“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” (John 3:15).
Do you realize what an odd thing it is that we do on this Friday we call good, when we sing about a wondrous cross, when we look to a wounded man for healing freedom—a man who has suffered damning punishment?
How did we get here?
Going all the way back to the Garden of Eden, we remember that it was Satan, suited in a snake, who swindled Adam and Eve, who were now bit by death. Snakes would continue to play a vital role in the plan of salvation.
After the Israelites were freed from slavery in Egypt, they wandered the wilderness on their way to the Promised Land. Along the way, all was not Red Sea partings and manna-from-heaven feedings. Despite the Lord freely giving them, each day, their daily bread—when they couldn’t do so for themselves because there wasn’t a grocery store in sight—God’s people whined like little kids on Easter who get fewer Peeps than the others.
They complained to Moses, “There is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food.” Can you believe this? The food God freely gave, they called worthless?
Could you ever be accused of the same thing? How many of you miss a meal because your Mother Hubbard cupboard is bare? Yet, how many will complain?
Remember, the daily bread for which you pray in the Lord’s Prayer is way more than bread. The Lord reigns down manna from heaven and showers you with everything you need for your body and life.
Luther put it this way, in his explanation to the Fourth Petition of the Lord’s Prayer: “Daily bread includes everything that has to do with the support and needs of the body, such as food, drink, clothing, shoes, house, home, land, animals, money, goods, a devout husband or wife, devout children, devout workers, devout and faithful rulers, good government, good weather, peace, health, self-control, good reputation, good friends, faithful neighbors, and the like.”
I’m not sure what Luther missed, to feel that he had to conclude, “and the like.” He covered it all, because your Lord Jesus Christ covers it all. He is not only your crucified Savior, but also your resurrected, ascended, and ruling Creator. He cares, not only to win your forgiveness, but to fill your refrigerator.
The next time you kids find yourselves whining because your parents won’t buy the latest fashion, or game, or whatever it is that you simply must have or how can you go on living, look at the clothes in your closet and drawers, the many forms of entertainment you already enjoy, and face the Lord, begging His forgiveness for Jesus’ sake, and turn from your whining ways and be thankful.
The next time you adults find yourselves sniveling over the price of gas, ask yourselves if you continue to have money in your wallet to fill your tank and still feed your family and have a roof over your head. The next time you find yourselves carping about the President, or the Republicans, or the Democrats, or anyone else whom the Lord has put into place to serve you, turn from your snarky remarks and pray to the Lord both to forgive you for your unthankfulness and to provide your leaders with wisdom.
The next time any of you find yourselves complaining about your job, beefing about your husband or wife or kids, looking with contempt at the high mileage on your car’s odometer— or any of the thousands of ways we spoiled American Christians bemoan the riches with which the Lord Jesus surrounds us—turn from your whining ways, throw yourselves at the Lord’s mercy for Christ’s sake, and give thanks for the plentiful blessings of your daily lives.
Truly, the average American Christian deserves to have the Lord do what He did to the Israelites. To silence their mewling mouths, the Lord sent—you should have guessed it—snakes to bite them, and many of them died.
The snakes served as the wake-up call the Lord intended. The Israelites turned to the Lord in repentance, pleading with Moses: “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the Lord, that he take the serpents from us” (Numbers 21:7).
Moses prayed; the Lord answered. He instructed Moses to make a fiery snake and set it upon a pole. When the people looked at the bronze snake, they would be healed of their bite.
What an odd thing for the Lord to do. He took the very thing that harmed the people—the snake—which was a reminder of the first snake-bitten moment of Adam’s and Eve’s, and He used it as the cure for what would otherwise kill them.
How much faith did it take to trust the Lord that this snake-on-a-pole would work? If a person heard Moses tell of the remedy and went off in disbelief—no doubt muttering under his breath what a stupid thing Moses was suggesting—the person would die in his sin.
But, believing the Lord—no matter how goofy-sounding the cure—and turning in faithful thankfulness to look up at that snake on the pole, God’s people received healing for their wounds.
The Old Testament lesson for Good Friday comes from Isaiah 53: “Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted.. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.”
As wild an idea as it might seem, the snake on the pole foretold Christ on the cross.
In the verse that comes immediately before the well-known John 3:16, the Lord Jesus called it: “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.”
You bunch of sinners have been snake-bit. The devil has bitten you. The world has bitten you. Your own sinful nature has and constantly does bite you.
The same goes for me.
Today, God calls us to look up at the snake on the pole and be healed.
God calls us to look up at the snake on the pole? How dare we call our Savior a snake?
We dare call Jesus a snake because that’s what He became in taking your sinfulness, my sinfulness, and the sinfulness of the world into His flesh. Jesus became the chief of sinners so that, looking to Him in faith, we become the children of God.
Second Corinthians 5:21: “For our sake [God] made [Jesus] to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
As Moses lifted up the fiery snake on the pole, and the people were healed when they looked at it, trusting the Lord that it would be as He promised, you look at Jesus on the cross—the holy Son of God who now is on fire with your sins—and you are healed through your trusting what the Lord has promised, that God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that, believing in Him, you have eternal life.
What an odd thing for the Lord to do, making His Son into the very thing that bit you with the bite of damnation, and using it as the cure for what would otherwise kill you.
How much faith does it take to trust the Lord that this snake-on-a-pole works? Indeed, it is such a leap that you cannot do it on your own. No one can look up to Jesus on the cross without finding it either offensive or ridiculous, unless the Father draws that person to Jesus (John 6:44).
It takes the proclamation of this Gospel for the Holy Spirit to create and sustain the faith in your heart to look up at the cross and live.
It takes the washing of rebirth and renewal in Holy Baptism (Titus 3:5), which you once received and which continues to bathe you in Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection, for you to be able to look up at the cross and live.
It takes the eating and drinking of the Lord’s Supper, in which Jesus nourishes your faith with His crucified and resurrected body and blood, for you to continue to be able to look up at Him on the cross and live.
John 3:15-17: “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 one and only Son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” Amen.
Eilers Pizza 