4th Sunday of Lent 2024
Texts: Numbers 21;4-9; Ephesians 2:1-10; John 3:14-21
In the first lesson from Numbers, the country of Edom refused to let the Israelites pass through its country. It would have been an act of war. Because Moses had to take the Israelites all the way around Edom to avoid a conflict, the Israelites started complaining. It was taking too long to reach the Promised Land—are we there yet? No. Are we there yet? No. “There is no food and no water, and we detest this miserable food.” What food? You just said there was none. Poor Moses.
After a while, the Israelites became discouraged, and they spoke against God and Moses. We know what Moses’ response was. He complained to God, “These Hebrews you gave me, they are a stiff-necked people.” What was God’s response? He sent poisonous serpents to bite them.
The Israelites’ complaining had just made the journey much worse. We might find God’s response a bit odd, but it did lead to the Israelites confessing their sins—that they had spoken badly against God and his servant Moses. Moses was faithfully following God’s will in leading them to the Promised Land. The Israelites had to confess that they really didn’t trust God or Moses.
There were snake cults in the region, people who worshipped with snakes and used snakes against their enemies. It is a little unusual for God to instruct the Israelites to make what appears to be an idol—a bronze snake on a pole, then tell them to to gaze upon it. However, the purpose was not to worship the snake on the pole, but to remind the Israelites that they must come to grips with their sins in order to be healed. When someone was bitten by a poisonous snake, if they looked at the bronze snake they would be healed.
In this lesson there is a clear association between the acknowledgement of our sins and being healed from them. Unless the Israelites looked at their sins, represented by the bronze snake on the pole, they could not be forgiven those sins. It’s like holding up a mirror to ourselves, to acknowledge the truth of who we are. Until we can look at ourselves clearly, we will not be at peace with God, or anyone else.
In the Gospel lesson Jesus mentions this text from Numbers. “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.” Jesus would be lifted onto the cross because our sins put him there, and we must come to grips with our sins in order to be healed from them.
Then follows that most familiar text John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes him may not perish but have eternal life.”
Eternal life is not just more of this life as we know it. Who would want more of that? The good things of life mixed with the pain of loss and illness, weariness and weakness, disappointment and discouragement, conflict and confusion?
No, eternal life is a life redeemed from these things caused by sin. Jesus, being lifted onto the cross for the sins of all of us, is overcoming this unnatural life we live. Death does not overcome those who trust Him. Through Jesus we will live the life God intended us to have from the beginning of Creation.
Then Jesus refers to the light which came into the world.
John wrote, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.”
Jesus is the light. Though many people still prefer darkness to light, ultimately this light cannot be extinguished. Because reality has been altered by God coming into this world as a human being. It cannot be undone. This is the light by which we see truth and goodness. We need this light to truly live, now and beyond this life.
By this light we see ourselves as we are, not perfect, damaged by sin, in need of some measure of healing. When Jesus speaks of eternal life I imagine it to be a life lifted up to the near presence of God, free of pain and conflict, a life overflowing with joy and peace.
The Apostle Paul understood all these things when he wrote the following,
“You were dead through the trespasses and sins in which you once lived, following the course of the world, following the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work among those who are disobedient. All of us once lived among them in the passions of our flesh, following the desires of flesh and senses, and we were by nature children of wrath, like everyone else. But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together in Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing: it is the gift of God—not the result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.”
Thanks be to God. Amen.
