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The 4th Sunday in Lent (B) In the Name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. May his grace, mercy, and peace be with you. Amen. Have any of you ever had a SNAKE as a pet? One of my wife Carol’s sons (this was before we met) used to have one – a three-foot long king snake. It lived on live field mice that would be fed to it every week or so. But finally one day – no one knows how – the snake escaped from its tank – and it was never found again! How would YOU feel if you knew that there was a snake crawling around somewhere in your house?! Carol recalls that for weeks afterwards, she felt very nervous. Would she wake up one night with the snake in her bed? Or would it greet her when she opened a closet? Or – would it even possibly take up residence in her bathroom? (This actually happened to my church office secretary when I was the pastor at St. Peter’s Lutheran Church in Fort Pierce, Florida – one day I heard a blood-curling scream from her in the ladies rest-room – it turned out that she screamed because she had found that there was a SNAKE in the toilet bowl!) This did not happen to Carol and members of her family, but they certainly imagined the possibility of it! Anyway, getting back to my story – the snake in Carol’s home never was found. Now with most pets, such a loss would be an occasion for sadness. There was a bit of that, of course, but it wasn’t exactly the same as losing a dog or a cat. With having a lost SNAKE in their house, their main reaction was that of extreme nervousness – that they would be surprised or even bitten by it should it reappear! There is something about snakes that inspires a bit of fear or even revulsion in almost all of us. And what is true literally for us was also true spiritually for the people of ancient Israel. They remembered the story from Genesis that it was a snake that had led Eve and Adam into disobeying God – and that afterwards God had cursed the serpent, saying, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.” (Gen. 3:14) So when the Israelites in today’s first reading once again speak against God and against Moses, they are suddenly attacked by an infestation of poisonous (another translation says “fiery”) serpents. Everywhere they turned there were snakes – on the paths, in their tents, in their beds, EVERYWHERE! And these were mean, nasty snakes that BIT people with painful, fiery bites – and many Israelites died. The Israelites’ worst nightmare was now a reality! They understood the full implications of what was happening. Not only did they have to deal with their fear of literal snakes, but they also saw these snakes as representing the demonic forces of Satan. They finally understood that they had gone too far with their impatience and complaining – and they were afraid that these snakes meant that God was breaking his covenant with them and rejecting them forever. Have you ever felt like those Israelites were feeling? Have you ever committed a sin so terrible that we felt that it was unforgivable? When suddenly you are brought face to face with the consequences of something that you have said or done? When you suddenly realize that this might forever destroy a relationship with someone whom you love – and who deeply loves and care for you. In a very real sense that is like being in HELL - an existence in which there is no hope, but just unending sorrow, guilt, fear, and despair. That is what the Israelites in today’s first reading were experiencing. The snakes, both literally and spiritually, were showing them what it was like to be separated from God because of their sins. And so they came to Moses and said, “We have sinned by speaking against the LORD and against you; pray to the LORD to take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people. But in response to Moses’ prayer, the LORD does not take the snakes away from the people, but rather tells him to make a poisonous serpent and set it on a pole – so that everyone who is bitten could look at it and live. So Moses made a serpent of bronze, and put it on a pole; and whenever a serpent bit someone, that person would look at the serpent of bronze and live. Note what is happening here! God did not heal his people by taking away the consequences of their sins away from them. He could have. I am sure that God could have waved his hand, snapped his fingers, or whatever, and the snakes would have disappeared. But if God had done that, the Israelites surely would have gone back to doing their same old sins again! Instead, God healed the people by getting them to look at their sins squarely in the eye – so that they could consider what those sins where doing to them and to their relationship with him. God wanted the people to look at the serpent on the pole so that they would see their sins and their rebellion against him in all of their horror – because only then would their repentance truly be real, heartfelt, and lasting. The problem, of course, is that most people really do not want to be healed of their sins – they only want to be healed of the consequences of their sins. They want to be made to “feel better” without having to confront the root cause of what is causing them pain. Or as I have heard it expressed, many people say that they want to “find” God, but they don’t want to be “found out” by God! What about us in our lives? Do we really want to be healed totally in whatever may be separating us from each other – and from God? Or do we just want to be relieved of the painful consequences that may happen when our relationships are out of kilter? Do we want to really BE better in our life with God and others – or just FEEL better? To me, that is one of the central issues that today’s first reading confronts us with. But when we truly reflect upon and repent of our sins, something wonderful happens. The image of the snake on the pole becomes transformed into the image of the Son of God hanging on the cross. And when we see this image, it does not only show us our sins, but it especially shows God’s love and forgiveness for us despite our sins. For in Jesus Christ our guilt is taken away, and we receive a brand new relationship with God called eternal life. A new life that fills us with joy and peace. Yes, the serpent on the pole reminded the Israelites of their sin – and that reminder was absolutely necessary for them to be able to live (even though the snakes kept biting). But now we know something far better – that through Jesus on the cross we receive God’s mercy and never-failing love – a love that will finally drive all the snakes (at least the spiritual ones) away from us in our lives. God invites us to experience this love today, tomorrow, and for all time. As Jesus says in John 3:16 – a verse that Martin Luther called “The Gospel in Miniature”: “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.” That is God’s promise, his great and wonderful promise to us. Thanks be to God! Amen! -------------------- George R. Karres, Pella Lutheran Church 418 W. Main Street Sidney, MT 59270
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