The Life of the Cross
Text: Numbers 21:4-9, John 3:11-17
Pastor Phil Hughes, American Fork Presbyterian Church, Utah
March 12, 2023 Third Sunday in Lent
During Lent Christians reflect on the cross. It is at the cross that our need and God’s great love collide. And so we are in a sermon series that puts the spotlight on the cross.
We heard this strange story from the Old Testament book of Numbers. It is a story from Israel’s wandering in the wilderness after the Lord saved them from a wretched existence of slavery in Egypt. Moses is leading them per God’s arrangements.
Israel’s years of wandering in the wilderness as God was bringing them to the promised land were not always great. The people did a lot of complaining. A lot of complaining. They were worse than two teenagers in the back seat of a car on a long car trip. And this event is the last of several the moaning and groaning stories in the book of Numbers and one of the worst. It is a “tired old snapshot of what Israel’s disobedience has been all along.”[1]
The Lord had been providing for the people every step of their way. But it was never enough and they complained early and often.
The people grumble to Moses once again, “Why did you drag us out of Egypt to die in this godforsaken country? No decent food; no water—we can’t stomach this stuff any longer.”[2]
The Lord sends fiery snakes that begin to bite the people. Some people die. I hate snakes. My greatest fear in the summer when I am on the trails of our beautiful mountains is that I will confront a snake. Anything but a snake.
The people turn to Moses and admit that their whining has been sin against the Lord and against Moses. They ask Moses to pray that the Lord would take away these snakes. Moses prays and the Lord tells him to make a snake out of bronze, put it on a pole, post it up high and anyone who is bitten and looks at the snake will live.
Some of us might be thinking of what is called the rod of Asclepios. It is a snake on a pole and is a symbol of medicine and healing. Medical services around the world use this symbol. But that comes from Greek mythology and has nothing to do with this event, although the common thread is healing.
This event in Numbers 21 is a strange story. It seems kind of hocus-pocus. And we wonder about all of this. While there’s a lot I don’t understand I do understand this: each individual Israelite had to take the confession of their sin and the need for God’s deliverance to heart.[3] I also understand that it was God who provided the means for life.
Apparently this was a powerful event in Israel’s history because this bronze serpent on a pole was kept and years later ended up in the Temple in Jerusalem. We read in 2 Kings that King Hezekiah had it destroyed because the people were worshipping and making offerings to it. It had become an idol and that is a no-no.
A bronze snake on a pole to bring life to the people. I admit, it’s a little weird.
But it is this that Jesus refers to in his night time conversation with Nicodemus. Nicodemus is a Pharisee who comes to Jesus at night probably because he doesn’t want to be found out. He is intrigued with Jesus. While other Pharisees think Jesus is a croc, Nicodemus says that Jesus must be from God because no one could be doing what he is doing if he wasn’t from God.
It is this conversation where Jesus speaks of being born again and how that is something that comes by means of the Spirit of God. Nicodemus isn’t getting any of this and Jesus kind of chastises him.
This all happens in John chapter 3. Perhaps that chapter rings a bell for you. Because John chapter 3 verse 16 is probably the most well-known verse in the Bible. Can we say it together? For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not die but have eternal life. Ring a bell?
That is John 3:16. But in John 3:14,15 Jesus says this, “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.”
Jesus points back to that strange event in the book of Numbers as he predicts how he will be lifted up on a cross. And then we get those well-loved words, “For God so loved the world…”
So loved the world. In John 3:16 the “so” means “in this way.” We could read it “This is the way God loved the world, the result being that he gave his only Son…” That “so” refers to when Moses lifted up that bronze serpent in the wilderness and people looked at it and lived. John 3:16 is not so much about how much God loved the world – although that is immense, but it is about in what way God loved the world. That was by giving his only Son who was lifted up on a cross.[4]
Speaking of snakes, the original rebellion of Adam and Eve was to desire the knowledge of good and evil apart from God. They imagined they could do it on their own. They didn’t really need God to show them the truth. It is this original sin, of thinking that we can do everything without God, that leads to all the rest of our sins.[5]
And that leads to death. Not just that we physically die out of this life, but death in this life. Our souls separate from God and his love for us. When a soul separates from God it dies morally, spiritually and sometimes emotionally and socially.
As the Israelites back in the wilderness had to admit they were wrong, so we have to admit that we can’t live as God wants us to live without him. As the Israelites had to look to that bronze serpent, we are to look to Christ on the cross. Because 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.
And that being “lifted up” also refers to Jesus exaltation at his resurrection. He was lifted up on the cross, but he was also lifted up by rising from death.
And while John 3:16 is gold, let’s not forget John 3:17: “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” Get rid of this picture of God looking down on the world, wagging his finger, keeping track of our wrongs, crossing us off his list. In Jesus Christ, God is saving the world, not condemning it. He has done everything he possibly could to bring us to himself.
If any condemnation is going on it is within ourselves. The only ones who are condemned are those who say “no” to God’s love which is offered in Jesus Christ freely to everyone. If I offer you a million dollars and you refuse to take it, don’t say I cheated you. The only ones who will be condemned are those who choose not to simply trust Christ.
Life comes from looking at the cross. It is there we receive God’s healing grace. We lift our eyes and see our Lord Jesus Christ. At the beginning of his Gospel John says, “In him was life, and the life was the light of all people.”[6]
Two other times in John Jesus speaks of being lifted up. He says, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he and that I do nothing on my own but speak just what the Father has taught me.”[7] And again he said, “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.”[8]
When Jesus compares his being lifted up to Moses lifting up that bronze serpent in the wilderness he was saying, “the evil which was and is in the world, deep-rooted within us all, was somehow allowed to take out its full force on Jesus. When we look at him hanging on the cross, what we are looking at is the result of the evil in which we are all stuck. And we are seeing what God has done about it…We are seeing, in particular, what God’s own love looks like.”[9]
And God’s way out is not about trying harder. It is simply looking up at our Lord and trusting. Look at him. Look at the cross.
John 3:14 and 15 is the Son of Man will be lifted up. John 3:16, well, you know that. Let’s focus in on that phrase:
“Whoever believes.” Whoever. Every single individual. The door is open to anyone and everyone. Maybe you don’t think God really loves you. Maybe you think you were disqualified long ago. Maybe you think you have done something that means God’s love can’t come to you. Nicodemus, a good law-keeping, rule-abiding, self-trusting Pharisee, thought being religious enough would mean God loves him. Jesus said that wasn’t how it worked.
“Whoever believes in him.” Belief. To believe is to trust. Our trust is directed to Jesus – who he is and what he says – and it rests there. We believe he is enough. We believe that what he does for us is what we need to be right with God. Belief is not merely saying, “Oh, yes I believe there is a God.” This belief is investing our life. It is not just believing with your mind but believing with your heart.
“Will not perish but have eternal life.” There is life after this life. We either go to life with God – where all pain, crying, death and problems are gone. Or we go on to eternal death – where we are apart from God’s love, peace, and goodness. Do you know the acronym YOLO? It stands for You Only Live Once. Nope. Not in the gospel. No, we live twice. For those who accept God’s love for them in Jesus Christ the second time is forever and better than anything we can imagine in this life.
But the life God gives us in Christ is not just heaven. That life begins now.
Another expression we say is “This is the life!” I like to say that when I am on vacation, sitting in a rocking chair on the porch of a cabin, in the beauty of the woods, with a cold drink in my hand, the weather about 80 degrees, nowhere to be, thinking about the steak I am going to grill later on, totally relaxed. We all have our “this is the life!” places.
Some people think life is about pleasure. Pleasure is certainly a part of having a good life. Arthur Brooks writes a regular column in The Atlantic Monthly called “How To Build A Life.” A couple of years ago he wrote that while on the whole our lives have become more comfortable, our lives have not necessarily become happier. Incomes have increased. And although there is income inequality, even households with the lowest incomes eat out more than ever. Homes are becoming larger. Social services are becoming greater. Technology provides more opportunities than ever.
Yet, social surveys show a steady decline in happiness in American life since at least 1988. And why is it that we see more and more stories that those with the most find themselves in despair and some even sadly ending their own lives? And why is it people who pursue the so-called good life often are as big a complainers as those Israelites back in the book of Numbers?
Arthur Brooks wrote, “We don’t get happier as our society gets richer, because we chase the wrong things.” And he said the most important thing we should chase is love, and that we can’t trade love for anything. When it comes down to it, what gives us life is being loved. Faith, family, friendship, service to others are things that feed this. [10] No matter what material things we consume, just drinking up all the pleasure we can just won’t do.
Think about it, some of our most “life-giving” experiences are some of our hardest experiences. It is in a trial that we discover God’s providential care. It is in suffering that his comfort comes to us. It is in the searching that we find a peace that we had never known. It is in a struggle that we feel held by something greater than us. Some people have had to go to the bottom to realize real life wasn’t what they thought it was at all. And when they did they discovered peace, joy and love in God.
Why is it that when we are spent, worn, and exhausted after coming into a situation where our love and service was needed, we feel alive? It was hard and maybe even painful, but we were serving a purpose. It’s because life is more about self-sacrifice than self-indulgence.
There is life at the cross. Then and now.
There is life at the cross because it is there that God tells us we are loved.
There is life at the cross because it is where all obstacles between us and God are removed and we have access to God.
There is life at the cross because we can know that whatever comes our way we cannot be separated from God’s love.
There is life at the cross because we know that failure cannot keep us from being accepted by God.
There is life at the cross because it is there we know we don’t have to pay or work off any debts to God because it is paid with the life of his Son.
There is life at the cross because we know that though someday our heart will stop beating and we will stop breathing that is not going to be the end. Physical death will not be the last word for us.
Look at the cross and know that strength, hope, peace, faith, and God’s very presence are ours.
That is life.
I want a pleasurable life. But even if I had every pleasure in the world, if I didn’t have the life that God gives us through Jesus Christ in the cross I don’t know how good life would really be.
Christ didn’t die so we could live anyway we want to. Christ didn’t go to the cross to make our lives more attractive. He died that we might have God, know God, have the life he wants to give us.
Prayer:
Jesus Christ, be our Life. Be our Lord, our Savior, our Redeemer, our Guide, our Comforter, our Hope, our Joy, and our Peace. As you were lifted up on the cross be lifted up in our lives, in our thoughts, in our actions, in all of our living.
Keep us looking at the cross as we continue on in this season of Lent. Amen.
[1] Dennis Olson, Interpretation Commentary on Numbers, 135
[2] The Message
[3] Olson, 136
[4] Sarah Henrich, https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/fourth-sunday-in-lent-2/commentary-on-john-314-21-2
[5] https://www.umcdiscipleship.org/worship-planning/lent-2018-worship-planning-series/fourth-sunday-in-lent-2018-planning-notes/fourth-sunday-in-lent-2018-preaching-notes
[6] 1:4
[7] 8:28
[8] 12:32
[9] N.T. Wright, John for Everyone, vol. 1
[10] Arthur Brooks, The Atlantic Monthly, October 22, 2020