4th Sunday in Lent
March 26, 2006
Rev. Dr. Nathan Jastram
Text: Numbers 21:4-9
Imagine the scene. As a child, you escaped from Egypt with the rest of the Israelites forty years ago. You have been wandering around in the arid wilderness as day after day, year after year, the people around you die: your grandparents, parents, uncles and aunts, all older acquaintances. In the last couple of months even Miriam and Aaron have died, and you have come close to dying from thirst. Some of your friends have been taken as prisoners of war by the king of Arad, and a hostile army from Edom has scared you away from its territory, and forced you to take a long detour into the wilderness to avoid Edom. Just when you thought things could not get any worse, when you were grumbling against your leader Moses and feeling pretty irritable, you find yourself sitting in a sea of venomous snakes.
"Snakes! Why does it have to be snakes!" I suppose my view of a sea of snakes has forever been molded by the scene in "Raiders of the Lost Ark." As Indiana Jones peers into the chamber where the ark has been hidden for thousands of years, he sees a revolting sight, a floor swarming with snakes. I know some people have snake phobias; they can feel physical pain when they see them. Even those without a special phobia usually don't like them much. Some researchers tested people's attitudes toward snakes by comparing how motorists reacted to rubber snakes place on a road vs. how they reacted to rubber turtles. They found that motorists swerved to avoid the turtles, but swerved to hit the snakes. One car hit the snake, then screeched to a halt and ran over it again in reverse, then again forward and again backward some twelve times!
I don't have a snake phobia, as long as I don't think they can hurt me. But I still remember vividly encountering a small sluggish snake in the mountains of Japan, sunning itself on a rock by a pool of water. I thought it might be poisonous, but I had to walk close by it to get back to the car, so I got a long branch and flicked the snake into the water and held it there for what seemed like an eternity. I was terrified at the thought of letting it go before it was thoroughly dead; I thought it jump up and kill me. There is something dreadful and repulsive about venomous snakes.
That is why the OT lesson is such a vivid one. When God surrounds the sinful Israelites with venomous snakes, he is merely surrounding them with the animals that best show the character of the Israelites themselves. Since the Garden of Eden, where Satan appeared as a snake to lead Adam and Eve into sin, snakes have been symbols of Satan and sin. When the Israelites sinned against God, they became children of Satan, a brood of vipers. Now these spiritual vipers are surrounded by natural vipers, and they are dying off in alarming numbers. When they can see the true repulsive, deadly character of their sin, when they see themselves surrounded by snakes and dying from venom, they come to Moses and repent, "We have sinned." You won't see any idiotic snake-handlers here, who think that it can be a sign of piety to play with snakes, to encourage God to save them. It is just as idiotic to play with sin, claiming some pious assurance of forgiveness by God. This account shows that even grumbling against God is a serious enough sin to merit death.
So now you are among the Israelites again, in the very worst day of your life, surrounded by venomous snakes, people dying all around, and no place to hide. You grow desperate. You work like a mad man to save yourself. People around you try to build snake-proof huts, but find snakes in the building material. Others begin on cures for snake bites. A cut here and there, suck on the venom, look for an antidote. Somebody says bronze snakes might help, so you make a thousand of your own bronze snakes. But nothing you do seems to help at all. If anything, it makes you die even more quickly as the venom races through your frantic body. And then you finally realize; there is nothing you can do to save yourself.
The only hope for salvation comes from outside yourself, from God. Yes, there was something to that rumor about a special bronze snake, but the only reason that bronze snake saves is because God attached his promise to it, because he chose to use it as a means of grace. It is the same with the waters of baptism, or the Lord's Supper. They are simple means of grace, nothing fancy by themselves, but packing a wallop of power for salvation because God's promises are attached to them.
There is no room here for decision theology, for free will as an ingredient in salvation. Free will comes from within yourself, and nothing you can do will save you. Imagine an Israelite calling out, "I have decided, to follow you Lord, I have decided, to follow you Lord, I have decided, to follow you Lord, so please don't let me die." That Israelite's decision would never save him. It is too little, too late; a worthless decision, here today, gone tomorrow. The only thing that saved anyone was making use of the bronze serpent.
What matters is the means of grace, outside the sinner. Look at it, rely upon it, trust in it, believe in it, and you will live. Since the means of grace is outside yourself, it doesn't matter how badly you have been bitten; it doesn't matter how terrible a sinner you have been. The ones saved from death in the account were not the least sinful of the lot. Anyone who realized he had been bitten and was dying, and who looked outside himself to the means of grace, the bronze snake, was saved. That is the essence of salvation by grace, not by works.
The gospel lesson for today explains that Christ is the real bronze snake, the real power behind the means of grace. Just as that Ancient Snake Satan (Rev 12:9) disguises himself as an angel of light to deceive the children of God (2 Cor 11:14), so the Light of the World Jesus (John 8:12) "disguises" himself as snake to rob the kingdom of Satan. But the "disguise" of Jesus is not really a false disguise; he actually became sin for us: “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor 5:21). God sent "his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering" (Rom 8:3).
One last thought. It is great to be saved from venomous snakes by God's grace, but it is also great to hold up the bronze snake to those around you who have been bitten and are dying. God plans to use you as he used Moses, to hold up the bronze snake to your family and friends, your neighbors, and even people you may not yet know. It can be difficult to do when they are not pleasant people, or when they have been eager to hurt you in the past. But Moses held up the snake for the very people who had been murmuring against him, people who rebelled against him, people who dishonored him, even people who came close to killing him. God gives you the same privilege of reaching out to those around you with his forgiveness. When you do that, you will have the satisfaction of being like the great prophet Moses, even like the Lord Jesus Christ, who forgave the very people who crucified him. It is a terrible thing to be in a sea of venomous snakes, but it is also terrible to see others in such a sea. What a blessing it is to be saved from those snakes by God, and to be used by God to save others!
This story about the Israelites and the snakes is your story. Satan and sins surround you on every side, biting you with their venom. When you recognize the deadly character of sin and realize that you are dying from its poison, then look outside yourself to Jesus on the cross. The moment you rely on him for life, the snakes' venom is neutralized, and you can reach out to those around you and help them too. Fellow travelers among snakes, let us look to Jesus on the cross today as we remember his death when we receive his body and blood in Holy Communion. Amen.
Rev. Dr. Nathan Jastram
Text: Numbers 21:4-9
Imagine the scene. As a child, you escaped from Egypt with the rest of the Israelites forty years ago. You have been wandering around in the arid wilderness as day after day, year after year, the people around you die: your grandparents, parents, uncles and aunts, all older acquaintances. In the last couple of months even Miriam and Aaron have died, and you have come close to dying from thirst. Some of your friends have been taken as prisoners of war by the king of Arad, and a hostile army from Edom has scared you away from its territory, and forced you to take a long detour into the wilderness to avoid Edom. Just when you thought things could not get any worse, when you were grumbling against your leader Moses and feeling pretty irritable, you find yourself sitting in a sea of venomous snakes.
"Snakes! Why does it have to be snakes!" I suppose my view of a sea of snakes has forever been molded by the scene in "Raiders of the Lost Ark." As Indiana Jones peers into the chamber where the ark has been hidden for thousands of years, he sees a revolting sight, a floor swarming with snakes. I know some people have snake phobias; they can feel physical pain when they see them. Even those without a special phobia usually don't like them much. Some researchers tested people's attitudes toward snakes by comparing how motorists reacted to rubber snakes place on a road vs. how they reacted to rubber turtles. They found that motorists swerved to avoid the turtles, but swerved to hit the snakes. One car hit the snake, then screeched to a halt and ran over it again in reverse, then again forward and again backward some twelve times!
I don't have a snake phobia, as long as I don't think they can hurt me. But I still remember vividly encountering a small sluggish snake in the mountains of Japan, sunning itself on a rock by a pool of water. I thought it might be poisonous, but I had to walk close by it to get back to the car, so I got a long branch and flicked the snake into the water and held it there for what seemed like an eternity. I was terrified at the thought of letting it go before it was thoroughly dead; I thought it jump up and kill me. There is something dreadful and repulsive about venomous snakes.
That is why the OT lesson is such a vivid one. When God surrounds the sinful Israelites with venomous snakes, he is merely surrounding them with the animals that best show the character of the Israelites themselves. Since the Garden of Eden, where Satan appeared as a snake to lead Adam and Eve into sin, snakes have been symbols of Satan and sin. When the Israelites sinned against God, they became children of Satan, a brood of vipers. Now these spiritual vipers are surrounded by natural vipers, and they are dying off in alarming numbers. When they can see the true repulsive, deadly character of their sin, when they see themselves surrounded by snakes and dying from venom, they come to Moses and repent, "We have sinned." You won't see any idiotic snake-handlers here, who think that it can be a sign of piety to play with snakes, to encourage God to save them. It is just as idiotic to play with sin, claiming some pious assurance of forgiveness by God. This account shows that even grumbling against God is a serious enough sin to merit death.
So now you are among the Israelites again, in the very worst day of your life, surrounded by venomous snakes, people dying all around, and no place to hide. You grow desperate. You work like a mad man to save yourself. People around you try to build snake-proof huts, but find snakes in the building material. Others begin on cures for snake bites. A cut here and there, suck on the venom, look for an antidote. Somebody says bronze snakes might help, so you make a thousand of your own bronze snakes. But nothing you do seems to help at all. If anything, it makes you die even more quickly as the venom races through your frantic body. And then you finally realize; there is nothing you can do to save yourself.
The only hope for salvation comes from outside yourself, from God. Yes, there was something to that rumor about a special bronze snake, but the only reason that bronze snake saves is because God attached his promise to it, because he chose to use it as a means of grace. It is the same with the waters of baptism, or the Lord's Supper. They are simple means of grace, nothing fancy by themselves, but packing a wallop of power for salvation because God's promises are attached to them.
There is no room here for decision theology, for free will as an ingredient in salvation. Free will comes from within yourself, and nothing you can do will save you. Imagine an Israelite calling out, "I have decided, to follow you Lord, I have decided, to follow you Lord, I have decided, to follow you Lord, so please don't let me die." That Israelite's decision would never save him. It is too little, too late; a worthless decision, here today, gone tomorrow. The only thing that saved anyone was making use of the bronze serpent.
What matters is the means of grace, outside the sinner. Look at it, rely upon it, trust in it, believe in it, and you will live. Since the means of grace is outside yourself, it doesn't matter how badly you have been bitten; it doesn't matter how terrible a sinner you have been. The ones saved from death in the account were not the least sinful of the lot. Anyone who realized he had been bitten and was dying, and who looked outside himself to the means of grace, the bronze snake, was saved. That is the essence of salvation by grace, not by works.
The gospel lesson for today explains that Christ is the real bronze snake, the real power behind the means of grace. Just as that Ancient Snake Satan (Rev 12:9) disguises himself as an angel of light to deceive the children of God (2 Cor 11:14), so the Light of the World Jesus (John 8:12) "disguises" himself as snake to rob the kingdom of Satan. But the "disguise" of Jesus is not really a false disguise; he actually became sin for us: “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor 5:21). God sent "his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering" (Rom 8:3).
One last thought. It is great to be saved from venomous snakes by God's grace, but it is also great to hold up the bronze snake to those around you who have been bitten and are dying. God plans to use you as he used Moses, to hold up the bronze snake to your family and friends, your neighbors, and even people you may not yet know. It can be difficult to do when they are not pleasant people, or when they have been eager to hurt you in the past. But Moses held up the snake for the very people who had been murmuring against him, people who rebelled against him, people who dishonored him, even people who came close to killing him. God gives you the same privilege of reaching out to those around you with his forgiveness. When you do that, you will have the satisfaction of being like the great prophet Moses, even like the Lord Jesus Christ, who forgave the very people who crucified him. It is a terrible thing to be in a sea of venomous snakes, but it is also terrible to see others in such a sea. What a blessing it is to be saved from those snakes by God, and to be used by God to save others!
This story about the Israelites and the snakes is your story. Satan and sins surround you on every side, biting you with their venom. When you recognize the deadly character of sin and realize that you are dying from its poison, then look outside yourself to Jesus on the cross. The moment you rely on him for life, the snakes' venom is neutralized, and you can reach out to those around you and help them too. Fellow travelers among snakes, let us look to Jesus on the cross today as we remember his death when we receive his body and blood in Holy Communion. Amen.
posted by Luther Memorial Chapel at
3/29/2006
