The Son of Man Must Be Lifted Up

Fourth Sunday in Lent

March 15, 2015

John 3:14-15

The Son of Man Must Be Lifted Up

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In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

It's a coincidence, but it's interesting to note that the books of Genesis and John, which both start, "In the beginning," also share a discussion of snakes in each of their third chapters.

So the Lord God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this, "Cursed are you above all the livestock and all the wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; He will crush your head, and you will strike His heel." (Genesis 3:14-15)

Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in Him may have eternal life. (John 3:14-15)

Snakes and trees have a lot to do with God's way of saving us from ourselves. The Lord told Adam and Eve not to eat from a certain tree; they sinned and ate the fruit. Then the Lord asked them what happened and they lied to their all-knowing Father. And yet because of His mercy, He curses the devil's snake with destruction and in the same breath promises salvation to Adam's sinful children, us.

Years later, the stubborn children of Abraham are in the wilderness. The Lord had delivered them from Egypt, and they still complained. Just before the snakes came, He had given them a total victory over a foreign army and they still complained like spoiled children,

"Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the desert? There is no bread! There is no water! And we detest this miserable food!" (Numbers 21:5)

They complained that there was no food. Then they complained that the food was bad. In response to their unfaithfulness, the Lord sent poisonous snakes into their desert camp and many died. Only then did the people repent and turn back to the Lord and ask for salvation from the snakes. So the Lord had Moses make a tall stick with a bronze snake on top. Anyone who was bitten by a real snake could look to that bronze snake and live. Yet it wasn't the ritual of looking that saved; it wasn't magic. What saved them was trust in the promise of the Lord. To put it another way, it wasn't their activity of moving their heads that saved; instead, the Word of the Lord saved them.

Later on the Israelites would sin and rebel in even greater ways and would be punished again. Psalm 78 offers insight on the unfaithful Israelites and their faithful God.

They ate till they had more than enough, for [God] had given them what they craved. But before they turned from the food they craved, even while it was still in their mouths, God's anger rose against them; He put to death the sturdiest among them, cutting down the young men of Israel. In spite of all this, they kept on sinning; in spite of His wonders, they did not believe. So He ended their days in futility and their years in terror. Whenever God slew them, they would seek Him; they eagerly turned to Him again. They remembered that God was their Rock, that God Most High was their Redeemer. But then they would flatter Him with their mouths, lying to Him with their tongues; their hearts were not loyal to Him, they were not faithful to His covenant. Yet He was merciful; He forgave their iniquities and did not destroy them. (Psalm 78:29-38a)

We look at Israel and we are astonished at how stubborn and foolish they were. Then we must quickly look back at ourselves and see the same stubbornness and foolishness. Since God isn't visibly leading us through a desert with fire and cloud and a prophet named Moses, our sins don't look so big in comparison. But they are still big.

We eat more than our fill and then complain about the consequences of our gluttony. We don't eat enough and then worry that our appearance isn't changing fast enough. We have so much good food and we rush through it while watching our screens and tapping on our tablets, all the while missing out on the chance to break bread and spend time with our family, the souls that Christ has placed into our lives.

We are spiritual gluttons, too. We sit through the preaching of our sins, knowing that sooner or later (but hopefully sooner) the preacher will run out of steam and start making nice again and will tell us that Jesus still loves us. (And I will.) But our stubborn hearts that sleep through the preaching of God's holy demands that show us our sinfulness will just as surely learn to sleep through the preaching of God's merciful salvation that shows us Jesus.

Jesus proclaimed that the Son of Man must be lifted up. The Son of Man was a special name that Jesus used for Himself. He used it to emphasize His unity with us in our human weakness and mortality.

The Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many. (Mark 10:45)

The Son of Man, Jesus Christ, came to die. He would be lifted up on the cross, which has a double meaning. He's lifted up high, so that He received the ridicule of the world. Look at the divine King of the Christians! How weak He is! Yet this is precisely how He saves His people—He traded His life over to Death as a ransom to set us free from Death. So He is lifted up in shame, yet this shame is His glory and ours. His Friday is black, yet Good.

Like God's people in the desert, we are dying, not from snakes, but from sin. And like the Israelites of the Old Testament Exodus, we Israelites of the New Testament also look to a tree and who is upon it: we look to the cross and see Jesus. His water and blood wash us clean.

In the beginning was God and His Word, now we have the Word of God, and in the end we be lifted up with Him into everlasting life.

Christ Jesus came into the world

to save sinners—of whom I am the worst.

Amen.