Where Are You Looking?

When I was a kid in Pennsylvania, if we were having tea in my house, it was hot tea. And we didn’t have Lipton; we had Salada. The tags reminded me of a stop sign: they were red with the word “Salada” in white on one side, and white with red text on the other. That “other” side always had some little quote of wisdom on it. Something like “To err is human - to blame it on someone else is even more human.” Or “He who laughs last probably didn’t get the joke.” Or maybe this one: “Insurance is what keeps people poor so they can die rich.”

My dad would save his favorite tea tags. And by FAR, his favorite was this: “What we see depends on what we are looking for.” Now when Dad was saying that (as he did rather often), he was usually applying it to astronomy, which was our family activity for more than a few years. Normally when our group met, we would have to pick an object to observe that night, find it with our telescope (which usually took a little time), and see what we could see. And so the saying was very appropriate - if you pointed the telescope at one particular celestial body and only focused on that, you might miss all kinds of other wonders and beautiful sights that the night sky has to offer. So yes, what you see in the night sky definitely does depend on what you’re looking for.

But that short little saying goes much farther than just what we see in the sky. It’s quite applicable in driving as well. If you’re focused on your speedometer, you might not see the driver at the intersection you’re approaching who is going through the traffic light that turned red already. Safe driving means not looking at any one thing for too long, or you might miss the thing that could cause you to have an accident. Put another way: don’t just look in one place.

Let’s get a little more philosophical with it. If we look around our country right now, it seems like our fellow citizens are all definitely looking for something. What are we looking for? If we are to believe the news…and that’s a *big* “if”... then a good number of our citizens are looking for something called “social justice”. Others would argue that justice is justice, social or not. Some citizens are looking more in the social realm for their concept of justice than anywhere else, so they’ve chosen this label.

A very vocal group of people in our country are looking for more care for the environment, to slow the spread of what they perceive as damage to the climate driven by the excesses of human society. Others insist that the climate is always changing regardless of human activity, and this group is looking to preserve their standard of living and their creature comforts, seeing the demands of the enivornmentalists as unreasonable and overly costly.

We’ve recently seen the activities of another group who are looking for economic equity and equality of outcome. Much of their complaint is based on their perceived race-based or gender-based oppression, and they want to ensure that everyone makes what they call a “fair” or “livable” wage. Some say this group is looking for “economic justice”, also known as equality of outcome. Those who disagree with this group are looking for equality of opportunity, not equality of outcome. This side of the discussion believes that equality of outcome completely ignores any concept of merit, where people are rewarded for their performance, not their demographic.

These are just 3 areas that have dominated our political discussions for at least the last 12 years, but certainly longer than that. But these debates have really become very heated in the last 5 years. Why is that? These discussions have become incredibly inflammatory because in each case, we are looking to our government to solve the issue. We are looking to the politicians in our government to offer us solutions to these problems. We are looking to our elected officials to advance our society in the direction we think it should go. And when the politician we vote for wins the election, we’re happy…or at least we’re not unhappy. We’re satisfied that our priorities are the same as the government’s priorities, so the future is secure. When our candidate *doesn’t* win, however, we get upset. We worry about the future.

It wasn’t that long ago that elected officials from both parties could figure out how to compromise and work together to do the business of our country. Ok, in the grand scheme of things it wasn’t that long ago, but in today’s political climate, it might as well have been a thousand years ago. We can’t even imagine the elephants and the donkeys working together on anything. They seem to exist solely to stifle the other party’s agenda. And we’re upset when the other party gets something done. And I don’t mean just disappointed. I mean angry, rage-filled, yelling at the sky, on the brink of a riot kind of upset. Like our very lives are being threatened.

Why are we like this now? What changed? I believe - and I’m not alone in this - that the decline of religion and faith in our country are mostly to blame. According to Pew Research, roughly 90% of Americans identified as Christian all through the 1970s and 80s. That number dropped 10% to 80% of Americans by the early 2000s, and by the late 2010s, was down to 71%. By contrast, the number of Americans who claim no religious affiliation - or what we sometimes call the “nones” as in “none of the above” when given a list of religious bodies to choose from - this group is growing exponentially, from 39 million in 2009 to 68 million in 2019. That’s a 74% increase in 9 years.

[In U.S., Decline of Christianity Continues at Rapid Pace | Pew Research Center (pewforum.org)]

But it’s more than just the numbers. Americans, and I suspect all human beings, are prone to believing strongly in *something*; if not the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, then it will be something else. In an article this week from The Atlantic titled “America Without God”, the author writes this: “Abraham Kuyper, a theologian who served as the prime minister of the Netherlands at the dawn of the 20th century, when [that] nation was in the early throes of secularization, argued that all strongly held ideologies were effectively faith-based, and that no human being could survive long without some ultimate loyalty. If that loyalty didn’t derive from traditional religion, it would find expression through secular commitments, such as nationalism, socialism, or liberalism. The political theorist Samuel Goldman calls this ‘the law of the conservation of religion’: In any given society, there is a relatively constant and finite supply of religious conviction. What varies is how and where it is expressed.” [Shadi Hamid, “America Without God” in The Atlantic, April 2021 issue https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2021/04/america-politics-religion/618072/]

In other words, we *are* going to believe in SOMETHING. It’s in our nature. And we should know that, shouldn’t we? One of the first lessons of the Exodus story is that when Moses took too long to come down from his mountain-top meeting with God, the people decided they needed a god so badly that they made one for themselves. They gathered up their gold and gave it to Aaron, who made them an idol they could worship…something they could see. They were desperately looking for something to believe in.

Typical, huh? God tells His people to look to Him, but they stubbornly decide to look elsewhere. It almost seems like they’re going to look ANYWHERE else but to God Himself. Why is that? That’s our sinful nature. We are so quick to rebel against God. We are so quick to look away from Him and His Divine and Holy Ways. It’s like my dog when I catch him with something he’s not supposed to have. I ask him “what did you DO?” and he just looks away from me. He won’t look me in the eye. He’ll look in every direction except toward me.

Our society today is doing pretty much the same thing. We’re not looking toward God. We’re looking to politicians for justice, and hope, and happiness, and peace…as though politicians could actually deliver on any of that. Is it ANY WONDER that so many people are absolutely filled with rage all the time? It’s beyond anger. It’s rage, even hate for those who vote differently. People have been yanked out of their vehicles and beaten … a few have even been killed … just because of the political sticker on their car or the hat on their head. Passionate devotion to a political ideology so deep that it drives deadly hate toward political opponents…but citizens of the same nation. How depressing is that? How disappointing. We are, as Paul says in his epistle to the church in Ephesus, “following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air…carrying out the desires of the body and the mind…like the rest of mankind.”

God has told us all through the story of His people that when we look to anyone or anything else but Him, it will go poorly for us. This is exactly what happened in the passage from Numbers. The people didn’t trust God’s plan, and they complained and “spoke against God and against Moses...”. They forgot what God had already done for them. They didn’t trust God’s plan…that God would provide for them and protect them. And they complained about what they *did* have: “we loathe this worthless food.” So God let them feel His wrath, which came in the form of fiery or “venomous” serpents.

This short paragraph is a good representation of the whole Old Testament, isn’t it? The people disobeyed God, so He let them feel His wrath - the consequences of their disobedience and their lack of gratitude. As they experienced that, in their suffering they repented and prayed to God. And then - as He did every time - God would hear the cries of His people and their prayers, and God would save them. This time was no different. God sent the serpents, but He also gave them the cure for what had inflicted them. The people only had to look to the image that Moses made and lifted up, and they would be saved from death, according to God’s command.

And this is exactly what Jesus draws our attention to in today’s Gospel reading. In this part of John’s gospel, a Pharisee named Nicodemus comes to see Jesus in the middle of the night. What’s implied here is that Nicodemus wanted to learn from Jesus, but he had to do it in secret, because he feared the other Pharisees, that they might reject him or he might lose his standing with them. And so he comes in the dark of night to question Jesus about some of the teachings he had heard and the signs he had heard about.

Jesus chooses one of the great acts of salvation of the Torah - a story that a Pharisee would know extremely well - to illustrate his point. As one scholar puts it: “The miracle of the healing by a mere look on a brass serpent is so real for Jesus that it typifies a still greater reality.”

[R. C. H. Lenski, The Interpretation of St. John’s Gospel (Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Publishing House, 1961), 254. ]

Notice that phrase “…healing by a mere look...” - that’s all it took for the people to be saved from the deadly venom of the serpents. How much effort does that “mere look” take? Very little. Open your eyelids, turn your head and eyes in that direction, and look. And that word “look” - in the Greek it’s not just the light coming into your visual organs…but it’s your perception of the object you’re looking at. You actually see the object, and recognize it for what it is. I’m reminded of the sci-fi movie “Avatar” - where humans on another planet immerse themselves into the culture of the native people, called the Na’vi. When the Na’vi greet each other, they say “I see you”, which means to “see” in a spiritual sense. It conveys the idea of understanding the other person, to know them deeply. That’s not far from the Greek meaning here.

Moses did precisely what God commanded - he crafted the image of the serpent in bronze and put it on a pole. The passage in the book of Numbers doesn’t tell us, but it seems clear that God instructs Moses to put it on a pole so that he can lift it up high enough for everyone to see it…so that all who want to look it are able to do so. God tells them to *see* this image on the pole not just with their eyes, but with their heart as well. Jesus now tells us the same thing: “if you want to be saved from certain death, look to me…see me...as I am lifted up on the cross.” Look to Christ Himself, lifted up high, nailed to a Roman cross, taking the punishment for our sins…facing God’s wrath so that we don’t have to.

Do we look to Christ? Do we? I pray that we are not following the course of this world, like the rest of mankind. During this Lenten season, God is calling us to walk more closely with Him in our life of faith. My challenge to all of us this week is as much for me as it is anyone: watch who or what we look toward in our lives, and if it isn’t God, why not? When we are tired of the chaos and vitriol we see on TV and social media, where do we look? Do we look to our politician-of-choice, or do we look to Christ, who died on the cross to bring peace to everyone? When we are angry and frustrated with co-workers, friends, or even family, where do we look? Do we look to our spouse, or best friend? Or do we look to the liquor cabinet or some other chemical to numb our pain? Or do we look to God, who brings us comfort and pardon for our own failings and forgives us for the wrongs we do? When we are sad or depressed or in despair, where do we look? Do we look to other mere human beings who have just as many challenges and difficulties as we have, but not more answers than we do? Or do we look to God, who gives us hope and purpose, and who loves us without condition, and more than we could ever deserve?

Of everything and everyone in all of creation, there is nothing more constant than God. He is always directing us and pointing us in the direction of what is best for us. He is always pointing toward that which will save us, and that is the cross of His Son. Even when we turn our backs on God, even when we take His Grace for granted, He still loves us. Even though we don’t deserve it, He loves us. In fact, He loved the world so much that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. In Moses’ day, God sent fiery serpents to let the people know and feel His wrath. It wasn’t because He didn’t love them, but they needed to know that there were serious consequences to their disobedience. This was to show the people that they needed God. And then when God finally sent His own Son, it was not out of wrath - which the people so justly deserved - but rather out of love. Even though the “people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.” [The Holy Bible: ESV (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Jn 3:19.]

The Son came so that those who had been poisoned with the deadly venom of sin could be saved from death by simply looking to Him.

Do we look to Him as He wants us to? Do we truly *see* Him for all that He really is to us? Look to the Cross, brothers and sisters. Look to the Cross and see everything that God has done for us. Look to the Cross and understand the sheer magnitude of God’s love for us - for each and every one of you. Look to the Cross and know that no matter what you have done, “by grace you have been saved through faith.” [The Holy Bible: ESV (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Eph 2:8.]

Look to the Cross of Christ and know without doubt that in the coming ages God will show you the immeasurable riches of his grace … because of His Son.

In this Lenten season, let us all be reminded of this each and every day. Let us all look to God every day, and know that He loves us. And - perhaps most importantly - let us help others who do not know where to look, to join us in looking to God.