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Lent 4
March 30, 2003
Numbers 21:4-9
Ps. 107:1-3, 17-22
Ephesians 2:1-10
John 3:14-21
"And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up..." (John 3:14) Well, Moses lifted up the serpent on behalf of those who were snake-bit or would be. And, they were snake-bit because God got angry at their complaining about the food and sent the snakes to punish them. The bronze serpent was a kind of amulet, a magical antidote, a throwback to the superstition of Egypt. Get bit; quick look at the magic serpent; get well.
So what does Jesus mean, "just as Moses lifted up the serpent"? Is sinful humanity snake-bit? When we look at the cross, do we get well? It sounds too simplistic, but it has legs. Who, after all, initiated the series of events that led to the fall of human kind? What is the ordinary result of a serpent's bite? "You were dead through the trespasses and sins..." (Ephesians 2:1) Paul reminds us, dead like snake-bit -- not dead this moment but going to be, and people going to be dead can't help but stare at those two puncture marks -- but Jesus says, "Look up; look at me on the cross."
I am impressed daily by the fact that we stare at the two puncture marks. We stared at the Columbine massacre. We stare at tornados in Alabama. When we run out of real disasters to stare at, we stare at dramatizations on the screen. We are fascinated with our terminal condition and not much inclined to look for any other condition. Who wants to see a movie with no sin in it? How would anyone come up with a plot? Even hell-fire and damnation sermons spend thirty minutes describing sin and two minutes describing salvation. It is the nature of being snakebit to stare at the puncture marks. "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." (John 3:19) Or, their deeds were evil because they loved darkness rather than light. It has to do with what we see and don't see.
So, how does the preacher, the proclaimer of the good news (John 3:16), get people to look at the cross when we all want to look at sin and death? Are we to portray the cross as the ultimate disaster brought about by our sin? But, that isn't what the Gospel of John means by "so must the Son of Man be lifted up". It is not disaster. It is not the victory of sin. As tempted as we are to turn the crucifixion into a horror movie to move the hearts of people who love darkness, it is not true to the Gospel. The Gospel is that the cross is not disaster but salvation, and death is not as engaging as life, and sin is not as interesting as holiness. Really? When was the last time you rented a video because it featured holiness? Where would you find one?
I saw one on Public Television. It was titled "How To Get The Love You Want". Harville Hendricks had just gotten his Ph.D. when I met him taking a pastoral care course at Perkins Seminary. There he was on TV, big as life, doing one of those self-help shows with an audience of open-faced people -- the kind of thing I usually pass up in part because of my sinful interest in more sinful subjects and partly because of the cotton candy that gets passed off as holiness. Well, this was the real thing. It was about how real couples can do real things to really deepen their love for each other. The message was that the sacrifice of communication in marriage is not disaster but salvation, and divorce is not as engaging as faithfulness, and blame is not as interesting as understanding.
Is it possible that we who are children of the light spend too much time viewing the darkness? (I didn't say too much time bringing light to the darkness.) My wife doesn't care for the news unless it is local. Maybe she has an appropriate aversion to the darkness. Maybe she would rather look at the cross than the two puncture marks.
Roland McGregor, Pastor
Asbury United Methodist Church, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA
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