John 3:14-21
“Just as Moses lifted up a serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him may not perish, but may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
“Those who believe in him are not condemned, but those who do not believe are condemned already because they have not believed in the name of the holy Son of God. And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world and they prefer the darkness to the light because their deeds are evil. For those who do what is evil hate the light and do not come to the light for fear that their deeds might be exposed. But those who do what is true come to the light so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God.”
There’s a story way back in the Hebrew scriptures, in the book of Numbers, that tells of a time when the Israelites were making their in the wilderness, after they’d been liberated from slavery in Egypt, on their way to the Promised Land. They were a miserable, lost, wandering, struggling people, complaining about their lot in life, in spite of having recently been freed from slavery and oppression under Pharaoh. They were hungry, unsure about their future, not happy with and doubts about Moses, who had helped to liberate them in the first place.
And then there were snakes. Poisonous serpents. And the people perceived the serpents – as serpents were inclined to be perceived in Scripture – to be God’s punishment upon them for all of their complaining. The snakes bit and killed so many of them that they begged Moses to do something about it. So at God’s direction, Moses made some kind of a bronze snake on a pole – a sign and symbol of their affliction – so that whenever one of them got bit, they could simply look at the snake Moses had raised up on the pole, and they would be healed, and survive.
When Jesus brings this up this ancient story – generations later, as we heard in this morning’s Gospel – the connection is supposed to be obvious. “Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him might have eternal life.” In other words, “look at that which plagues you and you will be made well.” “Face your fallen nature and let God raise you up.” “Look at the result of your sinfulness and watch what God will do with it.” “Lay eyes on those things that cause you such suffering, struggle, and strife, trusting that God’s grace … in Jesus … is enough to conquer them.”
For the Israelites in the wilderness, it was snakes. Generations later, it was – and is – the sins of humanity. For the Israelites in the wilderness, Moses gave them a snake on a pole. Generations later – it was Jesus, himself – on the cross, which we’re invited to see, and through which we’re encouraged to trust our healing to come.
(This modern-day sculpture, on the top of Mt. Nebo, in Jordan, was created to bring all of this together in a beautiful way. Not only is it a bronze serpent, maybe something like Moses lifted up, but it’s one in the shape of a cross and the crucified Christ, too.)
Anyway, in the wilderness, with Moses, the Israelites were told to “look and live,” so they do and they did. And our invitation is the same, “look and live,” but I wonder if it always works for us, in the same way.
See, I think the difference for us, too much of the time, is that we forget – or aren’t encouraged often enough – to realize all of this is meant to happen in real time. When we hear about “eternal life,” it seems to me that popular theology has convinced us that that only applies to life after we’re dead and gone from this life, as we know it. But that just isn’t always or only the way Jesus talks about eternal life.
Modern Christianity is obsessed with heaven and hell; with who gets in and who gets left behind; with how wonderful one is and how terrible the other will be. But Jesus came so that we could have life – and have it abundantly – right where we live. Paul preached about “being saved,” as a work in progress, as something that happens and that is happening to those who are trying to follow Jesus in this life – not just something that has happened or that will happen some day in the future.
When the Israelites were out there in the wilderness, suffering with those snakes, God gave them the gift of the serpent on the pole for their healing in the moment. God didn’t tell Moses to wait until they arrived in the Promised Land; until they made it out of the wilderness; until they suffered some more and struggled some more or until more of them died along the way. The command and the promise was that they should look at that bronze serpent, be healed, and live – right then and there.
But for some reason, too much of the time, we get to Jesus on the cross, and think our salvation and new life is all or only about the other side of heaven; that when Jesus talks about “eternal life,” he’s only talking about a gift we receive after we’re dead and gone; after the snakes and our sinfulness have had their way with us in this life. But listen closely to what he says in today’s Gospel. Much like Moses, his words are about what happens to us here and now, right where live, on this side of heaven, too.
He says, “…those who do not believe … are condemned, already…” (Maybe you could say, “those who do not believe are already being condemned.”) And he says, “…this is the judgement, that the light has come into the world and people prefer the darkness to the light, because their deeds are evil. Those who do what is evil hate the light and do not come the light for fear that their deeds might be exposed.”
In other words, our judgement isn’t only waiting for us once we’re dead and gone – in some kind of eternal Heaven or everlasting Hell, whatever that might look like. We also experience our judgment – much like the Isrealites in the wilderness – every day that we forget or deny or refuse to believe that God’s love and grace have already come; that the light has already dawned; that our deliverance – our eternal life – has already begun, in Jesus.
Those who do what is evil … those who commit sin and are slaves to sin … those who are plagued by shame, or troubled by regret, or saddled with sadness, or full of fear, or lacking faith … (do you know anyone like that?) … our judgment comes when any of that keeps us hiding in the darkness, sends us scurrying from the light, keeps us apart from God’s desire and ability to love us on this side of Heaven.
It’s not a judgement that nips at our heels like so many snake bites… It’s not a judgement that feels like punishment from on high… It’s not a judgement that’s waiting for us, either … scaring us with fear and dread for God’s wrath in the afterlife.
It’s a judgement that impacts our life as we know it, now, simply because it keeps us from living lives infused with hope, fully in the grip of God’s grace; lives liberated by the forgiveness, love, and mercy – already delivered – in Jesus Christ our Lord; the kind of “eternal life” that has already begun with his life, death, and resurrection.
And God doesn’t want any of this judgement for any one of us. And ours is a God who loves a visual aid.
Whether that’s a sculpture in the desert; a cross in the sanctuary; water in the font; bread and wine on the table; or a wall of grief on the altar during Lent, even, we need all the help and practice we can get looking at that which plagues us in this life, not fearing the darkness that surrounds us, seeing the source and result of our brokenness and that of the world, so that we can also look and live… see, acknowledge, and hope – with all the faith we can find – that God’s love is bigger. That we are worth it. And that our eternal life is already underway.
For God so loved the world … that we have this Cross and we have this Jesus …
For God so loved the world … that we have been, we are being, and we will be saved …
For God so loved the world … For God so loves the world …. That God didn’t send Jesus to condemn the world, but in order that the world – all of it and all of us – would be saved through him.
So let us see it and believe it and be changed by the blessing of this good news, so that we are not afraid to come to and live in the light of God’s grace and goodness;
…so that we aren’t afraid to come to and live in and share that kind of light with the broken, hurting, scared and scary world around us;
And so that the judgement of God is less like something that comes from a petulant, oppressive tyrant on the other side of eternity and more like something practical and holy – and something that can change us, here and now – thanks to a God who loves and forgives and cares for us, right where live, on this side of heaven, where eternity has already begun – on earth as it is in heaven – thanks to Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen
