A Saving Glance at the One Lifted Up

4 Lent    B         March 18, 2012  

Numbers 21:4-9  Psalm 107:1-3, 17-22

Ephesians 2:1-10   John 3:14-21

 Lectionary Link

  We are familiar with serpents and healing because the American Medical Association uses the symbol of two serpents entwined around a rod.  This came from the Greco-Roman medical tradition.  The ancient myth of Aesculapius encounter with a serpent healing another serpent is the origin of the association of serpents and healing.  The habit of a snake literally resurrecting itself from it dead skin could be the inspiration for the regenerative powers associated with the snake.  The Greek word pharmakon can mean both poison and remedy.  Certainly the theory behind vaccination is to take some of the “poison” and it is a remedy in that the body builds immunity to the actual disease.

  Whether the healing serpent of Moses is related to the Greek mythological notion of the healing serpent, can not be ascertained. 

  The people of Israel, while they wandered in the wilderness toward the Promised Land, are portrayed as immature sheep and always ready to mutiny against God and their leader.  For their mutiny and their rebellion, they are often punished.  One of the punishments was a plague of poisonous serpents.

  Moses, the leader, is the patient father, who is always interceding with God on behalf of the rebellious people.  And when the plague of snakes occurred, Moses was given the remedy.  He was to place a bronze likeness of the serpent on a pole in the middle of the camp.  And those who looked at the serpent were to be healed.  “That’s stupid Moses!  Why would looking at the serpent cure me?”  The cure was not based upon rationality; the cure was based upon simply accepting God’s healing provision.

  One of the consequences of being biblically illiterate is that one misses the symbolic system that functions between the Old and New Testaments.  And if we don’t understand the symbolic system, then we cannot make sense of the meanings and methods of what the Gospel writers were trying to communicate to their communities.

  In the long discourse that is presented between the Pharisee Nicodemus and Rabbi Jesus, there is a comparison made between the cross of Jesus and Moses’ serpent upon the pole.

  Just as God wanted the Israelites to recover from their rebellion and resulting punishment by simply looking at God’s healing grace given for them, so the early Christian believed that God did not condemn people in their sin, alienation and rebellion; rather God wanted people to simply look in the direction where they might be saved or healed.

  So looking at Jesus lifted up in his death upon the cross was viewed as God's way to bring us health and salvation.

  It is a rather irrational act.  Foolishness to the wisdom of the Greeks; A stumbling block to the Jews, as St. Paul said.  It may seem ridiculous to us.

  But the essence of the Gospel is that God acts with grace to let us know that we have found favor.    We would rather say that we deserve God’s favor because we are good and we have done some good things.  It is admirable to be as good as we can and to do as much good as we can, but it isn’t our “good natures” or our “good deeds” that qualifies us in God’s sight.  God created us good, so goodness is an act of God, and when we depart from goodness in our nature and acts, it does not remove from us the original goodness in which we were made by God.

  So seeing Jesus upon the cross is simply understanding that God’s creation and God’s redemption are but God’s affirmation of our goodness and favor and acceptance.  That means it is up to us to accept the grace of God both in creation and redemption.

  This portion of John’s Gospel contains the most popular evangelical bible verse of all time: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that whoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life.”

  I think that the people who push the born again experience often do something that shifts the focus from God’s grace to the importance of the human decision.

  If someone offers me a million dollars; what is more important, the generosity of the giver, or my decision to take it?

  Some times the born again people think that we should celebrate the fact that we receive God’s grace even more than the generosity of God who offers us the grace.

  Yes, it is important that we receive God’s grace and it appears to be a very irrational decision to do so.  We would much rather believe in our own ability and circumstances for our salvation; but the experience of the generosity of God, and our acceptance of it is the very essence of the Gospel.

  So today, let us trumpet and highlight the grace of God’s creation and redemption, and let us simply accept it, and not trumpet our acceptance except with thankfulness to God who is the giver of all.

  God’s generosity does not make us proud Christians who are certain that our choices and ways are best; God’s generosity humbles us with thankful hearts and with joy that comes in an indescribable way.  And that is the experience of the Good News.  God in Christ is the Good News and we have the privilege to be caught up in that.  For us to reduce all of this to my church is better than yours, or my salvation is more complete than yours, is to misunderstand the generosity of God.

  Let us proclaim a generous God, who simply asks for us to give a receptive glance toward the divine grace today.  Amen.