Look and live
Readings: John 3. 13-17, Numbers 21. 4-9
We have at the heart of our Gospel reading today the very core of the Gospel. The most famous verse in the Bible, indeed you could summarise the whole Bible in this one verse (but you still need the rest to unpack this summary). ‘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’s such a familiar verse to many of us, but it’s an utterly lifechanging verse if you grasp it. It speaks of the cross: the reason for the cross, the one who goes to the cross, and the results of the cross.
How does God feel about us? I wonder if you ever think about that. How does God feel about you? How does he feel about our world? We look around at the pain and the suffering, the violence. There’s a lot wrong in our world isn’t there. Much to worry about, much that should be condemned. Humanity’s indifference to humans, causing suffering and pain, whether through action or inaction. Do you love this world? Do you love the people in it? All of them?
But the problem runs deeper, because it’s not just out there that’s the issue, the problem is in here too, in our hearts, in our lives. There’s much that is not right in us, our selfishness, greed, envy, anger, passivity. There’s a problem out there in the world, but there’s a problem right here too, with us. How does God feel about our world. How does he feel about us?
Love. That’s the remarkable answer. God loves this world, loves each of us. Not because we’re so great or the world is so great, but because his love is so great, because of his great love. A love that seeks to overcome the wrong and the broken and even the evil out there and in here. We rightly celebrate and rejoice in God’s love. But we should celebrate it not because the world is so big and includes so many people; isn’t God so loving to love so many, rather we celebrate God’s love because the world is so bad, so wicked. That’s why we celebrate the greatness of God’s love, because he loves what in many ways is utterly unlovely, and yet he loves us still. That’s the reason for the cross, not just our sin. If the sole reason for the cross was our sin then perhaps Christ might go to the cross out of pity. No, the reason for the cross is love, God’s great love for us and for our world. Love for us even in our sin.
And so in that love God sends his Son, not to condemn us and the world, he doesn’t need to, we’ve already condemned ourselves. He’s not sending his Son to make a judgement call about whether we’re good or not, that’s already clear, we’re not. No, he sends his Son not to condemn as we deserve, but to save. So how does he save? By sending this Son, his one and only Son, that which is most precious to him, the one who is closest to him, eternally begotten of him, he sends. God in his love gives, and what a gift he gives, the most precious one in all the universe. Given both at Christmas to be with us, and for the Cross to save us. At the cross we see the depth of God’s love for us, giving his life for us.
Jesus references the passage we heard from Numbers right before this famous line. That just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness so must he be lifted up. He tells us that this is a picture of the cross, of his cross.
If you flip back to that passage in Numbers you’ll see God’s people are wandering in the wilderness. They’ve been journeying for some time, and they start to grumble. This isn’t an isolated incident, they do it again and again. How easily they look back to Egypt with rose tinted glasses. Things were better there, and yet they were slaves there, captives, their children killed. Things were not better there, but how easily they miss it. How easily we can do that with our sin. Wasn’t it better when we just did as we wanted.
And they complain that God isn’t providing for them. No food, no water, the food is awful. Wait, didn’t they just say there was no food? Except there is, manna and quail, yet they complain. It’s a grumbling that isn’t just about lack, it’s that grumbling that goes deeper, a grumbling because you want to grumble. Doesn’t matter if it’s true, you just want to complain. Ever felt like that? Something isn’t right and now everything is wrong.
And whilst on the surface they’re grumbling, what’s happening underneath is that they’re rejecting God’s salvation of them. God in his great love for them has saved them, and is bringing them to their new home. He’s won them freedom, and yet they long for captivity. Instead of looking ahead to what God has promised, which far surpasses what they had, they look back to what they used to have. They reject God, reject his saving love, reject Moses who is leading them. And God won’t tolerate this evil, in doing this they bring judgement which takes the form of poisonous snakes.
And yet crucially judgement is not the last word here. God doesn’t ignore their sin, pretend that the way they think of and act towards him doesn’t matter, it really does. Nor does he call off the judgement, the snakes are still there, the consequence of their disobedience. But he does act in mercy, provides a way that the people can be saved.
He tells Moses to create an image of a poisonous snake out of bronze, set it on a pole, and whoever looks at it, if they’ve been poisoned, they will be healed. God doesn’t send the snakes away, he creates a cure instead. It’s such a simple cure, look and live, and yet in other ways so hard. You’re experiencing God’s judgement and to be saved you need to look upon the very image of that judgement. Your body filled with poison and to be healed you need to look at the image of the snakes which had poisoned you. And yet as you look, you live.
Jesus deliberately chooses this passage to help us understand the cross. When we look at the cross, when we look at Jesus hanging there, we are looking at the one who knew no sin, and yet who became sin for us. The one who carries all our sin on his shoulders. As we look at him we see our sin being condemned in him. It’s so simple and yet perhaps we’d rather look away. Just as perhaps, having been bitten by the snakes, you may want nothing less than to go and look at that bronze serpent, are we willing to look at the cross? Because to do so is to acknowledge our sin. To look at the cross is to look at our sin being condemned. To look is to realise we are not as good as we had thought and see the consequences of our sin. And yet in looking we live.
God doesn’t ignore our sin, he doesn’t just forget about the judgement coming, our sin is like poison, killing us slowly but surely. So instead he provides a way through, a way to save us. And just as God’s people of old simply had to look at the serpent and they would live, so we when we look at Jesus’ cross, as we look at Jesus bearing our sin, bearing that poison, our spiritual life and health are restored. Life, life without end.
That’s the result of the cross. When we look at the cross, when we place our faith and trust in Jesus, we live, have life not just now but eternally. Life without end, abundant life, life in all its fulness. When God comes to save us, he comes to save us completely. Not simply from condemnation, from sin and death, but for life, life everlasting in a renewed and perfect universe, life with him. And it’s open to all. God’s love is for the whole world, whoever you are, however far gone you may feel you are, God calls you to look to Jesus, to look upon his cross in faith and trust, and know his forgiveness, his healing, his life.
My brothers and sisters, this is the cross, God’s mission to save us. Motivated by love, love for the unlovely. Delivered by his beloved Son, given as a gift, given as sacrifice. Resulting in life, fulness of life without end. And how do we get it? Look and live. Look upon the cross, see love and judgement. God’s condemnation of our sin and his abundant love for us. Look upon Jesus, place your faith and trust in him, and find life, life without end. As God’s people of old with that bronze serpent looked and lived. So may we with Christ’s cross, look with faith and trust, and in looking, live.
Amen.