Numbers 21:4-9, Psalm 107:1-3,17-22,
John 3:14-21, Ephesians 2:1-10
He was 92 years old, slightly built, well-poised and proud. He was fully dressed each morning by eight o’clock, with his hair fashionably combed and shaved perfectly, even though he was legally blind. His wife of 70 years had recently passed away, making it necessary for him to move into an old folks home.
After many hours of waiting patiently in the reception area of the rest home, he smiled sweetly when told his room was ready. As he maneuvered his walker to the elevator, the carer provided a visual description of his tiny room, including the colours and patterns of his duvet and curtains.
“I love it,” he stated with the enthusiasm of an eight-year-old who’d just been presented with a new puppy.
“Mr. Jones, you haven’t seen the room; just wait.” replied the carer.
“That doesn’t have anything to do with it,” he replied. “Happiness is something you decide on ahead of time. Whether I like my room or not doesn’t depend on how the furniture is arranged. It’s how I arrange my mind. I’ve already decided to love it. It’s a decision I make every morning when I wake up. I have a choice; I can spend the day in bed going over the difficulty I have with the parts of my body that no longer work, or get out of bed and be thankful for the ones that do. Each day is a gift, and as long as my eyes open, I’ll focus on the new day and all the happy memories I’ve stored away.. Just for this time in my life…”
The people forgot what God had done
What a contrast those runaway slaves in the desert were. They chose to be unhappy. Really they had it pretty good. They had been rescued from slavery in Egypt, they’d been promised a land of their own, they had Moses to lead them, food was laid on and water was on tap and their shoes and clothes never wore out.
But these people had forgotten how bad it really had been in Egypt. Their memories had faded very quickly and slavery didn’t seem that bad from this distance. They hassled over how long it seemed to be taking to get into the promised land. They were sick of going out each morning to gather their food for the day and tired of trekking to the rock for water. So they grumbled. But by grumbling they were insulting the God who had cared for and protected them. They did not trust him. And this was, and is, sin. The snakes came to bite them as a punishment. You could say their grumbling came back to bite them.
We forget what God has done
How often we, too, forget about God and what he has done for us! And how often we try to do things and go places that we know, deep down, are not good for us. We’ve been warned but we ignore the warnings. We behave selfishly and don’t trust God. This is sin.
And sin needs to be punished. Otherwise we go on kidding ourselves that it’s ok. It may seem to us to be alright but God knows it’s going to work out badly. Even when we know it’s bad for us we often go ahead anyway. Often the only way to convince us to behave right is to punish us. Often the punishment is the bad consequences of the thought, words or action. The worst and constant consequence of sin is that it cuts us off from God. Our selfish actions come back to bite us, so to speak.
But God forgives and heals us
But even though the people Moses led suffered because of their sin, God provided them with a way to be rescued. God told Moses to make a snake out of bronze and to attach it to a tall pole and get anyone who had been bitten to look at the snake in faith and they would be miraculously healed. But they had to look or they would die of snakebite. They had to trust that what God had said would come true. Looking at the snake was an act of faith and trust in God.
Jesus explained to his disciples that having faith in him was just like what happened in this story. He meant that people grumble and ignore God. They have always done this; all people have sinned and disobeyed God.
But when Jesus was nailed to the cross, he was giving people the opportunity to be freed from the effects of sin. He was lifted up on the cross just as the snake was lifted up on the pole and anyone who looked to him and had faith in him would be saved. Not just temporary healing but eternal life. John 3:16 puts this very simply. It tells us that God has made an offer of eternal life to absolutely anyone who puts their faith in the crucified Christ.
The sad thing, highlighted in verses 17-21, is that although God did not send Jesus into the world to condemn and enact judgement (as he did with the snakes in the wilderness) but to save people, people condemn themselves by failing to believe. They prefer darkness to light.
The man in the story we began with says we choose to be happy or we choose not to be. In the same way we choose to trust Jesus the Christ, or not to trust him. Those who refuse to believe will find their choice coming back to bite them. But for those who choose to believe, trust and follow Jesus the Christ a full and free life is theirs.
We concluded with a drama titled: That’s not fair, by Rosemary Broadstock and Ann Scull