John 3 14-21 Mark
Lent 4
Numbers 21:4-9, John 3:14-21
March 30, 2003
“I Hate Snakes”
Introduction: Ask just about anyone on the street how they feel about snakes and nine times out of ten I bet they say “I hate snakes”. Women or men, young or old, there seems to be general agreement, that they would rather not come a cross a snake on a path or in the woods. There seems to be a common consensus of opinion, and a general prayer to God, “Lord, whatever you do, keep me away from snakes. And don’t let them bother me.”
This seems to be an ancient opinion too. Even the Israelites, in our Old Testament lesson ask God to be delivered from the snakes in there lives. In our text for today, the Israelites are on the move again through the trackless wilderness on the way to the Promised Land.
Their wilderness wanderings were the best and the worst of times. The Israelites experienced God’s great care and attention, through the Exodus from Egypt to the holy mountain of Sinai where they received guidance for obedience and service. God did not supply all their wants, but God saw to all their physical and spiritual needs - at a time when they were helpless and had nowhere to turn.
But it was also the worst of times. Wilderness wandering, whining, and complaining went together. Iin our story today, "they were on the road again," avoiding the enemy territory of Edom, grumbling and impatient as usual. Once again Moses heard the familiar lament, "Why did you bring us out of Egypt to die in this desert, where there is no food or water? We can’t stand any more of this miserable food." God had given them protection, provisions, leadership, yet they forgot all his goodness and could only see the hard side of life. What short memories they had of times when God bailed them out and of how much better life was when they followed him.
A person, talking with a friend, remarked that several years earlier he and his wife had quit attending church. When asked why he explained that his wife had become quite ill and, as they occasionally attended church, they decided to pray for healing. As part of this effort, they attended worship every Sunday, became otherwise involved in their church, doubled their pledge, and in general made church and prayer a central part of their lives. However, as time went on, the wife became sicker. There was no healing. At last, they both concluded that Christianity had been misrepresented to them so they ceased their church relationship and had never gone back. Their patience had run out.
While this is an extreme example, there are times when we all become impatient with God. While Christian maturity leads us to understand that God often answers our prayers by telling us to “wait”, rather than giving us a direct yes or no answer, we do, at times, become impatient with God. Many times we become like the person who prayed, "Lord, give me patience, and give it to me now." Living as we do in an era of high pressure urgency, fast food fast times and what we assume should be fast wars, it's easy to expect our religious faith to satisfy our needs on our own schedules. But to tell the truth, it doesn't work that way. For Israel and us, impatience is evidence of distrust in God. It is also evidence of unbelief that God truly cares about us and for us in this life as we to journey through the desert of this world towards the promised land of Heaven.
The Lord didn't take kindly to the people's complaining. He heard their grumbling and, "Then the Lord sent poisonous snakes among the people and many Israelites were bitten and died." Once the people of God discovered how awful it was to live with snakes, they came to their senses again and confessed to Moses, "We have sinned for we have spoken against the Lord and against you; pray to the Lord, that he take away the serpents from us." Living with snakes proved to be no picnic! They hated snakes. It prompted an attitudinal change. It doesn’t always work that way. Sometimes increased suffering produces even greater bitterness and alienation. Here, however, it called forth the spirit of repentance and confession.
It is important to note that the prayers of the Israelites were not answered in the way they requested. The snakes were not removed. Instead Moses created the image of a snake out of bronze, lifted upon a pole and all who were bitten and then looked upon this image lived. But of all creatures that could have been lifted up - a snake! A snake is lifted up to be the sign of healing, of salvation! That is very strange to us. It strikes us as just a bit more than unusual. Why a snake? We are not told. Perhaps the snake represents God’s judgment for sin and the consequences of such judgment, the poison bite of death as the just reward for sinners. Perhaps the snake on the pole represents the death of a snake and the end of God’s judgment.
What we do know is that God told the people to look at it and live. God connected His promise of life to this image and their faith in its ability to save. Why were they required to look at it? It took faith to believe and acknowledge the power of God connected to the snake being lifted up. I'm sure some of the Israelites thought it was stupid to look at some snake. They also died. For the faithful, they remembered how God had saved them in the past. They listened to God's servant Moses once again.
Jesus is greater than Moses. It is startling to hear Jesus words to Nicodemus, "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so much the Son of man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life" Jesus saw this Old Teastament story about Moses and the snake so significantly that it is the only Old Testament picture he applied to himself. The snake on a tree foreshadowed himself nailed to the cross: "But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself" (John 12:32). It required faith on the part of a bitten Israelite to believe God’s promise and to look at the brazen serpent. The same vision should be held towards the Son of Man, Jesus Christ, in order that everyone, looking to Him and believing in Him, may have eternal life. Those who looked upon the fiery serpent lived. Those who look to Jesus have eternal life. In the Old Testament, the snake is lifted up. This foreshadows and points to the day when the Son of God would be lifted up.
It is still a wonder for us that Christ would compare Himself to a snake on a pole. Christ, when He died on the cross, received the judgment of God upon our sin and its consequences, the poison bite of death. To be sure, Christ received God’s judgment upon sin. St Paul wrote, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” The judgment of God fell upon God’s own Son. “For God so loved the world that he gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him. Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.”
Is it any wonder that people hate snakes? From the time a snake first caused sin in Eden because of an unspoken complaint by Eve, to the plague of snakes in the desert, to bronze snake on a pole, to the time Jesus crushed the serpent's head at the cross. Man has been snake bit with the deadly poison of sin. When Jesus was lifted up on the cross in the likeness of sinful flesh, he took our place. He took our poison. He endured the punishment we deserve for our incessant impatience and grumbling. All God asks is that we look with faith to that pole of Calvary to see our source of life there. Some people think we're stupid for trusting in the power of the cross. It doesn't make sense to the people of the world. But through it God saves us. God can't and won't punish us as Christians, even though we complain, because his Son already endured that penalty. He crushed the conniving snake once for all.
For the children of Israel the wilderness was that time between God’s deliverance from Egypt and their entry into the Promised Land. In our life, the wilderness is that time between our own birth and death. Yes, like the Israelites we live in a wilderness too, only the geography is different. Our wilderness journey is a journey leading to the Promised Land that Jesus Christ has prepared for us. In our wilderness trip, we too have our "snakes" with which to contend - snakes that poison our lives. We also do our share of groaning and complaining. Here in the midst of our desert wondering God calls us to look upon the cross and see there the sign of our healing, the sign of life and the sign of our salvation. The cross is the great symbol of God’s continuing faithfulness to us. This God, who refused to give up on the Israelites of old, will not give up on His people today. He sustains us and given us life with His very own body and blood. It reminds us that our God knows that desert life is hard and our suffering can be great. But He is with us. His own Son, Jesus Christ, experience wilderness living. God understands us as we live our lives in a wilderness full of snakes. He points us to the cross, over and over again, to see the one who was lifted up for us. And as we see our Redeemer we remember, that those who look to Him and “believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.” Amen.
