Lifted Up

This past Sunday’s Old Testament reading (Numbers 21:4-9) is among the strangest in all of Scripture – and that’s saying something. It comes from a time near the end of the Hebrews’ journeys in the wilderness. The people had just concluded 30 days of mourning for Aaron, who had just died. Aaron’s son Eleazar had been vested with Aaron’s vestments and now served in Aaron’s stead. Moses had tried to lead the people through the territory of Edom, but the king of Edom refused. Therefore they had to go around the territory of Edom, through the desert. The people became rebelled against Moses – again – complaining about the lack of food and water, and about the monotony of the Manna they’d been eating all these years. Scripture tells us that, in response, God sent poisonous snakes, who bit the people. Then the people repented and asked Moses to pray for God to take away the snakes. God tells Moses to make an image of a poisonous snake and put it on a pole and set it up, and anyone who looked at the snake would live.

We may remember the Ten Commandments, and prominent among them is the prohibition on graven images – “You shall not make unto yourselves an idol of anything in the heaven above or the earth beneath or the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God…” And yet here Moses is specifically instructed to make an image of a snake, and the people are specifically instructed to look to it for healing. What on earth is going on here?

When we read about cases of institutional corruption and deceit – be it corruption in government, corruption in the church – as during the clergy child abuse scandals – or corruption in business – as during our financial meltdown, the phrase inevitably – and properly – comes up: “sunlight is the best disinfectant.” Those who do wrong want to tell us that, “well, the situation is complicated, it’s too big for you to understand. After all, if we delay in going to war, the smoking gun may be a mushroom cloud. And you surely can’t understand the pressures that clergy with the pressures of the pastorate, live under. And if you try to interfere in the financial houses of cards that we’ve set up, the whole thing will come crashing down. You don’t understand, so you should let us handle it.” That’s what those who would conceal their sin behind their lies tell us. Human sin does not like to be out in the open – it prefers concealment. In words from John’s gospel, sinners prefer the darkness to the light, because their deeds are evil. The solution is to bring the issue out in the open. Sunlight is the best disinfectant.

So it was in today’s Old Testament reading. The children of Israel rebelled, and snakes bit them. Calling on God in their behalf, Moses was told to make a bronze serpent and put it on a pole. Whoever looked up at the serpent and repented would live. The serpent on the pole puts the issue – rebellion against God – out in the open, out into the sunlight, like a great big billboard that nobody could miss. In looking up, the people would be looking up at a reminder of their rebellion, in repentance – and past the serpent to Almighty God who would save them. Even today, when we take a slip for a prescription to the pharmacy or a sign in front of a doctor’s office, we may see the lingering memory of this story – entwined snakes on a pole, a symbol of healing.

In explaining his own role, Jesus harked back to this strange Old Testament story: as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believes in him should have eternal life. The cross, like the bronze serpent, is an image of human sin, brought out into the open, into the sunlight. We look to the crucified Jesus in repentance for our healing. Jesus’ harking back to this image of the brazen serpent in the desert also brings a new layer of meaning to Jesus’ familiar words “I am the bread of life” and his words about having living water. His words about the bread of life may lead us to think about holy communion, and indeed that is one layer of meaning. In the context of John’s gospel, however, Jesus is specifically comparing himself to the heavenly manna and to the springs of water that sustained the children of Israel in the desert. In the same way, Jesus sustains us, day by day, especially during those wilderness stretches in our own lives when life is difficult and God seems so far away. And in his being lifted up on the cross, when we look to him in repentance, our sins are forgiven. In the words of Isaiah: “he was wounded for our transgressions, and by his stripes we are healed.”