Sunday March 10th, 2024 Worship

Despite the best efforts of some of my youth on internship, I have to admit that I still am terrified of snakes, so I’m not particularly a fan of today’s reading from Numbers! When we were trying to decide what parts of the country I would preference for receiving a first call, I intentionally thought about which places I was least likely to encounter large spiders, poisonous snakes (or really any snake), and scorpions. I remember a time too when we were on a youth trip in high school to the Black Hills in South Dakota and they warned us to watch out for rattlesnakes because we were too far away from any hospitals to administer anti-venom in time. Part of that trip included mowing down tall grasses where these rattlesnakes liked to hide, and I was so grateful that the noise of the lawnmowers was effective at keeping them away from us because the sound of those rattles was just a little bit haunting, especially when you could tell that they were only a few feet away. This did not help me develop a love for snakes either…
Snakes aside, I find this Numbers reading interesting because we have the Israelites in their wandering period asking questions about why God and Moses brought them out of Egypt only for them to die in the wilderness (Numbers 21:5a). My favorite part is when they say there is no food, but also that they “are disgusted with this terrible food” (Numbers 21: 5b). It reminds me of the complaints of children, like “are we there yet?” on road trips or when we look in the fridge and pantry and say that there isn’t any food because it isn’t exactly what we are wanting at that moment. I mean, it’s understandable that the people are frustrated with being stuck in the desert, but they quickly learn that maybe they shouldn’t be complaining about it after all that work God and Moses just did to free them from Egypt.
While we don’t often recall this detail of the Exodus story, we do frequently recall the Exodus throughout Scripture and our liturgy as we recall what God did for the Israelites in connection to the promises of what God will do in the present and future as well. But, what I find helpful about this story is taking a look at the request the Israelites make, the way God responds, and what it means for us today. Because, after these deadly snakes have been released among them and people start dying, the Israelites ask Moses to “Intercede for us, and ask that God remove the snakes from us” (Numbers 21: 7b). But instead of removing the snakes completely, God instructs Moses to make a bronze serpent and put it on a pole so that people who are bitten can look at it and live (Numbers 21: 8-9). This isn’t quite what they asked for.
This is the part of the story that gets picked up to begin our Gospel reading this morning. “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so the Chosen One must be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in the Chosen One might have eternal life” (John 3: 14-15). This is the preamble that we are given before the famous John 3: 16 “For God so loved the world” verse which seems to be everywhere in our popular culture from music to sports. But without this preamble, we miss out on the significance of what Jesus is saying about the cross. It matters not just that the Chosen One dies, but that the Chosen one is lifted up on the cross in this painful, shameful, public execution for the sake of the world because it is through this perceived weakness that God is showing what it means to be wise and powerful. It is on the cross that God flips the world’s understanding of what it means to be the Messiah, as the one who suffers, dies, and rises again instead of the powerful military conqueror.
And, in the case of both the Israelites and us, the serpent on the pole and Jesus’ crucifixion are visible reminders of the ways that we have turned away from God. They are things that are both hard to look at and hard to look away from because of the reminders that they serve. And, just as God doesn’t magically remove all the snakes from among the Israelites, Jesus’ death doesn’t immediately remove sin from the world and make all creation perfect. Instead, we are still able to be in relationship with God as our perfectly imperfect selves. Of course there are reminders of our sins, like when we begin our worship with Confession and Forgiveness, but in doing this it calls us to truly pay attention to the world. It calls us to listen to the needs of our neighbors, to hear the cries of creation, and to change our ways for the well-being of all. The cross doesn’t come and fix all of our mistakes because we need to be a part of that too. I don’t think we would be as invested in the world and the lives of others if we were not created as these interdependent beings who rely on grace and forgiveness.
I’m not trying to justify God’s use of poisonous snakes to prove a point here, but I think we have to look at the effects of what happens when the snakes don’t just magically disappear because I imagine that the Israelites would have found something else to complain about five minutes later. The whole point is to draw us closer to God and to recognize the ways in which we are in relationship with God and creation, and how our actions impact those around us. Because, while we are reminded today by Paul that we are saved by grace through faith alone (Ephesians 2: 8), we are also reminded that this is grace is a gift from God that we respond to by turning outward to the world around us.
So, as much as I am terrified of them, poisonous snakes may just have several things to teach us about how we interact with the world around us and respect the boundaries of creation. Just as the cross reminds us of the ways that we have turned from God and others, and the grace that we have received in order to turn back outward. I’m not going to stand here and dismiss the harm that has been caused by both poisonous snakes and the cross as an instrument of torture, because much pain has come from these sources. Yet, when we look upon the cross, we are also reminded of the promise that we have been saved by grace through faith, and accept the call to the world that is placed upon us when we remember that we aren’t just to rest in that, but instead we are called out into the world as a response to this grace. May we use that reminder to be drawn closer to the pains of the world, instead of looking away from the cries of others.