Good Wednesday morning! Hmm, about 30° warmer this morning; will it be autumn or summer today? Technically it's still summer, but the weather seems unable to make up its mind right now. The wind has been a bit too much lately, but whine, moan, complain... cry, snivel, sob, that's me and my weather. We just don't see eye to eye on the way days should be most of the time! The world and Jesus didn't see eye to eye on many things. The problems started back quite a few years as today Jesus references an event from Jewish history.
"And as Moses lifted up the bronze snake on a pole in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up..." John 3:14
The event Jesus is speaking of occurred in Numbers 21. The Israelites had just completed a victory over the Canaanites, but had to go around the land of Edom; a lengthy journey in the wilderness. God still provided them with manna to eat, a far better sustenance than they would have been able to find in the Sinai wasteland. However, we know from our Old Testament reading that the Israelites liked to complain, and about more than just the weather.
But the people grew impatient with the long journey, and they began to speak against God and Moses. "Why have you brought us out of Egypt to die here in the wilderness?" they complained. "There is nothing to eat here and nothing to drink. And we hate this horrible manna!" Numbers 21:4b-5
Wow, by all accounts manna was both very nutritious and tasty, yet they complained in a land where the chances of finding food were pretty slim. Then we read how they complained of having nothing to eat and hating what God had sent for them to eat! The story continues that God was a bit angry over this; after all what cook wants to hear nothing but complaining over the meal he or she has prepared? God sent poisonous snakes to punish the complainers and many of them died. The remaining people admitted their sin and repented of it, asking Moses to pray for the removal of the snakes. Moses did, and was instructed to make a replica and hoist it on a pole. The people had to simply look at the snake and they would live. Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man...
At the moment, with just this verse, we don't know that Jesus will die on that pole. Nicodemus would have known the whole story of the bronze snake. Would Jesus be lifted up and the people saved simply by looking at him? Think of the parallels in the stories: The people were envenomed, bitten by the serpents in Moses' time. The people were bitten by the Serpent in Eden, and carried the venom of sin within them. By looking at the bronze snake on a pole, the people would have their physical lives spared. Nicodemus might have leaped to the conclusion that Jesus would be lifted up as king soon and the nation of Israel would be saved. Forget for a moment what you know of the verses following this one, those Nicodemus has not yet heard spoken. His heart and the hearts of the disciples listening there might have jumped with the news that Jesus would soon be lifted up. The King is here; Israel is saved!
We know that wasn't Jesus' mission at this time. Try as we might to forget it, the message of John 15-17 tells of a far greater mission. The gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John all tell of how Jesus was not lifted up as an earthly king to conquer earthly armies, but was lifted up on the cross to die for our sins. However, the stories do bear further similarities. Moses eventually had to break the bronze snake because the Israelites started worshipping the dratted snake replica! In the same way, many still worship things like the Shroud of Turin, the Holy Grail, and the so-called Spear of Destiny. There is a tendency in our sin nature to look for a physical object as a talisman, something of magical power that heals or strengthens us in battle. We know better through the Holy Spirit, but that tendency is still there within us. God broke Jesus on the cross to pay for the wrongs we have all done and the sin that we are born with. Moses took out his anger on the bronze snake; God took out his anger on Jesus. Unlike the dratted bronze snake, Jesus rose again both whole and glorified. What did his death and resurrection accomplish? The next three verses will tell us in wonderful and immortal words!
As is often the case with the statements of Jesus: this one is a prophecy, a warning against idolatry, and a historical reference, all in one little verse. As it ends in a comma, the statement has even more for us in the next verse. Stay tuned, it just gets better!
Have a great Wednesday!
Bucky
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