First Sunday in Lent February 21-22, 2026
“A Tough Beginning” Genesis 3:1-21
Rev. John R. Larson Ascension Lutheran Church Littleton, Colorado
There is one game that the youth of our church love to play. It is called “Sardines”. Have you heard of it? Have you played it? It is a favorite around here.
I imagine you have played “Hide and Seek” sometime in your life. One person is the one who will seek all the other kids who are finding the best hiding places in the neighborhood. The one seeking has to count to 25 or 50 – or if those hiding need more time it is “25 Mississippi.” “One-Mississippi”, “Two-Mississippi”… And when the seeker finds the one hiding then the one found is the seeker.
“Sardines” is also a game of hiding and seeking but it is a little different. Here, at Ascension, we play “Sardines” when it is dark outside and we turn off, or down, the lights in the halls and the rooms and play the game inside our building. One person is selected to hide. And they find the most amazing places to hide. In the dark. Covered up by something. In some corner where no human body could ever fit. But when they are found the game is not over. Now the finder joins the one who was hiding. They squish together like sardines in a can. And then others who are seeking the hider stumble across them. They also pack in the hiding place. Sometimes 10-12 kids are all together in a small space, trying to be quiet. There is always the last one or two who have looked everywhere and don’t know where the hiding place is – until someone makes everyone laugh and gives away the hiding place.
“Sardines” is a community game where everyone, or almost everyone, is in hiding. Though I don’t think the creator of that game knew it, that is the picture of the falling of mankind into sin. It was a game of “sardines” that had terrible consequences.
In Genesis 2 God gave to Adam and Eve, his first two created beings, one rule, “You may surely eat of every tree in the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” (Genesis 2:16-17)
Their creator could surely be trusted, couldn’t He? He had brought them delight as He made one for the other. Everything He made was “good” and even “very good”. But then doubt about the goodness of God and His will for them was questioned. The serpent, the devil himself, approaches the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden?” When Eve says, in my paraphrase, “Oh, ya, He said that,” the devil responds, telling her that she can’t trust God. He isn’t good. His motives are controlling. The devil speaks, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (See Genesis 3:1-5)
You know what sin is, right? I bet you do. I know what it is. It is crossing the line that God has given us. Don’t lie. But we lie. We cross the line God made. We are not to speak His name in dishonor. Don’t say, “Oh, Christ”, or, “Oh, My God.” But we say it, dishonorably, especially when we are angry or frustrated. Habit, right? Don’t steal and cheat. Don’t be jealous. But we cross and line and we sin.
“So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took some of the fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.” (Genesis 3:6)
And by crossing that line, not trusting their God, their life would never be the same again. They couldn’t go back. They couldn’t reverse their decision. It was one tough beginning. Life unravels. No longer is God their friend, the one they would seek. No – they run away. No longer are they friends with one another. They quickly learn how to blame someone else for their sin. “Lord, that woman you put her with me – she gave me the fruit.” “Lord, the serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
Their sin brought them shame. They covered their naked bodies with fig leaves. And when God came looking for them they played the first game of “Sardines”. They ran and hid. One hid and the other joined them. “And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.” (Genesis 3:8)
Some people will say there is no harm in sin. They don’t know what they are talking about. People minimize sin. They justify sin. They tell us, “Everyone sins – it is no big deal.” And maybe, just maybe, we say those things to ourselves.
God does not minimize sin. He doesn’t blow it off like it doesn’t matter. In the third chapter of the Bible, He decides to tell us about the shame, the division, the isolation and the pain that sin brought. You know what sin can do. It will destroy families and ruin marriages. It will take over one’s soul and mind. It will make you ugly. It fills us with regret over our choices.
But God is not just interested in pointing His finger at Adam and Eve and spouting that old line that we have used too often, “I told you so!!” No, God is interested in the good for the sinner. First of all, He came looking. He came to seek them. Throughout the Bible God is the seeking Lord. In the Parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32) the wayward boy, who ruined his life and the life of his family, including his father, finds his father running toward him, embracing him and kissing him. It was with joy that his father welcomed him home. “My son who was lost is found! He was dead and is alive again!”
God has always been that way. He came to the Garden of Eden to seek His own children who by eating the fruit were eating the lie. Adam and Eve, now in shame because of their sin, made coverings made from fig leaves. Have you ever tried to make something that you have broken better by trying to hold them together with some glue or paper clips? Doesn’t work. At the end of chapter 3 in Genesis God gives a better covering for them, “And the Lord God made for Adam and his wife garments of skins and clothed them.” (Genesis 3:21) God clothes people completely. You have been clothed, too. Beautifully. Completely. In the righteousness of Jesus Christ. “For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.” (Galatians 3:27)
So:
- God pursues His fleeing creation.
- He offers them clothing that will last.
- And, He gives them His word of promise.
God curses the serpent, the devil, the one who comes only to “steal, kill and destroy”, (John 10:10) with these words, “So the Lord God said to the serpent, ‘Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and all the wild animals. You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. 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.” (Genesis 3:14-15) That is the first promise of a Savior. That is the first word about the work of the Messiah, the Christ. The offspring of the woman will crush the head of the snake – the evil one – the devil.
The New Testament says of this promise, “But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons.” (Galatians 4:4)
Do you know how you can cheat in “sardines”? If you are the final one or two folks who have not found the folks who are laying on top of each other in some small cabinet, how can you find them? You call one of them. You listen to hear the ring tone. And then you’ve got them.
God called us – all huddled together – far from Him. He called us. He found us. Hooray. It is better being found than lost. Life can have a tough beginning, but by the work of Jesus it has a glorious reversal and a perfect end. Amen!!
