Numbers 21.4-9; John 3.14-21

Setting air travel aside, it's actually a vital question for us to ask today.  It's the question with which our scriptures challenge us this morning.  Can a slight shift in perspective make a difference in matters of life and death?

Let's look again at the passage from Numbers--this obscure and somewhat troubling story might not even appear in our lectionary if Jesus hadn't mentioned it in John's gospel, which we'll get to in a minute.  For now, let's revisit Numbers.  Moses and the Israelites have been wandering in the Sinai wilderness for a good portion of 40 years now—one biblical symbol for our Lenten season—don’t miss that.  They've been saved from slavery in Egypt and received the Ten Commandments, but they have begun to grow restless.  Decades of life in tents and on the move has taken its toll.  And so they complain.

The story goes on to describe God’s response to their complaints—a plague of poisonous snakes descends on the wanderers.  I’m not completely on board with a God who gets messages across this way, but I’m not at liberty to change the story.  With many dead, the Israelites come to their senses, repent of their complaining before Moses, and ask him to intercede with God on their behalf.  Moses does and God proscribes the following: (Numbers 21.8, NRSV) Moses does this, and all who looked at the snake on the staff were saved from the bites inflicted.

Well, now we know why the end zones of televised football games are peppered with fans holding signs that say “John 3:16” and not "Numbers 21:8.”  "Make a poisonous serpent, and set it on a pole; and everyone who is bitten shall look at it and live.”  What a crazy thing to choose as the summary statement for an entire religious movement.  Crazy, except that’s exactly what Jesus did.

In our Gospel lesson this morning, we heard the famous, comforting words of John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him might not perish, but have eternal life.” (KJV)  But listen again to how Jesus prefaces those familiar words: “And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.” (John 3.14-15, NRSV)  This is one of only a handful of times in all the gospels when Jesus directly links his life and ministry to a story from the Hebrew Scriptures.  Usually he prefers healings and parables to explain himself.  But here, in the third chapter of John Jesus says in effect, if you want to understand what I’m all about then think about the story from Numbers about Moses and the snake.

Not a one of us has a pile of snakes writhing at our feet, but to be sure we are all surrounded by things deadly to us.  Worry can kill us.  So can self-doubt.  Fear can rob us of life.  Guilt can too.  Greed can bleed us dry.  So too, in all these things we can become deadly to others--because worry, self-doubt, fear and the rest keep us from being able to have real relationships with others.  In other words, we cannot love our neighbors as ourselves if we do not love ourselves.

I won't venture a guess as to which among these plagued Bernard Madoff--greed seems an obvious one, but surely fear had its place in his ponzi scheme.  Whatever it was, it proved deadly not only to him, but to countless others who've lost at least as much trust as they have money.  It formed a barrier to his having a real relationship with people.

And it's in this sobering regard that not a one of us is ultimately much different than Madoff.  We may not have swindled billions away from people, but we are all as susceptible to the forces of sin. There's a reason sin got assigned the adjective deadly. And about this we must be painfully honest.  I say "painfully" honest because guilt, worry, greed, self-doubt, fear, and their effects can cause deep pain in our lives, and the lives of others.  The problem with pain is, in our culture we're conditioned to relieve pain at all costs and worry about the source later.  We want to feel better more than we want to be healed.

But God isn’t offering us a way to feel better today.  God is offering us healing.  That’s what our scriptures this morning proclaim, and that’s what this whole season of Lent is all about.  Lent is an invitation to shift our perspective and discover the difference it truly makes.  Lent is God whispering to us, “Look up.” 

Ask yourself, “Where are your eyes fixed?”  Are they fixed on your children—worried about their education, their happiness?  Are they fixed on your 401(k) statement—worried about your future, your present?  Are they fixed on your doctor’s bill—worried about that diagnosis you hoped never to see? Are they fixed on the snakes at your feet?  On the poisonous predators of worry and fear, guilt or greed?

Look up.  Look up!  Look up and be healed!  Shift your perspective and live!  Look up and God will meet your gaze.  God will meet your gaze from the cross—the place where an instrument of death was transformed into a channel of love and the symbol of life.  Fight the urge in you to look away; let grace catch your chin and keep you there.  There in the place where the “instruments of death” in your own existence are transformed by God into love and life. 

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him might not perish, but have eternal life.”  Amen.