sermon notes Lent 4, Year B, John 3:14-21

Related: 
Year B Lent 1
Year B Lent 2
Year B Lent 3
Year B Lent 5

Near Mt Nebo, Jordan
photo © Joe Walker 2005

And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

On a clear day, with clear vision, you can just make out Jerusalem from there.  I'll add some text in a day or two.

The story of the bronze serpent is found in Numbers 21: 4-9

The people spoke against God and against Moses, ‘Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we detest this miserable food.’ Then the Lord sent poisonous serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many Israelites died. The people came to Moses and said, ‘We have sinned by speaking against the Lord and against you; pray to the Lord to take away the serpents from us.’ So Moses prayed for the people. And the Lord said to Moses, ‘Make a poisonous serpent, and set it on a pole; and everyone who is bitten shall look at it and live.’ So Moses made a serpent of bronze, and put it upon a pole; and whenever a serpent bit someone, that person would look at the serpent of bronze and live.

The bronze serpent pops up again in 2 Kings 18:  [Hezekiah] removed the high places, broke down the pillars, and cut down the sacred pole. He broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the people of Israel had made offerings to it; it was called Nehushtan. 

It is a fascinating event.  It is one of those biblical stories which leaves modern consciousness reeling to find an explanation for the whole episode.  The serpent is both the agent of destruction and the agent of healing.  The very thing which brings death also, in another context, brings life.  But the passage from 2 Kings gives some food for thought:  is there a tendency to turn to, and worship, the means of salvation, instead of the God of salvation? 

At any rate, it would appear a completely absurd invention on the part of God to have this particular sign as the means by which the obstinate & complaining company of the Israelites were to be healed.  It is here that I think of the typology of the cross.  If it is absurd to think of looking upon the bronze serpent, then it is also absurd to think the same of looking to the crucified Jesus.  This is, I think, the first instance of what Paul will later call the foolishness of the cross.  God is completely capable of arranging things in such a manner that they look, well, quite strange.  But that is God's call, not mine.

Jesus picks up this story and reveals it to be typology, that is, an event which has a significance beyond itself.  This is different from treating it as allegory, but we can get into that later.  I suspect this typology can work in a few ways.  We see the obvious connection intended between the serpent "lifted up" and Jesus "lifted up".  The serpent is a thing both of death/judgment and life.  As is Jesus:  in the passage from John he clearly intends that there be redemption, but there is talk of evil/judgment. 

Thinking back to modern-day Jordan, where the memorial of the bronze serpent is, you can see into the "promised land" on a clear day.  I've stood there a few times over the years.  It is a marvellous act to look at the serpent, and then to realize that as you gaze, you are looking toward the promised land.  It is a sort of living geographical typology.  When we look to Jesus on the cross, as despised as a serpent, we can see past the cross toward the resurrection, the place of salvation.

ed - today (as I write this) being the feast of St Joseph, I think I'll honour my patron with a modestly extravagant lunch... back in a while.

And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.  "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.  "Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God.  And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil.  For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed.  But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God."

As a Lenten passage, this text speaks of redemption out of judgment.  Notice that the source of the judgment here is not Jesus, but ourselves.  The "exposing power" of light (a favourite theme in John) is used to show the contrast between good and evil.  While many might be tempted to end the message after the comforting words of v 16, the text we have continues on.  Judgment seems to be based solely on this:  what (or whom) do you love? Darkness prevents sight, prevents one from "looking" at what has been lifted up.  Darkness ends in the choice not to look upward. 

There is always (at least for me) a struggle with how to address the element of judgment in such texts.  It is certainly good news that Jesus' purpose is not to condemn, but rather to save (from ourselves?).  And yet I sense that it is not the case that Jesus cannot condemn (he has lots of harsh words in the gospel), but rather that there is no need for evidence other than our own deeds in order to do so. 

Route with few bumps:  stick to an allegorized harmony of the two stories...look to God...look to Jesus on the cross, no matter how absurd it may seem.  Look upward.  God loves the world. Yada Yada Yada...

Route with bumps:  the agent of judgment/death is also the agent of salvation.  This is why Jesus brings in the reference.  The means of salvation may appear abhorrent, but it is the only means.  It meant, for Jesus, becoming the serpent ("he became sin who knew no sin") in order to bring healing.

Comments

[Leslie]

This is one of my all time favorite stories.

[joseph]

It's one of my favourite stories as well, in part because it defies so much of what we think God is up to, and how God has to act.

[Leslie]

Yes. It intrigues me as it requires you to turn your head. When I think of the absurdity of looking over to a snake to be healed, I can think of a lot of friends and acquaintances who would see it as a condescending solution and refuse. Yet, what could be easier? Easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than to look over there...

So too Christ on the cross.

[Troy]

Whenever I came across this reading in the lectionary – it greatly confused me for all kinds of reasons. Particularly since Moses had just given the 1.5 commandment, “Thou shalt not make for thyself any graven image.”

But now, whenever I hear this story, my mind immediately wanders to the Garden where the serpent made his debut. Since then, the serpent continues to poison us with half truths, and I all too easy listen. “Oww! Bite my rubber arm,” I say to the serpent. I certainly don’t believe in anything like karma, but like the whiny Israelites, I shouldn’t be too shocked when the reality of my sin returns to bite me on the @$$.

We are healed of our sin, when we are confronted with it-forced to look upon it, when we acknowledge and recognize it. With eyes of faith, a glance becomes an act of contrition.

The serpent woven around the pole reminds me of my pride - which got me into this mess in the first place. The body of Jesus woven around the cross reminds me not only of the consequence of my pride, but the humility of love unknown, unfathomable, which gets me out of it.

God is God, and he could have saved the world any way He chose, but in the manner in which our salvation was procured, it doesn’t surprise me too much- since the folly, the paradox of the cross – should be that the vaccine would be produced, through divine providence, from the venom.

[joseph]

Troy - I think that's a great image - the vaccine is produced from the venom.

Coffee sometime?