The Rev. Paul J Cain, Jr.
St. John 3:14-21
Lifted Up for You
Fourth Sunday in Lent, 18 March 2012
Immanuel Lutheran Church, Sheridan, Wyoming
In the Name of Jesus. Amen.
Dr. Luther sets the scene before us: The Lord delivers an
excellent sermon to Nicodemus, a Jew, who supposed that keeping the Law of
Moses offered him a way to heaven and that his own ascension into heaven
depended upon his fasting, his praying, and his ascetic life. Now Christ
interprets and unravels Moses to him correctly and says to him: “That will
never do it. Your mode of ascension [to heaven] is not the way, but you must be
born anew. Therefore listen to what I tell you. You are a Jew. I shall take
your Moses and cite from him passages which you have not understood until now.”
Who else [but Our Lord Jesus] would have interpreted Moses in this way before?
22:337
And 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. Jesus is referring to Numbers 21.
Can you believe what the people did? Speaking against God
and his man on the scene—dangerous business—playing with fire, or venomous
serpents in their case. Such situations, including tragic loss, war weariness,
fear of terrorism, personal disappointments, etc. often cause people to speak
against God. Is God our enemy? No. The serpent is. It’s in Satan’s best
interests to get you to doubt God’s love for you.
When someone’s in trouble, they often refer to that as being
in “hot water.” Think about hot water. Think about the trials and difficulties
and suffering you’ve weathered or are still weathering. When you put an egg in
boiling water, what happens? It becomes hard—a hard-boiled egg. What happens
when a potato goes into a boiling pot? It gets soft. You can easily make mashed
potatoes. What happens when a tea bag goes in the pot? What happens to it? The
tea bag transforms boiling water into tea.
Suffering hardens some people. They may put up barriers,
pull away from previously close friends, and even their church family. Others
get soft. Their confidence in God appears to fail. Doubts arise. Both eggs and
potatoes are in danger of falling away. These are the people who need us. They
need their pastor certainly, but you have no idea how meaningful a visit from a
caring Christian friend is. God’s promises are solid and sure, especially when
it feels like all of fallen creation is against you.
Back to Moses & the people in the wilderness. Luther
again: The people were to do no more than believe the word of Moses; the term
which the Lord employs here for this believing is “look at.”…[The people]
(They) might well have thought, “ Ha, what a ridiculous medicine it is that you
propose for the sting and bite of the serpents! Moses, have you lost your
senses? How are we to be helped by looking at this bronze serpent which looks
like those that bit us? We are so terrified that we cannot stand the sight of
them! If only you would instead, give us a drink, a cooling plaster, a cooling
drink, to take away the venom and the fever! What good can mere words and
looking do? How can that dead and lifeless object up there benefit us? 22:
338-339
Here are thoughts of unbelief, unfaith, likely rolling
around in the heads of the people in the wilderness! Here the Lord was calling
them to faith, to trust in Him, and some likely remained in unbelief, choosing
death by venom over the means by which God had instituted for their life and
salvation. Sure, it was only a bronze snake, but it had God’s promises tied to
it! That makes all the difference.
And 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. This text speaks of salvation by God’s grace through faith. The Son of
Man was lifted up upon the Good Friday cross for you, in fulfillment of the
ancient Gospel promise to our first parents, addressed as a curse upon the
serpent: I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your
offspring and her offspring; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise
His heel. At the cross Our Lord bore the marks of fang-like nails in his feet
and hands, yet there, amid what appeared to be defeat, Jesus crushed the
serpent’s head. The old satanic foe lay defeated.
"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son,
that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world
to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but
whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in
the name of the only Son of God.
For God so loved the world…These words start the recordings
of memory. We know how this verse goes. Many Christians have memorized this
precious verse about the Gospel.
God so loved the world. The world. The whole world. You will
be familiar with the Greek word here for we have brought it into English usage:
Kosmos, cosmos. For God so loved the
whole cosmos! He created it to love all the people in it, to give them,
including you, His Gifts as part of a loving relationship that He creates.
How much did God love you? Enough to send His Son, His only
Son, whom He loved. Our Heavenly Father is preparing to sacrifice His Son as
Abraham readied Isaac. No reprieve this time. No ram is caught in a thicket
nearby. Jesus will die, and willingly. He must be lifted up. The condemnation
hanging over the head of every sinner like the sword of Damocles had to fall.
Judgment and wrath had to be poured out as a punishment for sin. God’s justice,
fairness, and holiness were to be upheld. In God’s love, you are spared. God
mercifully doesn’t give you what you deserve—His wrath. God graciously gives
you what you do not deserve—eternal life.
God sent His Son to save the world. He desires not the death
of a sinner. He would that all would come to a knowledge of the truth, His
truth in His Son. But Judgment is coming. When Christ came, He came as Savior.
When He returns, it will be as Judge.
One of the most depressing statements I ever heard was
spoken by a guest lecturer at the University of Nebraska. He was Jewish, but
doubted even the existence of God. He said that when or if this Jesus ever
came, he had but one question: “Have you been here before?” He had no clue that
by then the question would be moot. Now is the time of God’s favor. Repent and
believe the Gospel!
Jesus addresses the question of evil in terms of light and
darkness: And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and
people loved the darkness rather than the light because their deeds were
evil. For everyone who does wicked
things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be
exposed. But whoever does what is true
comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his deeds have been
carried out in God."
An old story tells of a desert nomad who awakened hungry in
the middle of the night. He lit a candle and began eating dates from a bowl
beside his bed. He took a bite from one end and saw a worm in it, so he threw
it out of the tent. He bit into the second date, found another worm, and threw
it away also. Reasoning that he wouldn’t have any dates left to eat if he
continued in this way, he blew out the candle and quickly at all the dates. There
are many who prefer darkness and denial to the light of reality.
You know what kinds of things go bump in the night. You know
what behaviors are covered by the blanket of darkness. You know, because the
Old Adam of your sinful human nature is alive and well in you. There are
skeletons in your closet. There are evil deeds that you would rather not come
into the light. We tend to harshly judge the misdeeds of Hollywood
personalities, pro athletes, Washington insiders, and other people closer to
hand. Many lives are backlit by the harsh spotlights of media attention or
rampant community rumor mills. Be honest. How well would you stand up under
such close scrutiny?
Come Judgment Day, all the books will be opened. Every deep,
dark, dirty, pitch-black sin you have committed will be exposed to the light of
day. It only takes one sin to damn someone. Are you holding any outside of the
blood of Jesus? He comes to shed light in every corner of your sin-darkened
existence. Since your sins and my sins will be exposed anyway on the Last Day,
why wait and be condemned by them? Wash your robes and make them white in the
blood of the Lamb! Repent and believe the Gospel! You who dwell in the land of
deep darkness, look to the Light of Christ and Live!
If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the
truth is not in us. So writes St. John in the first chapter of his first
epistle. But if we confess our sins, God, who is faithful and just, will
forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
And 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.
Bob Woods tells the story of a couple who took their son,
11, and daughter, 7, to Carlsbad Caverns. As always, when the tour reached the
deepest point of the cavern, the guide turned off all the lights to dramatize
how completely dark and silent it is below the earth’s surface. The little
girl, suddenly enveloped in utter darkness, was frightened and began to cry.
Immediately was heard the voice of her brother: “Don’t cry. Somebody here knows
how to turn on the lights.”
In a real sense, that is the message of the Gospel: Light is
available, even when the darkness seems overwhelming. Darkness only seems overwhelming. In reality, Jesus
Christ is the Light of the World, the Light no
darkness can overcome.
And 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 so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever
believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
How can water do such great things? How can bodily eating
and drinking do such great things? Who can forgive sins but God alone? These
are not new questions. Luther posed the first two in his Small Catechism.
Certainly not just the water, or eating bread, drinking wine, and a man saying
nice things do this, but the Word of God, the Lord’s own promises, along with
the faith which trusts those Words of God.
Our Lord calls for you to repent and believe the Gospel!
Even this faith is not from yourselves. It is also the gift of God. We all have
occasions to say the prayer, Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief! The Lord has
promised to answer that prayer.
There is no sin that is too big that it cannot be forgiven.
Perceived size does not matter to your Lord. It matters not how long you have
been away. It is unbelief that damns, unbelief that trusts not God’s Word nor
His precious promises. His forgiveness is for you. His forgiveness is full. Everyone
who believes in Him may have eternal life. Amen.
In the Name of Jesus. Amen.
