stephan, King of Hungary, † 1038.
Nikolai Frederik Severin Grundtvig, Pastor and Danish Hymn writer. † 1872
2. September 2012
1. O Holy Spirit, help us to retain Your law and gospel, rejoicing that Jesus has fulfilled the law for us in our place and has freely given us the forgiveness of sins through the gospel of His crucifixion and resurrection. Give us opportunities, and guide us, to show mercy to our neighbors as Christ has shown mercy to us. Amen.
2. Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying: „I have gotten a man with the help of Yahweh.“ And again, she bore his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a worker of the ground. At harvest time Cain brought to Yahweh an offering of the fruit of the ground, and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And Yahweh had regard for Abel and his offering, but He paid no attention to Cain and his offering. So Cain was disappointed and very angry. Yahweh said to Cain: „Why are you disappointed and angry? 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.“ Cain spoke to Abel his brother: „Let us go out to the field.“ And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him. Then Yahweh said to Cain: „Where is Abel your brother?“ He said: „I do not know; am I my brother’s keeper?“ And Yahweh said: „What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to Me from the ground. And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. When you work the ground, it no longer yields to you its strength. You are a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth.“ Cain said to Yahweh: „My punishment is greater than I can bear. Behold, You have driven me today away from the ground, and I am hidden from Your face. I am a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.“ Then Yahweh said to him: „Not so! If anyone kills Cain, vengeance will be taken on him sevenfold.“ And Yahweh put a mark on Cain, lest any who found him should attack him. Then Cain went away from the presence of Yahweh and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden.
3. A number of years ago I read John Steinbeck’s novel East of Eden. In this book, Steinbeck explores a number of themes, such as depravity, kindness, love, the struggle for acceptance, greatness, the capacity for self-destruction and especially of guilt and freedom. He ties these themes together with many parallels to the story of Cain and Abel. In many ways, Steinbeck’s novel captures many of the lessons Genesis 4 teaches us.
4. One theme that appears immediately in the text of Genesis is the fact that Yahweh accepts Abel’s offering but rejects Cain’s. The text does not tell us why Yahweh treated each brother differently. Is God really that capricious? Cain’s offering was not inferior to Abel’s. Both suggest an offering of their labors. Many commentators indicate that the difference was faith. Abel offered his in faith, while Cain offered his without faith. This is not to suggest that Cain doubted or denied Yahweh’s existence, for Cain knows indeed that God exists and he even carries on a personal conversation with Him. Rather, Cain offered his sacrifice ex opere operato (by the mere performance of the rite) but Abel offered his in faith in the God who forgives. Cain offered his sacrifice because that is what Yahweh expects from him. Abel offered his sacrifice because he trusted in Yahweh and His love. We encounter this attitude in the Church. Some attend the Divine Service because that is what God expects from them. They put money in the offering plate because that is what they were taught to do. This attitude is contrasted to those who attend the Divine Service to receive the gifts Jesus lovingly and freely gives. They give an offering with joy in their heart to Jesus who has redeemed them. Yahweh clearly prefers the attitude of faith over that of obligation.
5. Another theme in Genesis 4 is Cain’s duplicity. He is willing to meet the Divine obligation to offer a sacrifice to Yahweh, but he is unwilling to fulfill his obligation to care for his neighbor. Cain’s intense anger leads him to murder his very own brother and thus violate in the most heinous manner the obligation to love his neighbor. In His Beatitudes, Jesus reveals the duplicity that lies just under the surface in each of our hearts. We are willing to speak praises to God but then slander our neighbor without flinching. O we would never actually pull the trigger and murder our neighbors in cold blood, but we have no problem scheming against them, thwarting them at every turn and secretly wishing them harm. Jesus rightly and justly reveals our hypocrisy when he condemns those who harbor ill intentions toward their neighbors as a murderer.
6. Cain also accuses Yahweh of being too harsh in His discipline and punishment. Abel’s blood is probably still warm on the ground where Cain slew him and he complains that God’s punishment is too much to bear! Abel’s lifeless body lies hidden in the field and Cain does not like the verdict that he will now be a fugitive. Cain values his own life and fears being killed by his siblings when earlier in the day he had absolutely no regard for Abel’s life.
7. Furthermore, Cain accuses Yahweh of actions and attitudes that He has not put forward. Cain bemoans the punishment that Yahweh has forbidden him to farm the earth and has exiled him from His Divine presence, but Yahweh had done no such thing. The earth will no longer yield its strength to Cain, but he is not forbidden from tilling the earth. Just as the earth yielded thorns and thistles to Adam in punishment for his sin, so now the earth will be even more fickle to Cain when he works the ground. Cain must now put even more effort into farming if he expects to harvest a sustainable crop. Yes, Yahweh says Cain will be a fugitive and a wanderer, how else do you expect people will treat Cain when they learn that he is a murderer (no one wants a convicted murderer living next to them), but Yahweh never implied that He would now abandon Cain and ignore him. It was not Yahweh who left Cain’s presence but Cain who exiled himself from Yahweh: Cain went away from the presence of Yahweh.
8. It is the sinful nature of mankind to hide from Yahweh’s presence. When Adam and Eve had sinned, they straightaway hid when they heard Yahweh’s voice. They made excuses to legitimize their rebellious actions. Likewise, Cain. He did not know where Abel was nor his disposition. Surely he wasn’t his brother’s keeper! So also us. Surely God really isn’t serious about that love your neighbor commandment. Surely He doesn’t expect us to watch out for, and watch over, our neighbor. He just wants us to be nice to them and help them out of a difficult spot once in a very long while. Come on, Jesus, this daily loving, forgiving and helping our neighbor every day is just way to much to ask and demand of us; we are very busy people, after all. Thus our excuses.
9. What does Jesus do with us excuse-making sinners? He comes into our presence to confront us with our sin and then saves us from that very sin. He comes to Cain, not in fierce anger brandishing a weapon demanding to know why He has murdered his brother, rather He comes to Cain and gives him the opportunity to admit his guilt, repent and seek Yahweh’s mercy. He punished Cain for his serious crime, but Yahweh is not the fierce ogre Cain slanders Him to be. Yahweh showed him mercy. He refused to forsake Cain and even gave him a mark to protect him from those who would kill Cain for being a kin-slayer.
10. Jesus came to save His fallen creation. He brought eternal life to those poor sinners whose guilt weighed them down like a millstone. Jesus removed this over-bearing guilt and bore it upon His shoulders. He brought everlasting salvation to those who were self-righteous in their keeping of the law and believed they merited Yahweh’s justification and wore it as a badge of honor. Jesus lived this law and did everything perfectly in contrast to those who thought they kept the law but soon realized from Jesus that the law demanded far more from them than they ever imagined.
11. Jesus became the Second Abel who was murdered by all humanity, the corporate Cain. You, me and the entire world slew the innocent Jesus. We are ashamed of our guilt, but Jesus nobly bore this guilt for us, in our place, upon the cross. Jesus’ innocent blood flowed from the cross and pooled on the earth as a propitiation for our sinfulness.
12. In Jesus we see God the Father’s love and mercy upon sinners. We are no longer fugitives and wanderers from God. We are no longer self-imposed exiles. We no longer fear for our lives, fearing the coming judgment upon us for our many sins. Jesus has paid the price and born all our guilt. He has redeemed us back to God our Heavenly Father. Q: What shall we do to inherit eternal life. A: Believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ and we will be saved.
13. You are now saved; you are free to be your brother’s keeper to both kin and stranger; you are free to be what Cain should have been to Abel: a good neighbor to any who are in need. Yes, go and do likewise, not out of fear or pride or obligation to merit your salvation under the law but by grace and mercy that flows from Christ’s love, grace and mercy given by the Holy Spirit. Amen.
14. Let us pray. O Lord Jesus Christ we praise Your Holy Name! Help us to proclaim Your Merciful Name to our neighbors, helping them when they are in physical or spiritual need, so that they may be cared for and give glory to You alone. Amen.
To God alone be the Glory
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All Scriptural quotations are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 4th Edition © 1990 by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, and the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 27th Edition © 1993 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart.
ELKB. Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern. www.bayern-evangelisch.de/www/index.php. Copyright © Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern.
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