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Grace, mercy, and peace be unto you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the text for this morning comes from the Gospel reading as it ties into the Old Testament as well. You may be seated.
Hans Christian Andersen wrote the story about the emperor’s new clothes. And no one in that story wanted to admit that the emperor’s new clothes were not real. They were all imaginary. The emperor himself, when shown the clothes, and as his aides gushed over the clothes, also failed to admit the obvious, that they were not clothes at all. And it was a little boy who spoke up and said, “The emperor has no clothes.” And he was exposed for what he really was, that is, the clothes of. And whenever he was exposed, you know that there was also a great amount of fear, anger, resentment, betrayal, and a whole host of other feelings all tied up in that exposure.
In this morning’s Old Testament reading, the people of Israel are exposed. They had been rescued from the clutches of Egypt, not just Israel, in a semi-miraculous way, but in an over-the-top miraculous way. With the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night. The parting of the seas and the closing of them, destroying Pharaoh’s army. The food from heaven that they were to enjoy every morning, and the quail that gathered around their camp every evening. Now it’s almost a non-sequitur that here they knew how God had brought them up out of Egypt, rescued them through the way, and they make a statement like this: “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt?” Truly, that is a non-sequitur statement indeed. They were the ones in slavery. God was the one that brought them up out of Egypt.
And for what purpose? So that he could make a people for himself. When they spoke out against Moses and against God, they were not lamenting. Lamenting implies that you’re asking God for strength. Lamenting implies that you’re asking God for mercy or help. This is not lamenting. This is outright rebellion, and it’s bordering on unbelief.
Why is it that you and I complain too? We find on our lips the words that cry out, “‘Why, O Lord?’ or, “‘It’s not fair, O Lord.'” It’s not really lament either. It’s rebellion. It says that I know better and God has no sense. That’s pretty bold.
However, something that we forget is whenever we complain, it also has the ability to infect other people, like a disease or a virus. Our complaining, our grousing, our gritching affects someone else. And they pick up that negativity and gripe and complain as well. That is probably what happened among the people of Israel that day. A small number began to grouse and complain, and then that infected someone else and infected someone else. Rebellion has a way like that, doesn’t it?
But in the same way that when the emperor was exposed, and it caused him embarrassment and a whole host of other feelings, when the people of Israel are exposed for what they are, it caused them pain too, but not just internal pain; it caused them physical pain, for God sent the poisonous serpents to bite them. And many died before, as you read the text, Moses began to pray for them, that when their deeds are exposed and they proclaim after they have felt the pain of their sin, physically they begin to repent. And they cry out, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you.”
God be praised that whenever you and I rebel, it’s not always an instantaneous pain to bridle us in and remind us whose we are. Lots of times God lets us go, doesn’t he? And he yanks that chain only at the very end. And sometimes it takes someone else to tell us about ourself.
It’s interesting, isn’t it? When someone that we don’t know tells us about an obvious sin within our life or a personality flaw that we’re not repentant of, and we hear it from them, we kind of blow it off like whatever. But when it’s your spouse, it bites, doesn’t it? When it’s your mom and dad, it hurts. And when you point out into your parent their inconsistency, ouch, it hurts. It hurts.
After having been shown their sin, God offered them salvation. Jesus said it in a different way than just “whoever looks upon the bronze serpent believing shall be saved.” Jesus said it, “whoever does what is true comes to the light so that it may be clearly seen that your deeds have been carried out in God.”
This coming to the light is what God draws you because the light exposes you. Shows forth you for you. He’s not exposing you so that everybody else can see your sin. That’s not nearly as important to him as you seeing your sin. It’s the thick skull that we carry around on our shoulders that’s the thickest of all.
God desires to pull us into the light so that we’re seen for what we are and so that he can be seen accomplishing his great deed in us. So when it says, “so that it may be clearly seen…” the only person that needs to see what God is doing is you, so that you see that the deed that God is doing is God’s deed in you. And your wax job and your polyglycote can’t make it shine, no matter how hard you buff it and polish it.
Jesus said, “Whoever does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds be exposed.” What did Adam and Eve do? They hid from God. And all throughout the scripture are the examples of what you do and I do shown forth in the saints of old and how they handled things. It’s always hiding because we don’t want to be seen for what we are. We’re afraid of what? Rejection. We know that’s why we’re hiding, because we don’t want to face that ultimate rejection.
And what does God do instead? He said, God found these people in their sinful behavior and kept them as his people. He didn’t wash his hands of them. He didn’t say, “You’ve done all that you are going to do and I’ve had my fill.” He loved them through their sinfulness, back to repentance, back to the cross.
Oh, it wasn’t a cross per se. It was a pole with a bronze serpent on it. But Jesus makes a very strong connection, doesn’t he? Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, implying all who look at the serpent, trusting in God’s promise, shall be saved, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, not on a pole, but on a cross, so that all who look to him shall not perish, but be saved. Amen.
I sometimes wonder why doesn’t God strike more people with that kind of an ailment so that they see the need to repent, but that’s just my own estimation. It’s not God’s wisdom. God’s wisdom is grace, and it makes no sense. Just as the serpent brought death to the people, so God uses all of the creatures and of all the symbols and of all the icons that he could have chosen to use, uses the same symbol, a serpent.
Seems counterintuitive, but yet let’s consider this. Your sin, when it’s exposed, releases Satan’s poison in you. And that poison infects you. As it affects you, it infects others even. And what do you do with that poison? The only solution is an antidote, but the antidote is not to be injected into you. The antidote is to be given to you by faith.
And the icon that you look upon is the one who became poison for you, the cursed one, the very one who is the icon of sin. How can I say that? I’m not. Paul said it. He who knew no sin became sin for you. He who knew no poison became poison for you. He who knew no eternal death became eternal death for you, that you might not have that.
Isaiah made it very clear. Look at the one. Look at the one whom your poison has pierced. Behold the one wounded with your poison for your transgressions. Behold the one upon whom was the chastisement that brought you peace. Behold the one upon whom was laid the iniquity of us all. Behold. The one who was truly crushed by the will of his father for you.
And not just for the one sin that you and I have embarrassment over, or shame over, or guilt over, but for the many sins that we can’t even recall, or we’ve blown off not thinking that they’re that big of a deal for all. For it was on that pole that your sin was fully exposed for all to see. No different than on that pole where the serpent was. Did everybody’s sin be reminded of them. That the very thing that brought pain and death is the very thing that now brings life and salvation.
This did not just injure Jesus. This murdered Jesus. And ended his life because he poured out his soul unto death. And because he was numbered with the transgressors, being and bearing the sin of many, and making intercession not for himself, but for you.
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world. God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but he sent him to save the world. Because whoever believes in him is not condemned.
Remember those flannel graphs back in Sunday school? And there were always these posters that came with them. And the poster for this one had the serpent lifted high on the pole. And one of the interesting aspects of that picture, it has a mother who lifts her toddler up so that the toddler can see the serpent and believe and be saved.
God is lifting you by his Holy Spirit to look upon the one for you, that you may be saved. So that you can look upon that poison-infected Savior, lifted up for you and believe, and you shall not die but live forever, forgiven, redeemed, and restored. And you will be clothed in white garment, and your body shall not be exposed but covered with Christ until you die.
In the name of Jesus, amen.
The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and your minds on Christ Jesus to life everlasting. Amen.
