Grace United Methodist Church
pastorwillrice@gmail.com
Numbers 21:4-9
I have to admit, just like God’s people following Moses in the desert, I was grumbling a bit this week. While Moses’ followers were complaining about the eating and the living conditions, I was complaining about something else entirely. You may be surprised at what I was complaining about. I was grumbling because, out of a fluke of scheduling, I was given the gift of preaching today on John 3:16. Most preachers would be excited and happy about such a thing. I was not so excited. Many would consider it almost like getting a Sunday off. I mean John
I was grumbling this week about preaching on John 3:16.
Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t want you to go running to your friends and saying “Oh my gosh, Will hates John
I am not quite sure how it supposed to work, but this is how it was tried on me.
“Will do you know Jesus?”
“Yes, I am aware of who Jesus is.”
“But do you know him as your savior?”
“Not that I am aware of.”
“John 3:16”
Some pause while they waiting for it to sink in.
Seeing I wasn’t getting it, “For God so loved the world he gave his only begotten (people always included begotten) son so that all he believe in him will never die but have eternal life.”
“And?”
“Never mind.”
But still, I don’t dislike John 3:16. Despite the fact that some have hurled it around like a salvation bomb, it is actually a beautiful, deep, quite complex piece of scripture. Once you read it in its context, including the words that surround it, it becomes even more rich.
But, let’s go back to the snakes. I am glad we get to read from the book of Numbers today, for here is a scripture, unlike John 3:16 that many people have never heard.
God’s people
5The people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of
Now where as a typical parent might respond with, “if you don’t stop asking that, I am going to pull this car over,” God responded with snakes.
Now I realize that I now live in
But imagine for a moment that you don’t like snakes.
6Then the Lord sent poisonous serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many Israelites died.
Yikes.
The people going running to Moses. Remember that they had just complained against him and God.
5The people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of
But now they are quite repentant.
7The people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned by speaking against the Lord and against you; pray to the Lord to take away the serpents from us.”
I am sure Moses’ originally reaction was, “Oh, now you need my help.” But then he tries to help them:
So Moses prayed for the people.
Now in a perfect Bible story, God would say, “Presto” and the snakes would be gone. But, that is not quite what happens.
8And the Lord said to Moses, “Make a poisonous serpent, and set it on a pole; and everyone who is bitten shall look at it and live.” 9So Moses made a serpent of bronze, and put it upon a pole; and whenever a serpent bit someone, that person would look at the serpent of bronze and live.
A clearer picture of this story, adds a ton of depth to today’s passage from John’s gospel. Notice two things about what is going on in Numbers. First, when a serpent bites someone and they look at the bronze serpent Moses has made, they don’t die anyway and go to heaven. They actually live. Second, the serpents don’t go away. They are still around, possibly biting people. People probably got bit less because they starting carrying sticks and watching where they were going, but the serpents were still there.
Now, on to John’s Gospel.
14And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
Most people don’t start reading here, they start at verse 16. When they do start here, they are faced with the question, “what serpent?” A question to which you now have the answer.
Just as Moses lifted up the bronze serpent to save his people from the death brought about by the poisonous snakes, the Son of Man, Jesus Christ must be lifted up to save us from… well perhaps from ourselves.
Before we even get to John
Now whenever, before becoming a Christian, I would hear the rest of this passage lobbed at me like a “salvation bomb” I would assume, and I think most of the people reading it to me assumed, that when we said “eternal life” we were talking about heaven.
14And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
“Whoever believes in him will go to heaven when they die.” Now I am not saying that those who believe in Jesus won’t go to heaven. I want to be clear, please don’t go back to your friends and say, “Oh my gosh, Will hates John
I am saying there is even better stuff going on here. When I thought this Jesus thing was just about going to heaven, I said, “I’ll take my chances.” When I realized that there was way more here, I said, “sign me up.”
Right there in verse 15, it is hard to see it in English, when it says,
15that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
The word “have” is actually, in Greek, in the present tense. You see, Greek has verb tenses just like English, past, present and future. Sometimes we are sloppy in English.
| Past | Yesterday I had some ice cream. |
| Present | I am having some ice cream right now. Or You may have some ice cream right now. |
| Future | Tomorrow, I will have some ice cream. |
The Greek word for have is in the present, as in, “You may have some ice cream right now.” Or even better, you may have eternal life, right now.
Notice that in the wilderness, when those bitten by snakes looked at the bronze serpent, they didn’t die anyway and then go to heaven.
8And the Lord said to Moses, “Make a poisonous serpent, and set it on a pole; and everyone who is bitten shall look at it and live.”
They lived. They were saved right away. They were having life right now. Jesus explains what eternal life is all about in a prayer to God in heaven.
John 17:1After Jesus had spoken these words, he looked up to heaven and said, "Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you, 2since you have given him authority over all people, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. 3And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.
Whatever eternal life may look like after this life is over, in this life it is about relationship, it is about knowing God and Jesus Christ and the abundance of life that comes from that.
You see just as the lifting up of the serpent in the wilderness saved the Israelites from death from the poison of the snakes, (The snakes that they brought upon themselves through constant grumbling) the life, death, resurrection, ascension, glorification of Jesus saves us from the poison and death of our own world. It gives us a chance to be lifted up ourselves from the sin of our world and live instead in relationship with God.
Just like the bronze serpent did not make the other serpents go away, it just saved those who were harmed by them, the sin of our world does not go away, but we can be saved from it simply by believing in, having faith in Christ, who offers to put us back into relationship with God.
I got a chance a few nights back to watch the movie, “Walk the Line” the musical biopic of Johnny Cash. I saw the movie as a tale of redemption of salvation, which seems to really match the life and story of Johnny Cash. Cash went from a rough and humble beginning to the peak of glory and then back down into the depths of depression and drugs and alcohol. The snakes in the wilderness were biting him pretty good.
Now anyone who knows much about Johnny Cash knows that I wasn’t reading too far into this whole thing as a spiritual matter. Cash was quoted in Rolling Stone Magazine in the year 2000 comparing drugs' spiritual consequences with their physical and emotional devastation
"To put myself in such a low state that I couldn't communicate with God, there's no lonelier place to be. I was separated from God, and I wasn't even trying to call on him. I knew that there was no line of communication."
Of his conversion experience that brought him back to God that brought him back from the very brink of a destruction of his own making, “The greatest joy of my life was that I no longer felt separated from Him. Now he is my Counselor, my Rock of Ages to stand upon."
16“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.
It took a savior to bring him back to life, not just eternal bliss after his death, but a new take on using his gift, becoming what he could truly become. This new life was something he couldn’t find himself. Just like the Israelites could not save themselves from the snakes, Cash could not save himself from the depths he had sunk into. While the movie is brief on the coverage of the experience of conversion for Cash, it is clear what it led to, renewed purpose, renewed mission a new chance to live abundantly, not in a world free of the biting snakes of drug and alcohol abuse, but to live abundantly with a relationship with God that was bigger than drug and alcohol abuse.
16“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.
Just like the snake was lifted up to save those bitten from death, Jesus was lifted up to save us from the death of all those things of the world that separate us from the abundant life that is lived in relationship with God.
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