Reflection for 18th March 2012

Year B Fourth Sunday in Lent 18 March 2012
Numbers 21: 4-9 Psalm 107: 1-3, 17-22 Ephesians 2: 1-10 John 3: 14-21
This weekend we will all become aware that it is St. Patrick’s Day, and even those who have no Irish heritage will celebrate the good stuff of celebration and a little silliness. The playful silliness has become synonymous with the Irish culture and the deliberate way of putting things back to front for the sake of humorous relief, is sometimes light and playful and sometimes to point out the ridiculous in our normal seriousness.

While we may think of it as Irish, this putting things in a somewhat “back to front” fashion, it is a feature that we can often see throughout the scriptures.

In our first reading we see the first example of what seems to be a strange and back to front way of dealing with a people who are grumbling and disobedient. Moses had led the people out into the desert. God had rescued them from their slavery in Egypt, but I am guessing that they felt it was a case of “out of the frying pan and into the fire”. In the desert things were not pleasant. Although God had provided food for them, it was limited and there was a lack of water and certainly no crops for them to harvest and make bread from. So the people grumbled against God.

What would you do if you were God in this circumstance?
Now God does something very odd, and sends poisonous snakes into the Israelite camp. Many of the people were bitten and died, but instead of grumbling again, they actually realise that this is happening because they have sinned against God.

To understand what is happening here we need to go back to the story in Genesis. When Adam and Eve sinned it was through the influence of the serpent. When God sent Adam and Eve out of the garden the serpent was also told that he would slide on his belly and bite the offspring of the woman.

The Israelites immediately recognised the snakes as the physical embodiment of their sin. They knew the story of Adam and Eve and the snake, and in recognizing their sin they appealed to God.

The next part of the story seems even more back to front. God instructs Moses to make a replica of a snake and put it on a pole. When the people were bitten they could look at the replica and they would live. It was as simple as that. No potions, no sacrifices or strange and difficult demands.....

It always seemed odd to me that God didn’t make some symbol of himself that the people would look to and be saved – instead it was a symbol and a reminder of their sin. Not just their sin while they were there in the desert grumbling, but it was a symbol of the sin of the human race from the time of Adam and Eve. To look at the replica of the snake was like an acknowledgement of both personal sin and the sin of the whole community and race.

We need to fully comprehend what is happening in this story because when we do we will understand the life and sacrifice of Jesus a lot better.

Jesus was the perfect man who did no wrong. The bronze replica of the snake didn’t bite anyone. The snake looked like those that did cause death, and Jesus looked like a normal human –and the only kind of human we know, are those who are less than perfect – and we call all who are less than perfect, sinners.
Even though in Jesus there was no sin, he was the replica of those who do sin. Jesus was emersed in our sin - the same sin as the bronze snake – both the personal and the community and that of the human race. ...and he took that sin to the cross where the debt for sin – which is death and separation from God, was paid for.

Our Gospel reading tells us:
John 3:14,15 “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.”

The people only needed to look at the bronze snake and they were healed. We need only believe and we are blessed with eternal life.

The Gospel of John goes on to explain that if we believe we are not condemned, but those who don’t believe are condemned already. I feel that this needs to be emphasised. Maybe, it is not God that gets things back to front, but we are the ones who get things out of order.

There are two issues of concern. One is that we realise our responsibility in our need for the saving grace of God.

We often see children blaming the teachers for giving them a detention. Especially in the case of teenagers, they will label those teachers with names that I can not repeat. The truth of the matter is that the teacher is not responsible for the detention, but the student. Parents will often fall into this trap too. The child gets into trouble for doing something wrong and both the parents and children see the punishment as something the parent is responsible for. We need to teach our children that their actions are the cause of the unpleasant punishment and not the parents and not the teachers.

We do our kids a great disservice if we do not teach them their own responsibility. If they don’t understand that they are responsible for their actions they won’t understand their need for God.
The other issue of concern is that many Christians feel they we are still condemned by our sin when we are not. That is, we don’t fully comprehend that when we have turned to God we are completely restored.

God has saved the world through the gift of the sacrifice of Jesus. This is the good relationship which exists and in this relationship there is no condemnation, but the saving grace exists under the banner of a relationship. If a person chooses not to have a relationship with God then they are freely choosing not to look to that which can save them. But if we do look to God we are completely saved.

In St. Paul’s letter he explains:
Ephesians 2:1-5: “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.”

When the Israelites were in the desert and the snakes bit them they looked to the bronze snake on the pole and were saved - End of story. By looking at the snake they were recognizing their sin and their need for God. This is all that God requires for us to be saved. Jesus didn’t come into the world to condemn it, but to save it. It is God’s will that everyone be saved and he goes as far as sacrificing himself to achieve this. But we have free will.... and we need to freely choose to look to him.