Remember that saying, “Be careful what you wish for”? That’s not biblical, but I think it should be. Case in point–today’s Old Testament lesson.
Our story finds the Israelites in the desert complaining. That’s a fairly common situation for this part of the Bible, the Book of Numbers, the third book in the Bible. This book tells the story of the Israelites’ 40-year journey from Egypt to the Promised Land, and it’s a journey with a lot of complaining. Of course, being in the desert for 40 years can’t be a lot of fun, but an important point about why they are there: They asked for it.
Back in Egypt, the Israelites were suffering as slaves. They cried out to God to help them, and he heard their cries, sent Moses, got them out of Egypt and into the situation of today’s story. Exactly what did the Israelites expect? That we don’t know. Maybe they thought they should take over Egypt and be the masters. Maybe they wanted to just stay in Egypt, but not as slaves. Maybe they expected to be teleported back home. Whatever they expected, this wasn’t it. Freedom is hard work! Heat, thirst, boring food–the desert has all of this, but the hard part is learning to trust God to get them through it all. No longer slaves, the Israelites are learning to be the people of God, no matter what they expected when they asked for help.
Maybe this isn’t exactly what God expected either when he answered their call. Seems God’s patience is tried by this complaining bunch, but if you’ve ever been on a hot, long car trip with a bunch of whiny kids, maybe you understand why God has had it. Poisonous snakes might be a threat we’d want to work with. At any rate, it’s a consequence that works–the Israelites recognize immediately that they’ve gone too far, repent and ask Moses to pray and save them, which he does. God has an unusual solution to the problem, however. Instead of just getting rid of the snakes, God instructs Moses to make a symbolic bronze snake and up it up on a pole. Then, when anyone gets bitten, that person looks at the symbolic snake and is healed. It’s perhaps a bit of divine irony that the sign of death and destruction has become the symbol of healing.
While that’s a cool twist, this is not the sort of story we want to read on Sundays. It’s the sort that makes the Bible look bad–weird science, angry, impatient God–we wouldn’t read it either, except for one little problem: Jesus read it. In fact, according our Gospel story, Jesus seems to find some important meaning in it.
As soon as I mention Jesus, we’re back on familiar territory. In fact, we’re on extra-familiar territory today because if there’s any scripture you have memorized at all, chances are it’s this one, chapter and verse: John 3:16.
“For God so loved the world,….”
You can finish it off. We know this one. It’s the verse. You see it on posters, it’s in the end zone at football games; we even have it in our narthex. The Gospel summary, many would call it. While that may be the case, in today’s Gospel, we can see that it is also very much part of a story. Jesus is having a conversation with Nicodemus. He’s a religious leader, one of the authorities in the Temple, and he has come to Jesus at night, in secret, trying to understand what Jesus is all about. That’s where the snakes come in.
Apparently Jesus identifies with this story. But he doesn’t connect with Moses, trying to lead the people of God, or with God, struggling to maintain patience. No, Jesus identifies with the symbolic snake, the symbol of destruction turned into a sign of healing. Can we follow his logic here?
As we saw in the beginning, the people of Israel thought they wanted out of Egypt until their prayer was answered and they began to recognize the price of this new identity of freedom. What Jesus knows is that God’s people have not changed. Living under Roman occupation with a grim future, God’s people have prayed for salvation, for God’s word of hope and power to be real once again. Those prayers have been answered. But now, face to face with God’s Word in reality, with the messenger of salvation in their midst, the people look the other way. The religious leaders in particular, all supposedly faithful and holy men, refuse to hear the possibility of God’s message being present in Jesus, responding to his words with ridicule and scorn. The irony of their situation is clear to Jesus.
When their opposition becomes lethal, when they attempt to silence Jesus and end his message once and for all, that’s when they (and all people) will see the salvation they are looking for. The symbol of their rejection will be raised high, and as they see Jesus on the cross, they will see the healing they need.
Does that make sense?
At this point we should probably look at our own place in the story. God’s people–heirs to the Temple leaders and the whiny Israelites–are we like them? Do we prefer, as Jesus claims, darkness to light?
Of course not! We’re in church! We’re reading this message! But did we not just confess our failure to live up to our call? Did we not point out that in a world of need we have refused to share, and in a world of darkness we have not spoken of the hope we know? Here’s our problem. Light and dark–we have a foot in both camps. Of course the Gospel is great, as long as it is all about me, my salvation and eternal life. But when the message starts making demands–sharing of our wealth, for example, how much do we want to hear it then? Going to church is great–if there’s nothing else to do. Giving is great–if we’ve bought everything we want. Doing things for God–well, we are pretty busy. You see how it goes. Not unlike the Israelites, looking back with longing to the days of slavery in Egypt, we prefer to hold on to the old ways of darkness and selfishness. They work so well.
Seen from this perspective, those treasured words of John 3:16 aren’t just a summary of the Gospel, they are God’s fighting words, a challenge to the way things are, as God’s power of salvation breaks in to make things as they should be.
Like it or not, world, God loves you. Like or not, the light is here, shining on those who have settled for so much less. Like it or not, the victory of life has begun.
In the Gospel story, Nicodemus represents the religious establishment who have settled for a little message when salvation is what God wants to give them. In our world today, maybe always, Christians seem to be settling for a little message, one that boxes God in, setting the rules for who he cares for and who can be part of his salvation. All around us churches are fading away, because this little message just isn’t enough to lighten the darkness around.
I don’t think we are content with a little message. In our prayers and Lenten thoughts, I hear a longing for something more, a desire to know God’s glory. So what if this week we look for God’s presence out in that world? Listen for the call of salvation. Look for the light breaking in, even in unexpected places. Let’s dare to believe that God is out there, and see if we can follow where he calls us to be, bringing the light out into the darkness.
Where do you see God’s light in our world today?