9 Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” 10 Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? 11 Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. 12 If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? 13 No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. 14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
16 “For God so loved the world, [9] that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him."
Grace mercy and peace to you from God our Father through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Our text today is the Gospel lesson, especially these verses, “Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so too must the son of man be lifted up.” Thus far our text.
Dear friends in Christ, the people of Israel had been on quite the journey. They had gone from being slaves to Egypt’s pharaoh, to being the free chosen people of God. Moses had been sent to be the instrument that God used to rescue the people and to bring them into the Promised Land. The people had been brought through the waters of the dead sea safe on dry land. They had been led by a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. They were fed with manna and quail. They had seen God’s holy mountain, covered with smoke and fire. And God had promised them a land flowing with milk and honey.
But it wasn’t enough. Even having seen these miracles that you and I struggle so often to believe, these stubborn people still doubted. “Are we really going to a promised land? Or are we being led out to starve in the wilderness. Is God really speaking through this Moses fellow, or are we being taken advantage of?” Even despite all the amazing things that they had seen with their own eyes, despite tasting the heavenly manna that appeared with their own tongues, they doubted that God was doing what He said He was. They still were uncertain. They still lacked faith.
So, in their uncertainty, God sent poisonous snakes in their midst- snakes that slithered right into the midst of their camp and their tents. Snakes that bit them causing them to suffer and die. We all know what happens when you are bitten by a snake, the poison surges through your body, slowly killing the victim. These Israelites suffered because they had turned away from the Lord their God. Now there was a problem. What were these people to do? Where were they to turn? They came to Moses and said, “We have sinned against God by complaining about being in this desert. Talk to God for us, so that we might be saved.”
Moses did speak to God, and God gave the people of Israel a way out. God created a way that they might be saved. Moses was to make a bronze serpent, and nail it to the top of a pole so that all who were bitten by a serpent might gaze upon it, and be saved from the poison coursing through their bodies. Even in the midst of the Israelites sin, God provided a way out.
Dear friends, Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so too must the Son of man be lifted up. I know that this bible story seems far away from you and your life. You may feel like you have nothing in common with the people of Israel, or even of Nicodemus in our Gospel lesson. But the fact of the matter is, you are closer than you might think.
You see, you and I have also, just like the Israelites, been given tremendous gifts. You and I have received Life from our creator. He has given us our body and souls, our eyes and ears, our reason and all our senses, as well as our homes and families and more. God has given these gifts to you before you were even able to ask for them. God has provided so much for you.
And yet, we too deal with doubt, we too deal with sin and grumbling against God. And because of our doubt, we too have a serpent who attacks us. That first serpent, Satan, the very one we heard about last week attacking Adam and Eve, also bites at you in your doubt. He bites you and fills you with the poison of self-trust, the poison denial, and more. And that poison that enters your body is nothing other than the very sin that affects your life.
That poison is the sin that divides your family. It is the sin that makes you so badly want to sleep in on a Sunday morning. The poison of Satan is that which says, “Why can’t I decided for myself? Why can’t I be my own master?” That poison of Satan’s attack is the very poison that will one day kill you through cancer, through old age, or through some other ailment. Satan’s attack is strong, and there is nothing you or I can do about it.
Lord have mercy on me. Lord, forgive me and rescue me, for I have no where to turn. And the Lord does. God does for you just what he did for the people of Israel so long ago. He hangs a sacrifice on a pole so that you might look upon it and know that you are forgiven. Only this sacrifice is not bronze, and it is not a snake. This sacrifice is the very living God hidden within human flesh. That baby whose birth we celebrated not that long ago is the one who will be nailed up upon a wooded pole, a cross, for all the world to see.
Dear friends, look upon you God, your salvation, as he suffers for you. Look upon him bleeding and dying for you. Look upon him as he cries out, “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do,” and know, he is speaking on your behalf. For you see, Jesus dies for you. Jesus gives up his life so you can live. God so loves the world, yes even you in your sin, that he gave his only son, that all who believe in him, all who see him suffering on the cross in their place, might have eternal life. In that you have rescue. In that you see what love is and what love does.
Dear friends, your faith look to Jesus. Your faith, itself a wonderful gift of God, keeps your eyes firmly fixed upon your salvation, so that even as that old serpent the devil attacks you through out your life, you still might live and one day enter the paradise prepared for you. What a gift. What a blessing. God saves you, just in the exact same way that he saved the Israelites.
Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man, so must Jesus, be lifted up so that you make look upon him and live. Amen.
