Numbers 21:4-9; James 1:22-27; St John 16:23-33
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
First they were red, then they were dead. That’s the order of how it happened in the wilderness when God brought judgment on His people. You heard what happened in that horrible scene from Numbers when God’s patience ran out. He sent fiery serpents that bit the Israelites. He sent them. Not the devil. God did! Into their bloodstream went the venom and then their bodies turned red with burning heat. Then they died.
This causes us trouble. We take offense at it. That God would afflict His people in this way. First they were red, then they were dead. That’s what happens when an offended God chastens those who continue to defy Him, who murmur against Him and His plan. Who don’t pray very much, but instead grumble and complain a lot. Who tempt God by not fearing Him, not trusting Him. Who question His plan. First they were red, then they were dead.
We are not much different than those Israelites in the wilderness. Will we ever be convinced that God knows what He’s doing? Will we ever trust that His ways, His means, His purposes and solutions are always beneficial? No. As long as we have that serpent’s venom in us, that dead flesh inherited from Adam - and that’s all our lives - we will continue to worry and fret and lean on our own fallen wisdom. We will always struggle to believe that the Food, the Manna He gives us from this Altar is the most precious and healthful thing in the world.
In our society the symbol for medicine and health care is a serpent on a pole. That symbol could not be more inappropriate and false. That symbol does not come from the Bible. Not from this text. It comes from pagan mythology. From the Greek god Asclepius. The truth is that a serpent doesn’t mean healing. That’s why the Israelites were so resistant to Moses’ admonition to look at it and live. For from the beginning of history, a serpent meant death, meant the power of sin.
Perhaps nowhere is the devastation of sin evident than in the difficulty that we have with prayer. This is why we struggle to fear and love God. To pray to Him with confidence. To trust His plan. Because that snake the devil has gotten his fangs into us too. Unbelief beats from our hearts and courses through our veins. Just like Adam, the father of humanity, we fight against the creaturely dependance we have upon our Creator. Not just in the spiritual realm, but the physical as well. Every moment everything we receive, both physical and spiritual, is from His fatherly hand. Even life itself.
Repentance is needed, dear Christians. Repentance and faith, both worked by God the Holy Spirit, through the Word, as you heard last Sunday. For the God who sent the snakes to bring His people to repentance, is a God of mercy who hears the prayers of His chastened people, His repentant people, and He acts. His compassion always moves Him to action.
He heard their cries and sent them a great Mediator, Moses. He was, above all, an intercessor, a man of prayer. The Lord God heard his prayer. And He sent help. He commanded Moses to make a serpent and put it on a pole. But not just any old serpent made of any old material. It was to be a serpent made of brass or copper because it was to be reddish, reflecting the flesh of the sick and dying who were red and burning with heat because of the bite of the fiery serpents.
God planned it out to that their healing was to be found in something that was a reflection of their condition. As though that serpent on the pole bore their redness, their disease. And when they looked up at that red serpent that Moses made by God’s command, the poisonous venom that was killing them was rendered harmless. God’s promise was attached to that unusual remedy, that image of their destruction, hoisted on a pole. And whoever looked at it did not die, but lived, because God was merciful.
People loved by God, let your joy rise full and free. For God still works today in the same way. Yes, He still uses cross bearing and suffering to test us, to turn us in repentance toward Him, in prayer and supplication. And He has heard your prayers for mercy. He has acted. He has sent you a Mediator better than Moses. An Intercessor greater than Moses. One who was sent to do something for you that Moses could never do. Those people in Moses’ day looked up at that reddish serpent in faith and were cured temporarily. But looking at that red snake on a pole could not bring permanent, eternal healing.
But another Mediator has. Christ Jesus came from the Father as the Mediator between God and Man who is Himself the cure. Moses never had to be lifted up on a pole to offer the cure. But Christ was. For He came into the world to be the cure, the source of permanent and eternal healing for man. He came to become what you are, so that you might be sons of God. He is God in the flesh who was made to be your Sin even though He knew no sin, so that in Him you might become the righteousness of God. He came first to be red, then dead.
For the Body of the Son, the Body of God, became red with blood as He hung on the cross and anted for your mistrust and doubt of Him. First red, then dead. First red with the blood that was shed to cancel your guilt. Then dead. First red on a Cross bearing your sinful condition. Then dead, defeating that ancient serpent of old. First red with the blood, then dead, to deliver you from the bite of that snake from hell.
We are speaking creatively, but this is not a figure of speech. Jesus Himself preached, 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. For God loved the world in this way, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life (Jn 3:15-16). In the Crucifix Jesus is telling you plainly about the Father, even as He is lifted up from the earth, praying on behalf of all men, Father, forgive them; they know not what they do.
The cure for those dying Israelites was looking up at a reddish serpent that had no poison in it. The cure for all snake bitten humanity is looking up at the Cross and seeing Christ, the Innocent One, dying in place of the guilty. Christ, with not the slightest hint of the virus of sin coursing through His veins, willingly opened them up to pour them into the cup you drink this morning, the cup that is lifted up by the Pastor as the vaccine, the antidote, the source of your forgiveness and healing. The cup that saves you. Christ was not merely snake-bitten by Satan, but swallowed down whole and lay dead in his belly until the Third Day. The day when He burst forth and raised up a fallen world.
People loved by God, like us, Jesus had to learn the art of prayer through bitter experience. Unlike us He passed the chastening and test, facing every possible temptation without succumbing, and by living His whole life in faithful obedience and prayer to God the Father for deliverance from death (Heb 4:15; 5:7, 10). His resistance to temptation qualifies Him to serve as your sympathetic High Priest. He takes over for your when you fail. He intercedes for you. He asks the Father on your behalf, even when you fail to ask.
Even more - He not only prays for you, for your life and salvation, He prays with you so that you can join Him in His praying. This happens for you, right here, in the Divine Service, where he includes you in His praying and has you join Him as He prays for you and the whole world, all who have been bitten by that serpent of death.
There is One Intercessor, One High Priest, One Mediator between God and man, the Man Jesus Christ. And He’s yours. He gave Himself as a ransom for all, including you. God’s anger has been turned away and He is pleased with you for the sake of His Son.
So pleased, in fact, that He invites you to call upon Him as dear children ask their dear father. Don’t tempt Him. Have faith. Trust Him. Pray to Him. Don’t let your unworthiness keep you from praying. Ask as His cherished sons and daughters. Pray regularly. Pray directly. Pray for your neighbor. Pray for the world in which there is much tribulation. Pray and take heart, for He has overcome the world. Prayer honors God and helps your neighbor. He loves to hear your voice, for it is the voice of one who has been washed, washed in His red, precious blood, unstained from the world, but stained with His blood, that you may be His own and live under Him and serve Him everlasting righteousness, innocence and blessedness.
Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! Amen.
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
First they were red, then they were dead. That’s the order of how it happened in the wilderness when God brought judgment on His people. You heard what happened in that horrible scene from Numbers when God’s patience ran out. He sent fiery serpents that bit the Israelites. He sent them. Not the devil. God did! Into their bloodstream went the venom and then their bodies turned red with burning heat. Then they died.
This causes us trouble. We take offense at it. That God would afflict His people in this way. First they were red, then they were dead. That’s what happens when an offended God chastens those who continue to defy Him, who murmur against Him and His plan. Who don’t pray very much, but instead grumble and complain a lot. Who tempt God by not fearing Him, not trusting Him. Who question His plan. First they were red, then they were dead.
We are not much different than those Israelites in the wilderness. Will we ever be convinced that God knows what He’s doing? Will we ever trust that His ways, His means, His purposes and solutions are always beneficial? No. As long as we have that serpent’s venom in us, that dead flesh inherited from Adam - and that’s all our lives - we will continue to worry and fret and lean on our own fallen wisdom. We will always struggle to believe that the Food, the Manna He gives us from this Altar is the most precious and healthful thing in the world.
In our society the symbol for medicine and health care is a serpent on a pole. That symbol could not be more inappropriate and false. That symbol does not come from the Bible. Not from this text. It comes from pagan mythology. From the Greek god Asclepius. The truth is that a serpent doesn’t mean healing. That’s why the Israelites were so resistant to Moses’ admonition to look at it and live. For from the beginning of history, a serpent meant death, meant the power of sin.
Perhaps nowhere is the devastation of sin evident than in the difficulty that we have with prayer. This is why we struggle to fear and love God. To pray to Him with confidence. To trust His plan. Because that snake the devil has gotten his fangs into us too. Unbelief beats from our hearts and courses through our veins. Just like Adam, the father of humanity, we fight against the creaturely dependance we have upon our Creator. Not just in the spiritual realm, but the physical as well. Every moment everything we receive, both physical and spiritual, is from His fatherly hand. Even life itself.
Repentance is needed, dear Christians. Repentance and faith, both worked by God the Holy Spirit, through the Word, as you heard last Sunday. For the God who sent the snakes to bring His people to repentance, is a God of mercy who hears the prayers of His chastened people, His repentant people, and He acts. His compassion always moves Him to action.
He heard their cries and sent them a great Mediator, Moses. He was, above all, an intercessor, a man of prayer. The Lord God heard his prayer. And He sent help. He commanded Moses to make a serpent and put it on a pole. But not just any old serpent made of any old material. It was to be a serpent made of brass or copper because it was to be reddish, reflecting the flesh of the sick and dying who were red and burning with heat because of the bite of the fiery serpents.
God planned it out to that their healing was to be found in something that was a reflection of their condition. As though that serpent on the pole bore their redness, their disease. And when they looked up at that red serpent that Moses made by God’s command, the poisonous venom that was killing them was rendered harmless. God’s promise was attached to that unusual remedy, that image of their destruction, hoisted on a pole. And whoever looked at it did not die, but lived, because God was merciful.
People loved by God, let your joy rise full and free. For God still works today in the same way. Yes, He still uses cross bearing and suffering to test us, to turn us in repentance toward Him, in prayer and supplication. And He has heard your prayers for mercy. He has acted. He has sent you a Mediator better than Moses. An Intercessor greater than Moses. One who was sent to do something for you that Moses could never do. Those people in Moses’ day looked up at that reddish serpent in faith and were cured temporarily. But looking at that red snake on a pole could not bring permanent, eternal healing.
But another Mediator has. Christ Jesus came from the Father as the Mediator between God and Man who is Himself the cure. Moses never had to be lifted up on a pole to offer the cure. But Christ was. For He came into the world to be the cure, the source of permanent and eternal healing for man. He came to become what you are, so that you might be sons of God. He is God in the flesh who was made to be your Sin even though He knew no sin, so that in Him you might become the righteousness of God. He came first to be red, then dead.
For the Body of the Son, the Body of God, became red with blood as He hung on the cross and anted for your mistrust and doubt of Him. First red, then dead. First red with the blood that was shed to cancel your guilt. Then dead. First red on a Cross bearing your sinful condition. Then dead, defeating that ancient serpent of old. First red with the blood, then dead, to deliver you from the bite of that snake from hell.
We are speaking creatively, but this is not a figure of speech. Jesus Himself preached, 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. For God loved the world in this way, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life (Jn 3:15-16). In the Crucifix Jesus is telling you plainly about the Father, even as He is lifted up from the earth, praying on behalf of all men, Father, forgive them; they know not what they do.
The cure for those dying Israelites was looking up at a reddish serpent that had no poison in it. The cure for all snake bitten humanity is looking up at the Cross and seeing Christ, the Innocent One, dying in place of the guilty. Christ, with not the slightest hint of the virus of sin coursing through His veins, willingly opened them up to pour them into the cup you drink this morning, the cup that is lifted up by the Pastor as the vaccine, the antidote, the source of your forgiveness and healing. The cup that saves you. Christ was not merely snake-bitten by Satan, but swallowed down whole and lay dead in his belly until the Third Day. The day when He burst forth and raised up a fallen world.
People loved by God, like us, Jesus had to learn the art of prayer through bitter experience. Unlike us He passed the chastening and test, facing every possible temptation without succumbing, and by living His whole life in faithful obedience and prayer to God the Father for deliverance from death (Heb 4:15; 5:7, 10). His resistance to temptation qualifies Him to serve as your sympathetic High Priest. He takes over for your when you fail. He intercedes for you. He asks the Father on your behalf, even when you fail to ask.
Even more - He not only prays for you, for your life and salvation, He prays with you so that you can join Him in His praying. This happens for you, right here, in the Divine Service, where he includes you in His praying and has you join Him as He prays for you and the whole world, all who have been bitten by that serpent of death.
There is One Intercessor, One High Priest, One Mediator between God and man, the Man Jesus Christ. And He’s yours. He gave Himself as a ransom for all, including you. God’s anger has been turned away and He is pleased with you for the sake of His Son.
So pleased, in fact, that He invites you to call upon Him as dear children ask their dear father. Don’t tempt Him. Have faith. Trust Him. Pray to Him. Don’t let your unworthiness keep you from praying. Ask as His cherished sons and daughters. Pray regularly. Pray directly. Pray for your neighbor. Pray for the world in which there is much tribulation. Pray and take heart, for He has overcome the world. Prayer honors God and helps your neighbor. He loves to hear your voice, for it is the voice of one who has been washed, washed in His red, precious blood, unstained from the world, but stained with His blood, that you may be His own and live under Him and serve Him everlasting righteousness, innocence and blessedness.
Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! Amen.
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