“GOD’S ANTIDOTE”
Fourth Sunday in Lent
April 15, 2015
Bethel Evangelical Lutheran Church
Glenshaw, Pennsylvania
TEXT:
The Lord said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole; and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.” So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live.
Numbers 21:8, 9 (ESV)
One of the sad ironies of life is that in order to solve a problem, you have to do what you really don’t want to do. You have to go back to the source of the problem and confront it head-on. That’s a very difficult thing for us to do because our natural tendency is to run away from our problems, not to confront them. Our way of dealing with problems--the way of avoidance--never really works. In fact, it only compounds the problem. Real solutions come only when we go back to the source. A poisonous snakebite, for example, is treated with serum that is made out of the very same venom that caused the injury in the first place. Also, for any wound to heal properly, it first has to be opened up and cleaned, no matter how painful that may be. Those who are in a position to know tell us that the majority of our great emotional and relational problems in life result from our consistent ignoring of the smaller problems.
The incident reported in this morning’s Old Testament Reading provides us with yet another example of going back to the source in order to correct a problem. The Israelites, wandering in the wilderness amid many difficulties, were faced with a new problem: Their community had become infested with poisonous snakes. Many of the people were bitten and died. On the surface it may seem as though the Source of their problem was the Lord Himself, since it was He who sent the snakes among them. However, a closer look at the text will reveal that the real problem was their constant impatience and complaining. What is actually being revealed to us here is how God deals with our sin: by going back to the source of the problem and confronting it. We can see this both here in the symbol of the bronze snake and later on in the reality that is symbolized here, which is the cross of Jesus Christ.
The bronze snake was a powerful symbol--powerful enough to deliver the Israelites from a plague that had already killed many of them and threatened to wipe them out completely. To us it may seem at first to be a little ridiculous that the solution to the problem of snakes should be a snake. How could looking at an artificial snake possibly be the antidote for the deadly bite of a real snake? It almost seems as though God is rubbing His people’s noses in their problem. But what He’s actually doing is exposing their problem--making sure that they are aware of what their real problem is. By holding a bronze snake up before them and requiring that they look at it, He is forcing them to confront their own weakness and their own need. The bronze snake no doubt reminded them of the real snakes that were biting them, which in turn should have reminded them of their sin against God and against His servant, Moses. It was that sin, remember, that brought the snakes into their camp in the first place. The bronze snake, then, was for the people of Israel a symbol of God’s judgment against their sin.
God’s antidote for the venomous snakes was provided solely by Him. He and He alone is the One who made healing possible through the bronze snake. He is the One who instructed His servant Moses to make it and to put it up in front of the people. He is the One who instructed the people through Moses to look at the bronze snake for healing when they were bitten by venomous snakes. But if the people lacked faith in the promises of God, in the power of His means, or in the Word spoken through His servant, the people would not look. And if they refused to look, they would not experience the healing that God offered them. They could not in any way bring about the healing for themselves; only God could do that. But their lack of faith certainly could make it impossible for them to receive God’s grace. In other words, they couldn’t save themselves by looking at the bronze snake, but they could certainly condemn themselves by refusing to look at it.
What is the ultimate reality symbolized by the bronze snake? I’ve already alluded to the fact that the bronze snake on a pole finds its ultimate fulfillment in the crucified Christ on a cross. In holding before us the cross of Jesus, God is showing us the very same thing that He was showing the ancient Israelites with the bronze snake. He is showing us His judgment against our sin. Everything that Jesus endured--the betrayal, the cruelty, the humiliation, the pain, the suffering, the loneliness--all of it was earned not by the perfect Son of God who hangs on that cross, but by you and me. All of it is the just reward for our sin--our selfishness--our indifference. The cross of Christ is not supposed to be pleasant. In fact, it should instill in us such a sense of shame for our sin that we turn away from our sin in disgust. The cross of Jesus shows us our sin in all its ugliness. It turns us right back to the root cause of all our problems, and that cause is sin.
Like the children of Israel, we need to look in faith to God’s antidote for our problem. That antidote is the Savior that God has provided for us in His Son Jesus Christ. Like the bronze snake, the cross of Jesus is a remedy that has been provided totally and completely by God alone. It is not an antidote that we have come up with on our own, nor have we contributed to it in any way. However, if we cannot trust in what God has provided for us, it won’t do us any good. A chair, for example, won’t do you any good if you’re afraid to sit on it. Neither will the suffering and death of Christ do anything for you if you’re afraid to stake your salvation on it. As was the case with the children of Israel, we cannot save ourselves by looking to the cross of Christ on our own, but we can seal our own fate by refusing to see in Him our Forgiveness and our Hope. Thank God that the Holy Spirit, working through the Gospel, empowers us to look, to believe, and to be healed.
God’s antidote for sin--that’s what was symbolized by the bronze snake that Moses was told to make and put up in the wilderness, and that’s what is seen in full its reality in the cross of Jesus Christ. God deals with our sin not by avoiding it or covering it up (as we so often try to do) but by exposing it and confronting it head-on. This is expressed so clearly in our Communion liturgy--in the Proper Preface for Holy Week, where we say of Jesus that He “accomplished the salvation of mankind by the tree of the cross that, where death arose, there life also might rise again and that the serpent who overcame by the tree of the garden might likewise by the tree of the cross be overcome” (Lutheran Service Book-Altar Book, page 151). Having been taught these precious truths by the Holy Spirit, there is no reason for us to be afraid to focus firmly on the cross of Jesus, finding in it both our sin and our salvation, as we are urged to do in the words from the letter to the Hebrews that we sang together just a little while ago: “[Oh come, let us fix our eyes on] Jesus, the Founder and Perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:2).
Amen.
May the One who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, making us kings and priests before His God and Father, lead you to a life of repentance and trust. May He also be glorified in the lives of you, His people. He who calls you is faithful, and He will do it. Amen.