The Serpent Crusher, Dragon Slayer and Stronger Man

Genesis 3:8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. ⁹ But the LORD God called to the man, "Where are you?" ¹⁰ He answered, "I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid." ¹¹ And he said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?" ¹² The man said, "The woman you put here with me-- she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it." ¹³ Then the LORD God said to the woman, "What is this you have done?" The woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate." ¹⁴ So the LORD God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this, "Cursed are you above all the livestock and all the wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. ¹⁵ And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel."

Some of our favorite things to do on our family vacation in Disney World were to ride the various roller coasters in the different parks. Riding Expedition Everest where the tracks are supposedly broken by the Yeti, so we begin riding the coaster backwards. Riding Big Thunder Mountain Railroad where a runaway train rushes through the gold-mining town of Tumbleweed. Riding Aerosmith’s Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster where a super-stretch limousine launches you from zero to 60 miles an hour in 2.8 seconds. Riding Space Mountain where your rocket-shaped vehicle shoots you through twists and turns in almost complete darkness.

We all enjoyed these rides. Putting our hands up in the air as we went through corkscrews and drops; giving the thumbs up and mugging for the cameras; screaming and shouting as our stomachs churned.

The other passengers on the plane from Orlando to Milwaukee may have looked at us a little strange on the way home, though. As the plane was beginning to lift off, we put our hands up into the air – as if we were riding another coaster.

But the speeds we traveled in our roller coaster rides were nothing compared with the ride that Nikkolaus McCarthy took on his motorcycle recently in New York. McCarthy knew the New York State Police were on to him, but that didn't stop him from trying to cover his crime. Rather than receiving a ticket, McCarthy tried to escape by traveling in excess of 166 miles per hour! That’s almost 3 times faster than we went on our fastest coaster! McCarthy was traveling at such dangerous and excessive speeds because he was trying to elude the police. He didn’t want to be caught. He didn’t want to be found out.

I wonder how fast Adam and Eve ran from God. Did they break any speed records trying to find a safe hiding place in the Garden? How quickly did they find leaves and branches to cover their nakedness?

Adam and Eve were living in the perfection of creation. Adam and Eve traded in that perfection for a piece of fruit. They brought death into creation because they wanted to be like God, knowing good and evil. They listened to the hissing whisper of the serpent and brought the earth under the constant attack of Satan and his demons. They ruined everything for everyone. They destined themselves, humanity and all of creation to death.

God’s first recorded words to Adam in Genesis 2 were about what he should and should not eat: “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die” (Genesis 2:16-17).

One afternoon in Disney World, my family took an afternoon to eat a meal or snack in every country in the World Showcase in Epcot Center. I can imagine Adam and Eve exploring their new home, eating their way through the Garden of Eden. God had prepared a banquet in the trees, plants and bushes and gave them the freedom to “eat from any tree in the garden.” However, God also set a boundary for His children. He reserved one tree from which Adam could not eat: the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

There was much more at stake than a mouthful of food. God created Adam and Eve for fellowship with Him. He gave them the garden and its fruit to sustain them. Eating the forbidden fruit spurned God’s generosity and poisoned every relationship in the garden. Though it seems that God the Father liked to take walks with His children in the “cool of the day” (Genesis 2:8), because the children had broken their relationship with God, they hid from their Dad – much like your children might hide from you when they’ve done something wrong.

We are like our first parents and we continue to hide from God and others what we have done wrong. We, too, have broken our familial relationship with the Father. We have continually crossed the boundary from good into evil. We have tasted forbidden fruit. Then, we try to cover up our public sins so others don’t catch on. We try to keep hidden those stomach-wrenching private sins. We don’t like to think about our sins of omission – those things we fail to do right. We try to ignore our sins of commission – those things we do wrong. But even without all those big or little sins, we would still be considered sinners in God’s eyes for we have been born in sin, born with Adam’s inherited sinful nature.

Sadly, there are many pastors and churches who do not want to preach on sin. They think that they don’t need to mention sin because people already know they’re bad. … No, we don’t. We watch the nightly news and we see that “those people” are bad. Not us. We don’t recognize that we have sinned against a holy and righteous God.

We are “yeah, but” people. When someone confronts you with your sin, we say, “Yeah, but, you should meet my neighbor, he kicks his dog.” Confront the neighbor and he says, “Yeah, but, you should meet my boss, he beats his wife.” Confront the boss and he says, “Yeah, but, did you see that news story last night with those sex traffickers. They’re way worse than I am.” Confront the sex traffickers and they say, “Yeah, but, have you ever heard of Osama bin Laden?” Dig up Osama bin Laden and he would say, “Yeah, but, have you ever heard of Adolph Hitler?”

We compare ourselves to others because we can always find someone else who is worse than us. We can always blame someone else for our problems, for our weaknesses, for our sin – our spouse, the devil, even God Himself. Adam blamed Eve. Then he even blamed God for making Eve in the first place. Eve blamed the devil.

We serve the great God of the universe, who gets angry and pours out His wrath. We serve the great God of the universe, who demonstrated His anger and poured out His wrath upon His own Son. It amazes me that we believe this – that God would crush and kill His own Son … but let you slide. 

Instead, we must realize that the standard for judgment is not the neighbor, not the sex trafficker, not anybody else we may find or dig up. The standard of judgment is the holy and righteous Judge of heaven and earth. The One who created us. The One who redeemed us. His standard is Himself. In other words, perfection. His boundaries. His rules. His precepts. We will always find ourselves on the short end of the scales of justice. Only the Promise and Reality of a Savior can tip the scales back in our favor.

And that is exactly what God gives us – a promise. After He called Adam and Eve out of the bushes, He gave them a promise by saying to the serpent: “And I will put enmity (hatred) between you (Satan) and the woman, and between your offspring and hers (Christ); he (Jesus) will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” This is the first promise of a Savior. The Seed/the Offspring of the woman, Jesus Christ, the Son of God and Son of Man, would come to crush Satan’s power, but He would be struck by Satan and die in the process. But His death would inevitably defeat death, sin and the devil. His death would bring life back to this ruined creation.

Jesus is the promise of Genesis 3:15 and He is the reality of that promise. Jesus is the Angel that St. John saw in Revelation 20 coming down out of heaven. He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and bound him with a great chain. He threw him into the Abyss of hell, where he belongs.

Jesus is the Stronger Man in His own parable in Mark 3. Though we often quickly run off and hide because of the shame of our sin; for we have neglected God’s Word, ignored God’s will, and abandoned God’s House, still our Creator will not neglect His creation. Our God does not leave us hiding in the bushes, nor does He abandon us to the whims of our heart’s desire. Contrary to the bumper sticker theology we’ve all seen, the Lord is the seeker, we are the lost. He’s the One who does the searching, we are the ones who need to be found. Thus the Lord walks about in the cool of the day calling out, “Where are you? What have you done?” He takes on our flesh and our blood, our human nature. He is born like us – though without sin. He draws near in weakness and the folly of humility so that His weakness may be proved stronger than our strength and His folly shown wiser than our wisdom.

Satan, the strong man, has bound us to our sin. We have no free will. On our own, we are slaves to sin, slaves to self, slaves to Satan. Our will is not free, it is bound. We look for a way out, but we don’t know where to look. We try to follow the advice of others, but they’re just as lost as we are. So we go it alone, we go our own way, we stay at home where it’s comfortable and no one is talking about sin. We go fishing. We go golfing. We go shopping. We tell ourselves that we’re OK. Our lives aren’t that messed up. And where they are messed up … well … we tell ourselves that we can fix them. We can patch things up ourselves, get ourselves out, get ourselves to heaven.

And Satan, the strong man laughs. He knows … no one on earth is his equal.

Jesus teaches in His parable, “No one can enter a strong man's house and carry off his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man. Then he can rob his house.” Jesus is that Stronger Man who has entered Satan’s house with stealth. He does not appear as God Almighty, heaving His chest, swinging His arms, casting the bright beams of His glory to the far corners of the globe! He does not approach in glory but secretly, humbly, drawing little attention to Himself as He approaches. He bears our human nature and draws near as one of us – though without sin, unbound, free as humanity was created to be. He is fully human and hidden in, with, and under flesh and blood, bone and sinew, He is also fully God.

Jesus is the second Adam, born in perfection, born of the Virgin, the offspring of the woman, so He may enter the strong man’s house. Suffering under Pontius Pilate He allows Himself to be condemned. He suffers the hammer and the nails as though He were the chief of sinners. He is bound. He is tortured. He feels the sins that weigh you down and He bears them for you. He faces and embraces your impending death, taking it as His own, taking it into Himself and suffering it for you and for all people on the cross. In Jesus, God dies for you. He is bitten by the poisonous fangs of the serpent. He dies at the hands of wicked men.

But it is with His suffering, death and resurrection that Jesus Christ crushes the serpent’s head. The innocent Lamb of God hurls the great dragon in the Abyss. The Stronger Man binds the strong man of Satan. Hell’s dominion is plundered. We no longer have any reason to hide from God (as if we could). We are set free. We, who had been the possessions of Satan, are now covered in the blood of Jesus. The strong man is himself crushed, defeated by the very tools that once defeated us. For though he once overcame humanity by a tree in the garden, this same tempter is himself overcome by a tree, even the tree of the cross!

And now the Serpent-Crusher, the Dragon Slayer, the Stronger Man, wants you to remain free, remain forgiven, remain in His new life and salvation. He does this through His holy Word. His Word which is preached. His Word which absolves. His Word which is splashed. His Word which is placed on the tongue and lips.

It is fun to lift up your arms and go fast on a roller coaster. It is no fun, however, to lift up your arms in fear as you run away from God, trying to hide your public and private sins. Rather than running and hiding, stay where you are. Let God find you. Get down on your knees in repentance. Lift up your arms in prayer and praise. Rejoice in Jesus Christ. For He truly is the Serpent-Crusher, the Dragon Slayer and the Stronger Man. Amen.