For the past several weeks we have been talking about the cross. Two weeks ago we heard the story in which Jesus said he was going to be killed, and Peter taking him aside and rebuking him for this teaching. Jesus then goes and publicly reproves Peter and tells him and everyone there that not only is he going to die on the cross, but they should all take up their crosses as well.
Last week, although he did not explicitly mention the cross, we again heard Jesus talking about his death. And in our Epistle we heard St. Paul talk about the cross as the foolish wisdom of God.
Today we again hear Jesus talk about the cross, although the reference may be a little bit opaque. Jesus says just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up. This is a reference to the cross. Lifting up here is referring to him being lifted up high on the cross so that all can see him and be saved. As we talked a little last week, the cross was not just about the death of an individual, but it was a message to the wider community. Crucifixion was done very publicly, and part of that was lifting you up rather high in order to make it easier for everyone to see you. They put you high upon that cross, and they also liked to put that cross up on a high place. They put Jesus and the others crucified that day up on a hill called Calvary, right outside the city gates to make them very visible, to lift them up very high.
In this description of his death that we hear today, Jesus is not only looking toward the future, that moment of him being lifted up high on the cross. He is also looking back, looking towards the past to one of the stories of his faith and the faith of the people listening there that day. He is looking back to the story that we heard in the first reading today from Numbers. It is a rather strange little story. I vividly remember the first time I heard this passage because it struck me as so odd. It takes place while the Israelites are in the wilderness. They seem to be traveling in circles, they are passing the Red Sea again, and they are quite frustrated. This is one of the so-called murmuring stories that takes place out there in the wilderness. "We have no food and the food we have we do not like," they lament. They long for the past, forgetting how awful the past really was.
And then things get worse. Suddenly there are all these poisonous snakes. Rather than just take the snakes away, God has the people build another snake and put it up on a pole. If you were poisoned, you were to look upon this image of a snake on a pole and it functions almost like an anti-venom. Anti-venom is made from venom, and in this case you were to look upon a snake, look upon the very thing that is hurting you in order to heal you. This sounds dangerously close to idolatry, and it does become idolatry for some of them. In the Book of Second Kings we hear of people taking offerings to this snake on a pole. In the Book of Wisdom, however, the author clarifies that it is not the snake that does the healing, but God. The snake does not function like a magic talisman, but rather the snake is closer to something sacramental. It is an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace. The outward and visible sign is a snake up there on a pole and is the inward and spiritual grace of God's healing power.
There is a lot to unpack in this story and we cannot explore it all right now. So I want you to put aside all those questions the story raises for you. We can talk about those another time, if you would like to. I want to look at the connection between the snake on the pole and the cross. How does this story help us understand the cross better, as Jesus suggests?
There are two main questions that people tend to ask about the cross: how and why. How does it work and why does this matter? The serpent on the pole gives us an important insight into these questions. It does not provide all the answers or the only answer. I do not think these questions have precise answers that can be resolved once and for all. Rather, we are utilizing metaphors to help us better understand something that is beyond understanding.
On the cross Jesus has to go into the very danger. He has to go into the horror of humanity to die as we die, but not only that. He has to die in the worst possible way that exposes the worst of humanity. We look upon that horror not in morbid fascination, but almost like an anti-venom. We look upon his death, Jesus on the cross, the snake up on that pole, and we find our life, sacramentally discovering the grace of God in the cross. "Come thou font of every blessing, tune my heart so sing Thy grace," as the old hymn puts it. The cross is the font of our blessing, sitting up on that hill that we praise, Calvary, upon which the cross sat. The precious blood flowing out from the cross is interspersed to rescue us from danger. The cross is a sign of God's grace. It is a sacrament of God's love. Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up that whoever believes in Him, that whoever trusts in Him may have eternal life. For--pay attention to that word "for" because conjunctions matter--for God so loved the world that He gave his only Son so that everyone who believes, everyone who trusts in Him may not perish, but may have everlasting life.
Jesus will be lifted up on the cross out of love. Love for you, love for me, love for all humanity and all of creation. Like that snake up on the pole, the cross is paradoxically a sign of the opposite of what it looks like. The dangerous snake mediates the healing, the horrifying cross mediates the love of God. It tells us that the crosses of this world do not get the final say. The powers and the principalities do not ultimately rule. Only one thing does in the end: God's love.
AMEN
