John 3:13-17

Jesus said: For only I, the Messiah, have come to earth and will return to heaven again. And as Moses in the wilderness lifted up the bronze image of a serpent on a pole, even so I must be lifted up upon a pole, so that anyone who believes in me will have eternal life. For God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son so that anyone who believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. God did not send his Son into the world to condemn it, but to save it.

Food for thought!

On 14th of September, we mark the Feast of the Holy Cross. To understand the significance of this feast, let's go back to the Old Testament. There, in the Book of Numbers, 21:4-9 we read the following:

They set out from Mount Hor along the Red Sea Road, a detour around the land of Edom. The people became irritable and cross as they traveled. 5 They spoke out against God and Moses: "Why did you drag us out of Egypt to die in this godforsaken country? No decent food; no water-- we can't stomach this stuff any longer." 6 So GOD sent poisonous snakes among the people; they bit them and many in Israel died. 7 The people came to Moses and said, "We sinned when we spoke out against GOD and you. Pray to GOD; ask him to take these snakes from us." Moses prayed for the people. 8 GOD said to Moses, "Make a snake and put it on a flagpole: Whoever is bitten and looks at it will live." 9 So Moses made a snake of fiery copper and put it on top of a flagpole. Anyone bitten by a snake who then looked at the copper snake lived.

This incident is rather puzzling in view of the fact that the Bible absolutely forbids to make and use graven images. And in this text, the Lord explicitly commands Moses to make one and present it before the people. "Make a snake and put it on a flagpole: Whoever is bitten and looks at it will live." So, what's all this about? How can we explain this and the images / statues in our churches and homes?

First and foremost, serpents don't give life; they take life away; they kill us. The same with the serpent in the reading. It was not the serpent that gave life. But as long as Moses lifted up the serpent, the people believed in him who had commanded Moses to act thus. It was God who healed them, not the serpent. The serpent served only as visual aid, as icon, as reminder. God sometimes uses serpents of problems of bring us back to him. Our storms of life bring us to the point where we realize that we have nowhere to go, but to God. This is what happened: "GOD sent poisonous snakes among the people; they bit them [...] Anyone bitten by a snake who then looked at the copper snake lived."

It means that your problem is not meant to destroy you but to bring you to your Saviour. The story of Joseph is in the Bible is a good example. He was thrown into a pit by his brothers. Now, life in the pit stinks. Yet for all its rottenness doesn’t the pit do this much? It forces you to look upward, because you cannot look anywhere else. Someone from up there must come down here and give you a hand. God did for Joseph. At the right time, in the right way, he will do the same for you.

Do you remember this story? Howard Rutledge came to appreciate his time as a POW (prisoner of war) in Vietnam. He wrote: During those long periods of enforced reflection, it became so much easier to separate the important from the trivial, the worth-while from the waste. .. My hunger for spiritual food soon outdid my hunger for a steak . . . I wanted to know about the part of me that will never die . . . I wanted to talk about God and Christ and the church . . . It took prison to show me how empty life is without God . . .

And Paul the apostle? Didn't he write his best letters from a prison cell? The letters to the Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon were all written by the apostle Paul during his imprisonment. Our problems many be many things like a broken relationship, a shattered marriage, depression, despair, job anxiety, unemployment, financial failure, an illness, death, or some unexpected tragedy. As you battle with your problem remember that sometimes GOD sends poisonous snakes among the people and then uses the same problems to bring his people to himself.

What about Jesus? Is it not by his death that we have life? "But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed." (Isaiah 53:5). 

What about the cross of Jesus? Is it not intended to remind us the divine principle: no cross no crown; no pain no gain? For that reason, the crucifix we carry on our chest, in our cars, homes, etc, is intended not for others to see how religious we are; it is for us to remember Jesus and the divine principle. We don't use religious images to show off, but to lift our mind and heart to the Lord. The same with wedding rings, they're reminders to the bearers of their spouse. Not carrying any ring on your finger may be a sign that you don't have a spouse. 

The holy cross of Jesus is a constant reminder of Jesus of the cross! It is a way of saying to the world: "This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life."