All Creation Groans— Animal Skin Clothes

Text: “21 The Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.” (Genesis 3:21)

Our theme for these Wednesday night services through the season of Lent is “All Creation Groans.” From the beginning of the Bible to the end, creation, itself, testifies to God’s plan of salvation. In the coming weeks we’ll consider Abel’s blood crying out from the ground; the many sacrificial animals throughout the Old Testament; God’s use of creation, itself, to punish sin; the way creation shames us with its obedience; and the promise of the day when all creation is made new. St. Paul wrote to the church in Rome, “19 For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God” (Romans 8:19–21). Our goal over these six Wednesdays, will be to join in that eager longing.

Tonight we start almost at the beginning. We turn to Genesis 3:21. We pick up right after the fall into sin as its effects begin to be seen and felt.

Adam and Eve are still in the garden— for the moment. After being deceived by the serpent, they had realized their nakedness and sewed fig leaves together to make loincloths for themselves. After pronouncing the curse upon the serpent, then upon Eve, and, finally, upon Adam, God now makes clothing for them. And He does it using animal skins.

If we struggle at all with the fact that Adam and Eve didn’t die the moment they sinned, consider what they saw that day. They had woken up in paradise. Literally. They had no first hand experience of sickness, famine, or natural disasters, let alone death. Suddenly they were faced with it. It’s true: they, themselves did not die that day, but they were now dying. And they certainly saw death that day.

They went from enjoying paradise to seeing an animal killed and skinned right before their eyes. And not simply killed and skinned— I imagine many of you have done that, yourself, when you are deer hunting, for example. But these animals were killed because of what they had done. Long before Adam and Eve felt hunger, let alone disease or famine— or even the fear of a good strong thunderstorm, for that matter— creation, itself, was already feeling the effects of sin.

Imagine what that was like for Adam and Eve. It’s one thing to pay the price for your own sin. It is another thing to watch someone else pay for what you have done. It seems a little much to say that watching that was worse than being punished themselves, but those animals were punished, if you will, in their place. The deaths of those animals delayed the deaths of Adam and Eve. Those animal skins covered Adam and Eve’s sin and shame— in a sense, both literally and figuratively.

That seems like a fitting place to start tonight, on Ash Wednesday.

You and I easily overlook it, because clothing is perfectly normal for us. As soon as you entered the world, you were washed, clothed, and cared for. Your parents first taught you how to dress yourselves, then how to dress appropriately. On some level, it’s important to us to look and dress our best.

But that does not change the fact that your clothing, in a sense, covers your sin and shame. Or, we can put it another way: it covers the fact that you are dust and to dust you shall return.

Tonight, those animal skins teach you to see how God clothes you, as well. This time, the clothing He has prepared for you is not garments of animal skins. He clothes you in Himself. But that is no less painful than what Adam and Eve witnessed.

You get a sense for the anguish that Adam and Eve felt as the animals were killed to provide clothes for them. You get a sense of it by looking at the cross. It’s one thing to pay the price for what you’ve done. It’s something else to watch someone else pay for it. But that’s what He was willing to do.

In order to keep you from returning to the dust and being lost, He, Himself, was clothed with human flesh. He, too, was washed, wrapped in swaddling clothes, and cared for by His parents. He went from being clothed in glory, honor, and majesty, to the humble clothes of a carpenter’s son. The only royal robe He would wear during His earthly life was the robe put on Him by the soldiers who mockingly honored Him as “the King of the Jews.” The only crown He would wear was the crown of thorns.

As He was nailed to the cross, His clothing was divided and the soldiers cast lots for His tunic. He was stripped naked and hung up on the cross. There was no longer any covering for the guilt and shame He had taken upon Himself— your sin and shame.

When that sin and shame was paid for, He was wrapped in swaddling clothes once again— grave clothes— and laid in the tomb. When He stepped out of that tomb three days later, those clothes were left behind because your sin and shame were left behind there in the tomb.

That is what He has done to clothe you. “27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ” (Galatians 3:27). You have been clothed in the robe of Christ’s righteousness which covers all of your sins. As Isaiah wrote, “10 …[H]e has clothed [you] with the garments of salvation; he has covered [you] with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels” (Isaiah 61:10).

This clothing does more than just cover your guilt and shame. They are taken away. In fact, because, by faith, you have been made holy, the Apostle John, looking ahead to the last days, writes that the Bride of Christ— the church— has made yourself ready. “8 it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure”— for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints” (Revelation 19:8).

And, even when your body is laid in the grave, that clothing will not fail you. “1 For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 2 For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, 3 if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked. 4 For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened—not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. 5 He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee” (2 Corinthians 5:1–5).

Yes, you are dust and to dust you shall return. No clothing can hide that forever. “53 This perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality” (1 Corinthians 15:53). And that is exactly what God has done for you in Jesus Christ. He sanctifies you even now so that every act of love and service you perform for God and for those around you are serving to weave a garment of fine linen, white and pure, until the day “54 When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality[. T]hen shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” 55 “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” 56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 15:53–57).

Ever since those first animal skins were crafted into clothing, “19 the creation [has waited] with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God” (Romans 8:19). Clothed in the righteousness of Christ, you join in that eager longing.