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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,i
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
A recent search of Google News for the word “crisis” suggests there are quite a number of cris‑es: the coronavirus crisis in college basketball, the public-health crisis of racism in U-S communities, and the immigration crisis at our country’s southern border, just to name three cris‑es, and you and I might name others. There is a “crisis” (or, there are cris‑es) of a different sort in today’s Readings, perhaps especially both the Old Testament (Numbers 21:4-9) and Gospel Readings. Our English word “crisis” comes, through medical Latin, ultimately from the Greek word usually translated as “judgment”, and in today’s Gospel Reading for the Fourth Sunday in Lent, the Divinely‑inspired evangelist St. John, or perhaps the Lord Jesus Himself, says the “judgment” is that the Light has come into the world and, simply put, some people do not come to the Light and other people do come to the Light, and that not coming to the Light or coming to the Light arguably is the turning point that determines whether one’s eternal future is worse or better. In some sense, the judgment (or, “crisis”) was the same both for the people of Israel in the Old Testament Reading and for Nicodemus in the Gospel Reading, and the judgment (or, “crisis”) is the same for us today (confer Weinrich, ad loc John 3:16-21, p.407). This morning we consider primarily today’s Gospel Reading, directing our thoughts to the theme “The Current Crisis”.
The people of Israel in the Old Testament Reading became impatient and spoke against God and Moses, complaining about the food God provided to them—as Holy Scripture says elsewhere, demanding the food they craved (Psalm 78:18) and putting Christ to the test (1 Corinthians 10:9)—and so the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, which serpents bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. At least some of those people still alive came to Moses and confessed their sin and asked him to intercede with the Lord for deliverance. Moses did intercede and then did as the Lord directed him to do: Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole, so that those bitten could look with faith at the bronze serpent and live. They would survive their crisis and live temporally. Those who did what was true, as it were, came to the Light, and it was clearly seen that their works were carried out in God.
When Nicodemus came to Jesus at night (John 3:2) and asked how it was possible that one could be born from above of water and the Spirit in order to see and enter the kingdom of God (John 3:9, 3, 5), Jesus answered as we heard in the Gospel Reading, that, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so it was Divinely necessary that the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life. The Divinely‑inspired evangelist St. John, or perhaps the Lord Jesus Himself, explained that God loved the world by giving, or sending, His only Son to be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For, unlike the snakes that God ostensibly sent as punishment, God did not primarily send His Son into the world to condemn (or, “judge”) the world but in order that the world might be saved through Him. So, Nicodemus was called to leave the darkness and come to the Light (Brown, ad loc John 3:1-21, p.137). If he did, he would survive his crisis and live eternally. He would do what was true, would come to the Light, and it would be clearly seen that his works were carried out in God.
Certainly by nature, all people, including we ourselves, love the darkness rather than the light, because our works are evil. We who do wicked things hate the Light and do not come to the light, lest our works be exposed. As the Divinely‑inspired St. Paul put it in today’s Epistle Reading (Ephesians 2:1-10), we were dead in the trespasses and sins in which we once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. Just because God did not send His Son into the world primarily for the purpose of judging does not mean that there is no judgment; for example, Jesus says elsewhere that the words He has spoken judge those who hear them and do not keep them (John 12:47‑48). Even we who seemingly have passed the crisis (or, judgment) point continue to sin and so could fear perishing, both here in time and eternally in hell, but, we do not fear perishing, since, called and so enabled by God, we repent of our sin and in so doing are forgiven of our sin through faith in the One Who is lifted up.
Whatever other parallels there may be in the prophetic type, or retrospective analogy, of the lifting up of the serpent and the lifting up of the Son of Man, the act of being lifted up and the faith in the lifting up are certainly the most-important parallels, and far greater than the lifting up of the serpent and the resulting temporal life are the lifting up of the Son of Man and the resulting eternal life. The Lord’s Suffering Servant is high and lifted up (Isaiah 52:13), like the throne in the heavenly temple that Isaiah saw (Isaiah 6:1). The Lord’s Suffering Servant is the Lamb led to the slaughter (Isaiah 53:7), the Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29, 36). The lifting up of the Son of Man and the Son of God on the cross is how God loved the world, including us, even when we were dead in our trespasses and sins. God gave His only Son to die on the cross that we should not perish but have eternal life. God sent His Son into the world in order to save the world. That crucified and later resurrected Son is the object of our faith. We believe in and confess His Name, and we receive the benefits of God’s actions in Him.
The people of Israel’s looking with faith at the bronze serpent would not have resulted in life if God’s Word had not promised that looking with faith at the bronze serpent would result in life (confer Luther, AE 76:311). The bronze serpent was a sort of Old Testament means of grace—God’s promises connected with a visible element, like God’s promises connected with water in Holy Baptism, with the pastor’s touch in Holy Absolution, and with the bread and wine of the Sacrament of the Altar that are the Body of Christ given for us and the Blood of Christ shed for us (the food that God gives to us)! Perhaps the serpent’s being a sort of Old Testament means of grace made it a particularly good example for Jesus to use in talking with Nicodemus, who was having a hard time understanding Jesus’s teaching about the need to be born from above of water and the Spirit in Holy Baptism. There at the Baptismal Font we who believe are united with Jesus (Romans 6:5) and so have forgiveness of sins and the resulting life in Him. There at the Baptismal Font we come to the Light and are enlightened (confer Hebrews 6:4; 10:32; confer Beckwith, CLD III:86). There at the Baptismal Font we do what is true—that is, we conform our lives to Him Who is the Truth (John 14:6)—and it is clearly seen that our works—which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them—have been carried out in God.
More than the coronavirus, racism, immigration, or whatever else we may name as a “crisis”, “The Current Crisis” (or, “judgment”) is believers’ coming or unbelievers’ not coming to the Light Who has come into the world. Our future depends on coming or not coming: our being saved and receiving eternal life or our being judged and perishing. We, who believe and so come, have eternal life as our possession already now, and, unless Jesus returns first, we look forward to experiencing that eternal life more‑fully at our deaths and then most‑fully at the resurrection of our bodies.
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +