Lent 4: The Venom & The Antidote

From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; but the people became impatient on the way.  ⁵ The people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we detest this miserable food.”  ⁶ Then the LORD sent poisonous serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many Israelites died.  ⁷ The people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned by speaking against the LORD and against you; pray to the LORD to take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people.  ⁸ And the LORD said to Moses, “Make a poisonous serpent, and set it on a pole; and everyone who is bitten shall look at it and live.”  ⁹ So Moses made a serpent of bronze, and put it upon a pole; and whenever a serpent bit someone, that person would look at the serpent of bronze and live. – Numbers 21:4-10

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And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up,  ¹⁵ that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.  ¹⁶ “For 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.  ¹⁷ “Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.  ¹⁸ Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God.  ¹⁹ And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil.  ²⁰ For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed.  ²¹ But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God.” – John 3:14-21

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Welcome to the fourth week of Lent and our theme for today: “The Venom and the Antidote”. It’s an odd title for a sermon, and it immediately raises questions. So I’ll start off by saying, yes, we actually are talking about real snake venom… and yes we are actually talking about a real cure. But these are obviously also meant to be metaphors, a way of describing the life of faith in Jesus.

So I’d like to start with Jesus today, and our reading from the Gospel of John.

This passage includes one of the most famous verses in the Bible: John 3:16.  Something many of us memorized in Sunday School. This verse has gained worldwide fame thanks to a man named Rollen Stewart, who spent amazing amounts of time and money attending sports events around the world – and buying seats where he knew the TV cameras would be (like behind home plate or behind the end zone) – and holding up a sign reading “John 3:16”. (Full disclosure: this guy is a bit nuts and is currently in prison) but during the latter part of the previous century he brought this verse to everyone’s attention…

… including some people I used to work with back in the early 1990s. One evening when a group of us were out having dinner at a local bar, a football game came on the TV, and this John 3:16 sign made an appearance. And one of my co-workers looked at me – as the one churchgoer at the table – and said, “what does that mean?”

I said, “it’s a Bible verse.”

“But you know what it is, right preacher-lady?” (mind you I had not even started seminary yet – but I had a reputation)

I said “Yes, I know what it is.”

And he said “Well??”

“You want me to actually say it right here in this bar?”

“Yeah!”

“OK then!”

So I did:

“For 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.”

And he thought that over for a second and he said “Cool!” And all his buddies at the table said “cool!” too. And they carried on with their conversations.

So John 3:16 is cool. I have it on good authority.

But this is not all there is to the passage. In fact John 3:16 is not even really the main point of Jesus’ conversation.

In this passage, we are listening in on a conversation between Jesus and a Pharisee named Nicodemus. Nicodemus is one of my favorite people in the Bible because he’s an honest Pharisee. He is a member of the Sanhedrin, the body of religious rulers in Jerusalem; but he’s not a hypocrite.  Nicodemus thinks for himself; and where it comes to Jesus, he is honestly curious. He wants to know what Jesus is teaching, and he wants to ask questions.

Nicodemus is also, at this point in time, aware that many of his co-Pharisees are conspiring to kill Jesus – and he wants to give Jesus a heads-up about this. So he does something very risky: he comes to where the disciples are staying, in person, at night, and asks to have a word alone with Jesus.

Nicodemus starts the conversation by saying,

“Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do the signs that you do apart from the presence of God.”

This is a stunning confession! By saying “we” – as in, “we know” – Nicodemus makes clear the hypocrisy of the Pharisees. The Pharisees know – they know! – that Jesus is from God; but this doesn’t stop them plotting and planning. They can’t face the truth of what Jesus teaches; but Nicodemus has decided to be different.

Jesus is very up-front with Nicodemus from the very start; but he takes the conversation in a direction that Nicodemus doesn’t expect.  Jesus says: “no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.” And the conversation continues for a while along the lines of what it means to be ‘born again’ or ‘born from above’ or ‘born of the Spirit’. Bottom line, Jesus says, salvation from God is not about keeping rules; salvation is a miracle by which God’s Spirit – the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity – comes into a person and lives in the heart of a person who is willing to worship and follow God.

This sounds like a new teaching to the people in Jesus’ time, but it’s actually a new presentation of ancient truths; and Nicodemus is a bit confused. Jesus scolds him gently saying, “you’re a teacher of Israel and you don’t know these things?” Jesus goes on to explain that, while God loves the world and God loves the people in it, people love darkness because what they do is evil. But while this was all still going on, God sent the Son as a savior. Jesus says:

“Just 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.” John 3:14-15

Why? Because God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not die but have eternal life. In fact, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but so that the world could be saved through him. BUT this is the judgement: the light of God came into the world but people loved darkness more, because their deeds were evil. (John 3:16-19, edited)

Nicodemus, being the well-educated Pharisee that he was, immediately recognized and remembered the story of the serpent in the wilderness that Jesus was talking about. His mind would have gone back to the book of Numbers and that last segment of Israel’s journey in the wilderness on the way to the Promised Land.

The people of Israel at that time had been traveling through the wilderness for almost forty years. Many of the people who had been freed from slavery in Egypt had grown old and passed away; others were elderly; and most likely the majority of the people in the tribe of Israel no longer remembered Egypt. All they had ever known was life on a journey – and the leadership of Moses.

At this point, the people of Israel were setting out from Mount Hor to go around the land of Edom. And it looked like they were going in the wrong direction: the Promised Land was to the north, but their path turned south to go around Edom. The people were impatient and they complained against both Moses and God; and their complaints were full of lies: they accused Moses of bringing them into the wilderness to die. They accused God of starving them to death; but then they say “…and we detest this miserable food” (so there actually is food – they are not starving – and in fact the food they have is manna, which has sometimes been called the ‘bread of angels’… wonderful stuff that tasted like wafers with honey.)

And they accused the Lord of Life of trying to starve them and kill them.

First, it is not wise for mere human beings to cop an attitude with God, the Creator of the Universe. Not a good idea.

Second, as one theologian writes, the accusations against God were serpentine in nature: poisonous, bitter, and self-contradictory.

God needs to confront this rebellion. If God does not confront the evil, it will grow and spread, and will result in the deaths of many people, perhaps the entire tribe of Israel. On this journey through the wilderness, the people still need God every step of the way. They need God’s direction and God’s insight; but the people think otherwise. So God sends poisonous snakes into the camp; and the snakes bite some of the people; and the people who are bitten die.

In reaction to this, the people say to Moses, “we have sinned; pray to God to take the snakes away.” Why it is that the people interpret the snakes as having been sent by God to confront them about their sins, I don’t fully understand; although it probably points to some guilty consciences. Apart from this, it seems like in the history of the human race people turn to God more quickly in times of trouble than when things are going well.

That’s what happens here. But God does not take the snakes away. Instead God says to Moses, “make a bronze serpent, and set it on a pole; and whoever looks at the bronze serpent will live.” This is not idol-worship: God does not say to bow down to the bronze serpent or to pray to the serpent. God only says “look at it” and you will be healed.

Side note: This symbol of a snake wrapped around a pole became the symbol of medicine and healing in the ancient world. The symbol has been found dating as far back as 400 BC in ancient Greece; and most likely the Greeks borrowed the story from Israel’s history, because they were aware of the history. [End of side note.]

Back to our story: God tells Moses to put the bronze serpent where everyone can see it; BUT people who are bitten must still be willing to look at it – to do what God said to do. The bronze serpent by itself does nothing. The fact that there’s a bronze serpent in the camp means nothing. If your brother or sister looks at the bronze serpent, it won’t help you if you’re the one who’s been bitten. And in fact the bronze serpent means nothing at all to people who haven’t been bitten. But for those who have been bitten, looking at the bronze serpent will heal them and they will live.

Notice the double conditional: If you aren’t sick, the bronze serpent means nothing to you. But if you are sick, only looking at the bronze serpent would heal you. Believing that a bronze serpent might heal you is not enough; you actually had to look at it. Head knowledge was not enough; the belief had to be acted on.

The snake bite represents sin. And Jesus says to Nicodemus: the same thing is happening here and now. Just like that bronze snake in the wilderness, Jesus is about to be lifted up on the Cross. Anyone who thinks they’ve never sinned doesn’t need the cross. But anyone who has been bitten by sin and rebellion of this world can look at Jesus on the Cross and be healed.

Notice there are no go-betweens. In Jesus, God is reaching out to each individual person. Each person needs to have the faith to look at the Cross. There is no priest or rabbi or pastor, not even Moses, who can look at the Cross for someone else, on someone else’s behalf. Each person must trust God for themselves in order to be healed, and each person must look to Jesus for that healing.

One other side note: I think this kind of trust is very difficult for people who have come from rough backgrounds: people who have been abused or neglected or kept down or prejudiced against; or people who suffer from PTSD.  People like the Israelites who had suffered from generations of slavery and pain and hardship. It is difficult for people who have experienced these things to trust. I think that’s where a lot of the griping came from in ancient Israel; I think that’s why it was so hard for many of them to look at the snake and believe. And I think that’s why it’s so hard for many people in our world today, who have suffered through trauma and tragedy, homelessness or hunger, to look on the Cross and believe and trust God.

On the other hand, the God we are asked to trust knows our pain.  The Cross makes that very clear. When we suffer we are not alone. God does not leave us alone. God has entered into our pain; and all we have to do is look at the Son of God on the Cross… and trust.

The Bible doesn’t tell us whether Nicodemus walked home that night as a believing Christian. But Jesus gave him the truth, and gave him a lot to think about. Nicodemus ended up being one of two men who stood by Jesus on the day Jesus died. Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea were the two men who had the courage to ask Pilate for the body of Jesus in order to give him a proper burial. Somewhere in between that nighttime conversation and Jesus’ crucifixion, Nicodemus became a believer. And he did for Jesus what no-one else could have done.

For us today, just like back then, our health and our well-being depends on the man on the Cross: the Son of God, lifted up for us.  We have all been bitten by sin, and we all need to look to Jesus for our healing. Just like God said “look at the snake” to be cured, God says “look at the Cross” to be healed. And all of this is possible because God loves us, and because God is leading us to the Promised Land. AMEN.

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Meet Nicodemus

Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.  ² I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.  ³ I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”  ⁴ So Abram went, as the LORD had told him; and Lot went with him. – Genesis 12:1-4

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A Song of Ascents

I lift up my eyes to the hills– from where will my help come?  ² My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth.  ³ He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber.  ⁴ He who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.  ⁵ The LORD is your keeper; the LORD is your shade at your right hand.  ⁶ The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night.  ⁷ The LORD will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life.  ⁸ The LORD will keep your going out and your coming in from this time on and forevermore. – Psalm 121:1-8

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Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews.  ² He came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.”  ³ Jesus answered him, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.”  ⁴ Nicodemus said to him, “How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?”  ⁵ Jesus answered, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit.  ⁶ What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit.  ⁷ Do not be astonished that I said to you, ‘You must be born from above.’  ⁸ The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”  ⁹ Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?”  ¹⁰ Jesus answered him, “Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things?  ¹¹ “Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you do not receive our testimony.  ¹² If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things?  ¹³ No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.  ¹⁴ And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up,  ¹⁵ that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.  ¹⁶ “For 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.  ¹⁷ “Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. – John 3:1-17

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Jesus said to the disciples in Matthew chapter 13: ‘…every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a household who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.’ (Matthew 13:52)

I never noticed that verse before this week. It was part of the daily readings for the second week of Lent. It put me in mind of a rich man who collects fine wines: when guests come to his house, he goes down into the wine cellar and chooses from his collection the perfect wine for the occasion. Jesus says every scribe (and we might add ‘every believer’) is like a master of the house who brings out of his collection of learning and wisdom wonderful things, both new and old.

Of course Jesus is talking about spiritual riches; but the disciple who learns from Jesus is able to take that learning and apply it both wisely and appropriately.

In our reading from Matthew today, we meet a man named Nicodemus. Nicodemus came to Jesus looking for the truth, and Jesus meets Nicodemus where he is, and offers him some of the riches from God’s spiritual wine cellar. Today we’re going to listen in on their conversation, but before we do, a little background:

First, there’s a very important verse in this passage: John 3:16.  Even people who don’t know the Bible have seen “John 3:16” signs at sporting events. Martin Luther, one of the leaders of the Protestant Reformation, called John 3:16 “the gospel in miniature”. John 3:16 tells us that God loves us enough to send his only son, so that whoever believes in him will have eternal life.

As important as this verse is, it’s not really the focus of the passage; it’s more like a summary. The focus is on the conversation between Nicodemus and Jesus, and on the prophecies that are about to come true.

Second, a little background on Nicodemus: Nicodemus was a Pharisee, a member of the Sanhedrin – the ruling council of the Jews headed up by the High Priest. In those days the Romans (with their pantheon of gods) were both the official religion and the official state; but the Romans allowed the people they conquered to keep their own gods so long as that didn’t interfere with the Romans running things. So the religious leaders of the Jews were allowed to maintain the temple and regular worship, but they were not allowed to do things like hold a court of law for deciding disputes.

So Nicodemus was a leader of the Jewish people and a Pharisee. And as a Pharisee, Nicodemus would have been extremely well trained in the scriptures, in the Law of Moses, and the writings of the prophets.

The Pharisees were also famous for being at odds with the Sadducees. It seems like in every generation there is one huge debate people of faith argue over. Protestant or Catholic? Religious statues or no religious statues? Predestination or no predestination? Pro life or pro choice? You name it – there’s always been something in every generation that divided the church. In Jesus’ day, the big issue was Resurrection: the Pharisees believed in it, and the Sadducees didn’t. (Jesus came down publicly on the side of the Pharisees in this debate – for reasons which would soon become obvious!)

The Pharisees were also, on the whole, popular with the people. The Pharisees’ weak spot was they were sticklers for the details of the law, and Jesus often teased them about “straining out gnats and swallowing camels”. The Pharisees also set themselves up as the official weeders-out of false teachers and false prophets (which there were many of back then, just as there are today).

For the most part what Jesus taught and what the Pharisees taught was similar. The main difference between Jesus and the Pharisees was that Jesus knew God’s heart better. Jesus stood by the teachings of Moses but he also reflected God’s love and forgiveness to everyone he met. Many of the debates he had with the Pharisees boiled down to: “do we follow the rules, or do we do what is loving?” And Jesus taught that the Law and Love are two sides of the same coin: they are inseparable.

The Pharisees just couldn’t stretch their rules that far, so they fell back on (and got stuck on) one question, which was: where does Jesus get his authority? They asked each other this. They asked Jesus this. Jesus answered: “where did John the Baptist get his authority?” And the Pharisees talked amongst themselves and said: “if we say ‘from humans’ the people will stone us because they believe John is from God; but if we say ‘from God’ Jesus will ask us ‘why didn’t you believe him then?’”  So they answered, “we don’t know” which was a totally bogus answer. And Jesus said, “I won’t tell you either.”

With all this as backdrop, Nicodemus – who has been listening all this time, and turning all these events over in his mind – decides he can’t remain on the sidelines any longer, and he goes to have a quiet conversation with Jesus.

Matthew tells us Nicodemus went to see Jesus at night. Did he do this to hide his movements? Maybe. The Sanhedrin had said they would kick anybody out of the temple who believed that Jesus was the Messiah. Or maybe Nicodemus didn’t want anyone to interrupt their conversation. Maybe he knew the crowds would be gone by then and he’d be able to have a quiet word with Jesus? Maybe all of the above.

Whatever the reason, Nicodemus’ first words to Jesus are amazingly courageous:

“Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do the signs that you do apart from the presence of God.”

He calls Jesus Rabbi which means teacher. Nicodemus has come willing to learn. He says, “We know” – that is, all the Pharisees – “We know you are… from God” because no one can do what you do apart from God. The other Pharisees won’t admit it, but Nicodemus dares to speak the truth. All the miracles and healings and raising people from the dead – only someone who has a direct connection to God can do these things.

Has Nicodemus come here tonight to tell Jesus that the Pharisees know the truth but won’t admit it? Has he come to warn Jesus that his life is in danger? (Nicodemus had likely overheard the whispered plans to arrest Jesus and kill him.) Or did Nicodemus come to ask Jesus, “as a Pharisee, how can I follow you? How can I become one of yours?”

We don’t know what Nicodemus would have said next, because Jesus took over the conversation and steered it in a whole new direction. Jesus says to Nicodemus: “you must be born from above in order to enter the Kingdom of God.”

Nicodemus is surprised by this and he asks, “how can this be? How can a person be born a second time?” Jesus describes two kinds of birth: birth from water (that is, human birth) and birth from the Holy Spirit. Jesus says: “What’s born of flesh is flesh, and what is born of Spirit is spirit.” And the Spirit blows where it wills, like the wind. People who are born of the Spirit are the same way: you never know where they’re going or what they’re up to because they are controlled and directed by the Spirit.

Speaking of which, has anyone here ever noticed, with our Christian friends, it seems like so many people never stay in one place for very long? I remember getting frustrated with this when I was in my twenties, and expressing a wish that all my Christian friends would just “get together in one place and stay there!” to which a friend answered “that’s called heaven.” Anyway…

Nicodemus realizes he’s out of his league and he asks, “how can these things be?” He does not ask “are these things true?” but “how is this true?”

Jesus then brings together a number of Old Testament events and prophecies that you and I would probably never group together but that Nicodemus, as a member of the Sanhedrin, might have known and recognized. I’m indebted to a colleague who specializes in Jewish studies for putting these concepts together for me:

1. The prophet Ezekiel prophesied that God would save the people “through water and the spirit”. God says through Ezekiel in chapter 36 (vss 25-28) “I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you…” Water and the Spirit, both in the same place.
2. Moses showed us what to look for, back in the days when the people were in the wilderness after being set free from Egypt. When they had been traveling in the wilderness for a while and seemingly going nowhere, the people became discouraged and started to complain, and they rebelled against God. They even accused God of “bringing us out into the wilderness to die”. God was angry at this, and he sent poisonous snakes among the people, and some of the people were bitten and died. Then God told Moses, “make a bronze serpent and put it on a pole, and anyone who has been bitten, if they look at it, they will be healed.”
   1. Notice the only thing required is faithful obedience: God says it, the people believe it, they look at the snake, and they are healed.
   2. Jesus makes a parallel between the serpent on a pole and himself on the cross – why? “Because God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but may have eternal life”

It all ties together. Jesus explains to Nicodemus that all these things that happened in the Old Testament point to the Messiah, and they apply to himself. Water and the spirit are part of the new birth. And Jesus will be lifted up on the cross just like the snake was lifted up on the pole. And in both cases the things that brought death – the bronze snakes and the Roman crosses – will become symbols of God’s forgiveness and new life.

In the Jewish faith, there is also a belief that “the unjust death of an innocent person will not go unnoticed by God”.  Jesus adds that “those who don’t believe are condemned already” because they stay hidden in the shadows. Jesus knows these things are true because he came from God and is going back to God; but the Pharisees refuse to accept this.

Then Jesus says to Nicodemus, “are you a teacher of Israel and you don’t know these things?”

That’s as far as Matthew records the conversation. Matthew doesn’t tell us if Nicodemus had any follow-up questions that night; but there is a postscript to the story.

Nicodemus shows up two more times in scripture. The first time, the Pharisees had ordered the temple police to arrest Jesus, but when Jesus came into the temple and started to teach, the temple police were captivated by Jesus’ words. They came back without arresting Jesus. The Pharisees said to them, “why didn’t you arrest him?!?” and they answered, “never has anyone spoken like this!” So the Pharisees started to ridicule and verbally abuse the guards. Overhearing this, Nicodemus speaks up to defend them. He says:

“Our law does not judge people without first giving them a hearing to find out what they are doing, does it?”

And the Pharisees verbally abuse Nicodemus too.

Nicodemus understands from this conversation that Jesus will never be given fair treatment by the religious leaders – and neither will anyone who says anything good about Jesus. The minds of the Sanhedrin are closed.

A few days later, when Jesus finally is arrested, tried, and crucified, Nicodemus takes a public stand for Jesus. He walks away from the Sanhedrin, and he joins Joseph of Arimathea in giving Jesus a decent burial. Nicodemus donates over 100 pounds of spices for the burial process – something that was 1) very expensive, and 2) would have been impossible to do in secret. The two men retrieve Jesus’ body and give him a proper burial according to the laws of Moses.

That’s all that we know for certain about Nicodemus. Other people have guessed at what he did next but we have no solid historical evidence. No doubt his actions got him kicked out of the Sanhedrin. Personally, I’d bet money he was one of the founders of the church in Jerusalem, and one of the people who spread the good news of Jesus. And I’ll bet he was one of the disciples in the Upper Room when the Holy Spirit came on that first Pentecost. Nicodemus would have learned first-hand what it means to be born of water and the Spirit.

So what does all this mean for us today?  First and most important we can share the good news that Jesus shared in John 3:16. Tell people about God’s extravagant love. Tell people it’s available for anyone, anywhere, no matter who they are, no exceptions.

Secondly, we can live with the honesty and integrity of Nicodemus – who put it all on the line to stand up for what he knew was true, and to stand up for who he knew was true.

May God grant all of us the faith of Nicodemus. AMEN.

Preached at Carnegie United Methodist Church and Hill Top United Methodist Church, March 5, 2023

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