And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. John 3:14-15 NKJV
In today’s digital age, only a few of us remember reading the Sunday paper. For me one of the great luxuries of a Sunday afternoon, was to peruse the headlines, then the sports section and finally the funny pages. My favorite was a comic strip named “B. C.”, by cartoonist Johnny Hart, who specialized in light humor sprinkled with a hint of Biblical wisdom. One of his most memorable scenes was a panel of the club wielding cave woman who had just whacked a dazed snake over the head. It gave us a humorous reminder of the reputation that serpents have maintained ever since Eve took that first bite of the apple. Today’s verse reminds us of a story from the book of Exodus when God sent Moses out into a crowd of folks dying from snake bites, carrying a bronze serpent on a staff. Since those snakes are a representative of evil and sin it makes me wonder why Jesus was willing to become like that.
The answer goes all the way back to Genesis, to a conversation that God had with Adam, Eve and the serpent after the man and woman had sinned. Interestingly, God didn’t begin with Adam or Eve. Instead, He started by pronouncing judgement on the serpent, and ending by saying, “He shall bruise your head, and you will bruise His heel.” So, even before Adam and Eve were given their list of consequences, God set in motion a plan for their redemption. That redemption was pictured in Exodus, when because of the people’s sin they came under attack by a slithering horde of venomous snakes. Then, right in middle of the death and chaos, God sent Moses out into the crowd with that serpent, so that anyone who would look towards it would be healed. That seemed pretty bizarre to me the first time I read it, but I realized later that it gives us a perfect picture of what Jesus did for us. While we were spiritually dying from the venomous bite of sin, God sent His Son out into the crowd of us mortally wounded sinners and allowed Jesus to be lifted up on a cross. On that dark and terrible afternoon, with blood dripping from His wounds, and drunken soldiers gambling for His clothing, He was lifted above the chaos, so that a thief dying next to Him, a Roman executioner and a cowardly disciple named Nicodemus, could look to Him and be forgiven and transformed. Jesus took the poison of sin from our bodies and accepted it into His own. God so loved the world that He gave us Jesus to die in our place, so that anyone looking to Him in faith could be healed. For six terrible hours He hung there, but now for eternity His is lifted up to Heaven offering sinners like you and me eternal life, if we will only look up to Him!
And the King will say, ‘I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!’ Matthew 25:40 NLT
This morning as I was planning this year’s nursing home Christmas outreach, I remembered how long ago a group of our 7-8-year-old Sunday School children came to sing carols. Their sweet voices as they sang in the dining room was amazing. They sang every song that we could think of, from Away in a Manger to Jingle Bells. The residents loved it and as we finished, the parents crowded in, snapping photos of their dear ones. Maybe the best part was the cookies made by one of the teenage girls. No one cared that they were just a shade overbaked, and as they passed them out the younger children tagged behind handing out Christmas cards and introducing themselves.
Just as our program was winding down, I remembered that, with no extra staff available to help, the residents of the respiratory unit on the second floor had been unable to come. So, I rounded up a small troupe of kids along with two parents and their Sunday School teacher, and then we headed to the elevator. The respiratory ward was populated with some of the youngest of those in the facility. Some had been in a car accident, others a stroke and one or two in the late stages of multiple sclerosis. After bringing our little flock to sing a couple of carols for a few people who I had met before, we headed down the hall. Suddenly, I heard a stranger’s voice calling. “Oh, if you have time, can they please come sing for David?”
“Absolutely!” I said, hoping that their parents didn’t mind that it was getting late. As we started into the room we saw there was a young man, lying in bed, with a breathing tube hooked up to his trach, and sitting nearby was his mother. The children timidly filed in around his bed and then with a little help from my guitar, started to sing. I don’t remember all the songs, but I vividly recall everyone’s tears flowing as the children finished the evening by singing Silent Night.
As they sang, sleep in heavenly peace” the sense of God’s peace was so amazing, that I was reminded of the first Christmas. On that night another child lay helpless, and he shivered, until Mary wrapped Him in swaddling clothes and laid Him in the hay. Only at Allied Skilled Nursing, there were no wise men with gold, frankincense and myrrh. Instead, our children left a Christmas gift of hope, and their little smiles and timid waves as they said their good-byes reminded us that, no matter where we are, God remembers. And this Christmas, Jesus still waits for both wise men, and children to come and worship on their Silent Nights as well as in the middle of their busy days. I never told our children, but their newly made friend David lived only a few more weeks, and the gift they gave had been far more precious than they could have ever known!
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