I'm Not Fond of Snakes
Numbers
21:4-9 and John 3:14-21
by Jim Westmoreland
Like many of you, I've subscribed to cable-TV for a few years. There are many channels to view. Sometimes, they seem more a-like than different. One channel that I was fascinated with for a while was Animal Planet. Every time I watched, it seemed that there was this Australian reptile lover who enjoyed spending quality time with crocodiles or snakes on a regular basis. I was both terrified and intrigued by all the things that he did.
One week, he crawls right into a snake pit, pulling out ten foot rattlers by the tail. Every now and then, he would jump back to avoid getting bitten. And he exerted his expert control with just a six-inch twig. He got very close to one angry diamondback that was already coiled and ready to strike, while talking about how wonderful and beautiful it was. The he turns to the camera and says, "don't try this at home." Boy, was I disappointed. Here I was thinking that I'd start practicing to become a snake handler. Not!
For some reason, snakes have a bad reputation. At least they provoke a quick, fearful and anxious response in over 80% of the people in the country. To call someone a snake is usually not a compliment. They are symbols of sneakiness, hiddenness, evil danger and even death. Kyle Childress, who grew up in West Texas said that the general rule was that if you were on your way to a fire and came across a snake, you would stop and kill the snake.(1)
Our deep fear of snakes makes all the more strange, a reference in today's gospel, to an obscure episode in the book of Numbers, which was our first reading today.(2) Interestingly, when snakes appear in the ancient world, they appear sort of like they try to appear in our world, as good and bad.
In Egyptian imagery the hooded Cobra was on the head piece of the mighty Pharaoh and was there to protect the Pharaoh, to spit venom at his enemies, should anyone attempt to hurt him. In the land of Sumer where we find Ur of the Chaldees, the home of Abram whose name was changed to Abraham, the Sumerian God of Healing walked around with two intertwined snakes upon his staff. This image still exists today because this image was adopted as the symbol of the American Medical Association. It is a curious image of healing. Yet, often we are hurt by the doctor before we get better. A dislocated joint must be painfully put back in place. Surgery to repair or remove is often required before we get well. These medical healers of today who practice under the symbol of the two snakes intertwined on a staff often hurt us in order to make us whole.(3)
In Numbers 21 the ancient Hebrews remembered a story about what happened to them back in the days when they were wandering in the wilderness. They were grumbling again. Do you know what they were grumbling about? Food. They had escaped the bondage of slavery in Egypt, and they were in the wilderness without any food, and they were complaining about the manna that God gave them everyday. The past always becomes the "good old days," no matter how terrible they actually were, in comparison to the problems of the present.
They were on a miraculous mission to be the people of God, and they were complaining about comfort issues. Do you know what happens to a church that has no mission outside of itself? Do you know what happens to a church whose main mission is to be comfortable? It will grow old and die.
The Bible says that God, weary with their whining, sent poisonous snakes among them which bit the people and many died. No matter how bad things are, they can always get worse. The people repented and prayed for deliverance, but God did not take the snakes away. Instead, God has Moses make a snake on a stick so that when the people get bit, they only needed to look at this snake on a stick, and they wouldn't die. Intriguing story. The only way to be healed was for them to face the very things that were killing them.
Doesn't it seem strange for these Hebrew people, who are forbidden to have idols or any graven images, to be gazing at this serpent in God-like awe in order to save their lives? Barbara Brown Taylor, a gifted Episcopal preacher and teacher, would have us note an important point: All of the snakes belong to God. The slithering ones that are alive. The beautiful brass one on the staff. The death-dealing ones. The life-giving ones. They all belong to God.
Taylor points out that these serpents who kill so many Hebrews, are called fiery serpents. The singular form in Hebrew is "seraph, and seraphim is the plural." Remember the Seraphim of the Bible? They are the strange heavenly creatures that dwell on high with God? In Isaiah 6, we are told that Seraphim surrounded the throne of God, protecting God. These fiery, frightening Seraphim, these slithering serpents, have been sent by God to frighten hurt, and ultimately save the people of Israel.
As enamored as we are for realism on TV and in the movies, we tend to paint God into a one-dimensional box. In the story at hand, fiery serpents, sent by God, bite the people into their senses. Being brought close to death, they remember how much they appreciated the gift of life. They are shocked into recognition that they owe much to God and to Moses, who are doing everything they can to preserve the people. They are poisoned into their senses. They apologize to Moses, admitting that they were sinners.
They want the snakes removed, and Moses asks God to call back the snakes, but God won't call off the snakes. He will not remove this evil from them. We are back to the snake on a stick, the brass serpent on a pole, that the people are commanded to look at to be saved.
William Willimon comments, "And now the gospel of John says that Jesus dares to use this brass serpent on a pole as a figure of himself. In the first verses of John 3, in the dark of night, with a man named Nicodemus sitting before him Jesus dared to use this shocking and gripping image as a parable of what he was doing to save the world. The Gospel of John therefore refers to Jesus, not only as the good shepherd (chapter 14), but here in chapter 3 as the good snake! He surprised us, came in among us, slithering into our illusions of stability and safety. We reached for the ax to beat him to death. And, he opened his mouth, and spoke words that cut us like a sword, venomous, prophetic words."
"And we beat him, whipped him, and lifted him up high on a pole. And in lifting him up from earth toward heaven, his poisonous, prophetic words of venom, became the anti-venom, the means of salvation. And even those who had killed him, standing at the foot of the pole, were able to look up and say, 'Truly this is the Son of God.'"(4)
And we read in John 3:14-15, "And 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." John, the evangelist, says the cross is like that serpent on a stick. It tells us what is wrong with us and heals us of it at the same time. Frederick Buechner says, "The gospel is bad news before it is good news." It is the news that we are all sinners, we have all fallen short of the glory of God, we all need saving, every single one of us.
As John tells this story of Nicodemus and of the need to be born again in John 3, he takes us out into the wilderness, to face the hidden parts of our lives and personalities that we are not proud of. We are taken on a journey that calls to mind our many sins. Left alone with our sins is like being left in a pit full of snakes. It is terrifying, and we cry out for help. As we are told to look upon the serpent on the pole, we are given a verse that allows us to take the step to trust in God. It is a verse that gives us hope. It is John 3:16, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life."
It is Jesus who is speaking here, and he goes on to explain, "God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. But those who do what is true come to the light, so it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God."
God reveals our rebellion and pretense to us. What ails us is right there on the cross. This is what we do when we're at our best! A saying often shared in AA groups is "Your best thinking is what got you here." "Here" meaning broken and struggling because of my denial of my problems. But, we can be honest to God who helps us to be honest with ourselves. God has the power to change us and tame our demons and fears and turn our snakes into our best friends. It is through the cross that Christ keeps coming to us, and the irony is that the cross of Christ holds both the consequence and the cure.(5)
Each one of us here today, each member of our families and every person in this community needs to come to Jesus. We need to feel the fiery sting of the utter hopelessness of our prideful self-sufficiency. We need to feel the sting from the hidden callousness of our comfortable complacency. It is only when we face and confess the numbing, blinding darkness of our sin that we make room and open ourselves to the light of Jesus.
Today, lifted up before us, "Jesus is God's fiery reminder that angels can sometimes look like enemies, and messengers of God can bring us a message we don't particularly like, and a true savior may sting us, before he saves us. I'm not fond of snakes, but I tell you, Look upon Jesus, risk faith in Him and be saved."(6) Amen.
Century Christian Church, March 26 2006 - Sermon by Jim Westmoreland
www.centurychristian.org
1. Dr. Larry Bethune, "Snake Bit," April 2, 2000, University Baptist Church, Austin, TX.
2. Numbers 21:4-9
3. Dr. William H. Willimon, "Saved by the Snake, Pulpit Resource, Vol. 34, No. 1, Jan-Mar, 2006, p. 54.
4. Ibid, p. 55.
5. Bethune.
6. Willimon, p. 56.