Numbers 21:4-9, John 3:14-21
The people forgot what God had done
God had done so much for the people of Israel. He had rescued them from Egypt where they had been
slaves for years and years. He had given them Moses as a leader. He had given them water that miraculously began to flow from the rock when they were thirsty. He had given them food in the form of manna, sweet-tasting flakes, and wild birds that they had to gather first thing in the morning.
But this was not enough for God’s people. They had had bad experiences in the past and thought that life should be better. They had forgotten just how bad it had been in Egypt. So they grumbled. But by doing this they were insulting the God who had cared for and protected them. They did not trust him. And this was, and is, sin. Snakes came to bite them as a punishment.
We forget what God has done
We can identify with those people because we too often forget God and live as if he doesn’t exist. We forget about God and what he has done for us. We try to do things or go places that we know, deep down, are not good for us. This is sin!
And sin needs to be punished. But even though God’s people suffered because of their sin, God provided them with a way to be rescued. But they had to do what Moses told them. They had to trust that what God had said would come true. If they looked at the snake they would get better. 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, even though his listeners did not understand what he meant at the time. Jesus meant that people grumble and ignore God. They have always done this; all people have sinned and disobeyed God.
John 3:16 is frequently referred to as ‘the gospel in a nutshell’. It comes towards the end of Jesus’ famous conversation with Nicodemus in which Jesus has stressed the need to be born again (3:3,7). (This might be better translated ‘born from above’.) Nicodemus fails to understand and fades out of the conversation. Jesus expresses surprise at his ignorance, but recognises that only the Son of Man (Jesus himself) is likely really to understand such deep teaching (v 13).
But God forgives and heals us
Read Ephesians 2:1-3.
When Jesus was nailed to the cross, he was giving people the opportunity to be freed from the effects of sin. Anyone who looked to him and had faith in him would be saved.
The writer of John’s Gospel talks a lot about followers of Jesus walking in the light, not in the dark. God’s people in the desert discovered what it meant to be healed and saved. It was as though they were walking in the light. So too, anyone now who looks to Jesus, trusting him to save them, will be healed, saved and walking in the light.
Jesus compares the Son of Man (himself) to the snake. In John, the language often has double meanings and ‘lifting up’ has particular reference to Jesus being lifted up on the cross (12:32-35). When he has been crucified he will give eternal life, not just temporary healing, to any believer who looks to him. John 3:16 encapsulates this truth. In his love, 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 exact 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 (vs 19-21) as we have already been told in John 1:9-13.
The sobering thought is that some people in the desert chose not to look up and presumably they died. There were those in the time of Jesus who chose not to look to him to be saved. There are people today who choose not to look to Jesus to be saved.
Many think that God accepts those who do the right things. We call it salvation by works. It is the way most religions and an appalling number of Christians figure on getting to God. Paul was at pains to straighten that one out for ever: Ephesians 2:7-10. Human works don’t please God; rather faith produces God-pleasing works – Psalm 107:17-22.
People selling fashion products are likely to use words like fashionable, desirable, essential. We have to face the fact that Christian Faith is often seen by the secular majority today as anything but these things, and to some it is in fact their polar opposite: unfashionable, undesirable and inessential. Or worse.
I consider my faith in God through Jesus Christ to be sensible, reasonable and logical. It enables me to live my life abundantly with enriching meaning and purpose, so I find the hard edge of contemporary secularism quite difficult to come to terms with. How can something which matters so much to me, and fits the facts so brilliantly, incite ridicule and hostility in some and be such a complete irrelevance to others?
Let’s turn the question around a bit and consider it from the viewpoint of someone looking at a display of shoes in a fashion store. What they see is bright, light and modern, clearly carefully arranged and with considerable thought given to style, colour, size and placement. All this is intended to render that vital first impression a positive one. The shopper needs to get the strong sense that she can see herself looking and feeling really good in these shoes.
But seeing faith and making a decision to opt for it is nowhere near as straightforward a proposition. Where do you look and what do you turn your attention towards? How do you see faith in such a way as to be encouraged and enabled to get up close, hold it in your own hands and try it on for size?
Faith seems to be a concept ruled unnecessary by our scientific, empirical worldview and rendered redundant by progressive rational thought. Its place in our common life is becoming ever more distant from each successive generation, to whom faith really does appear to be unfashionable, undesirable and inessential. Getting your hands on faith is quite a challenge, especially if it is beyond your own experience or that of those you trust and respect. Perhaps we could try to get through to people that it is only by faith that they deny the existence of God and all things spiritual – a faith in science, empiricism and rational thought. Maybe if they can get that we can get somewhere.
You can’t argue someone into faith and, while you can talk about it, faith is ultimately experiential and about our personal encounter with the living reality of God. The only way to know whether it is for you is to take it in your own hands and try it on.
Because faith empowers and faith transforms. And these things are tangible.
When we try it on we experience what others have experienced. People like Elijah, Elishah, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus and his disciples whom we’ve read about in the last few weeks.
Faith-shaping in our lives is unmistakably founded on what we see and witness, for ourselves, of God’s Spirit at work in others. We want what they have. And when the time comes for us to put our faith to the test, we discover that God’s Spirit flows in us too.
Faith isn’t an idea that sweeps us up, fills us, empowers us and motivates us completely, that is, until we discover what authentic faith feels like to the touch, and the wonderful fit convinces us that this is it. And we buy into the brand bigtime.