Look At The Cross
Sermon text for February 17, 2008:
John 3:14-21 and Numbers 21:4-9
Some people don’t seem to know it when they have it good. I remember a story about a seventeen year old boy who thought he had a rough life. He lived in his parents’ home, had his own room, a computer, a television, had plenty of food and appropriate clothing (although the family sometimes disputed about what was appropriate). His father had saved an old junker of a car for the day when his son got a driver’s license. You know the kind of car I’m talking about. It was a big old ugly tank that could stand up in a wreck against almost anything smaller than a train.
But the boy was unhappy because he didn’t have a sleeker, faster, more cool form of transportation. He demanded that his father buy him something different, and when the father refused the boy got upset and swore never to drive the car. And as far as I know he never did.
Some people just don’t understand when they have it good. According to our story from Numbers, the people of Israel didn’t know when they had it good. As they wandered around in the wilderness, somewhere between Egypt and the Promised Land they grew tired of the journey and their thoughts turned to the good life they had in Egypt.
The memory of slavery and cruel oppression began to fade, and all that they could remember is that in Egypt they had enough food and water. In the fantasy of memory the days in Egypt seemed awfully good.
Yet their nomadic life in the wilderness wasn’t really so bad. Whenever there was a problem Moses spoke with God, who promptly fulfilled the peoples’ need. When they were thirsty God gave them water. When the desert couldn’t feed the people, God sent manna. But the people didn’t know that they had it good.
One day the people began to complain loudly against both God and Moses. “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness. For there is no food and water, and we detest this miserable food.” Obviously what they were really saying is that the manna has become boring. They sound like college kids complaining about food in the cafeteria. “There’s nothing to eat! Well alright there is, ‘but we detest this miserable food.’”
They didn’t know when they had it good and they screamed in anger against God and Moses. This time God does not deal kindly with the people’s complaint. This time God becomes angry and sends snakes to bite the people. Some say the snakes were of fire and others that they were poisonous. When the people were bitten the wound burned and some died. The plague of snakes caught the people’s attention and they confessed that they were ungrateful and asked for forgiveness.
God accepted the people’s confession and instructed Moses to make a bronze snake and lift it high on a pole so that anyone who was bitten could look at it and live. Moses did as he was told and those who focused on the serpent lived.
Isn’t it interesting that God did not remove the source of the trouble. Instead God simply provided a way for the people to live through the plague. This is one of the central messages of scripture. Sometimes God removes the cause of our pain, but more often God provides us with the strength we need to survive and even to overcome our adversities. We find victory by living faithfully in spite of the pain that sometimes comes in life.
One day Jesus was talking with Dr. Nicodemus, and he says, “And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up so that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.”
Jesus knew that the people remembered the story of Moses with the life-giving serpent that was lifted up for the people’s salvation. Now in his conversation with Dr, Nicodemus he offers a similar image for believers to focus on. He invites us to see the Son of Man high and lifted up. The image is a foreshadowing of Jesus’ glorification which begins with being lifted up on the cross.
In this promise God does not take us out of the troubles and difficulties of life. Instead God provides us One on whom we can focus, who gives us life beyond the things that bring us pain.
Look at the cross! Like the bronze serpent in the wilderness it is the way God chose for our salvation. Look at the cross, high and lifted up and see who is hung there. When we focus on the saving act of Jesus on the cross, many of the things which afflict get us become less important. Look at the cross! It is the greatest symbol of God’s love, because on the cross Jesus died so that we might live.
Look at the cross and remember those timeless words, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son (to die on the cross) so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but have eternal life.”
Look at the cross and know that one day Jesus hung there and died. Look at the cross it is the symbol of God’s overpowering, amazing, protective love. Look at the cross and focus on the One who was lifted up so that we might find security in God’s love.
As we journey more deeply into Lent and toward the events of Holy Week, look at the cross for the One who hung there brings us salvation. The image of the crucifixion is almost too horrifying to look at but in it we know that no matter what life brings, we have it good. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, so that whoever believes in him may not perish, but have everlasting life.
Copyright © 2008 by Dwight R. Blackstock
John 3:14-21 and Numbers 21:4-9
Some people don’t seem to know it when they have it good. I remember a story about a seventeen year old boy who thought he had a rough life. He lived in his parents’ home, had his own room, a computer, a television, had plenty of food and appropriate clothing (although the family sometimes disputed about what was appropriate). His father had saved an old junker of a car for the day when his son got a driver’s license. You know the kind of car I’m talking about. It was a big old ugly tank that could stand up in a wreck against almost anything smaller than a train.
But the boy was unhappy because he didn’t have a sleeker, faster, more cool form of transportation. He demanded that his father buy him something different, and when the father refused the boy got upset and swore never to drive the car. And as far as I know he never did.
Some people just don’t understand when they have it good. According to our story from Numbers, the people of Israel didn’t know when they had it good. As they wandered around in the wilderness, somewhere between Egypt and the Promised Land they grew tired of the journey and their thoughts turned to the good life they had in Egypt.
The memory of slavery and cruel oppression began to fade, and all that they could remember is that in Egypt they had enough food and water. In the fantasy of memory the days in Egypt seemed awfully good.
Yet their nomadic life in the wilderness wasn’t really so bad. Whenever there was a problem Moses spoke with God, who promptly fulfilled the peoples’ need. When they were thirsty God gave them water. When the desert couldn’t feed the people, God sent manna. But the people didn’t know that they had it good.
One day the people began to complain loudly against both God and Moses. “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness. For there is no food and water, and we detest this miserable food.” Obviously what they were really saying is that the manna has become boring. They sound like college kids complaining about food in the cafeteria. “There’s nothing to eat! Well alright there is, ‘but we detest this miserable food.’”
They didn’t know when they had it good and they screamed in anger against God and Moses. This time God does not deal kindly with the people’s complaint. This time God becomes angry and sends snakes to bite the people. Some say the snakes were of fire and others that they were poisonous. When the people were bitten the wound burned and some died. The plague of snakes caught the people’s attention and they confessed that they were ungrateful and asked for forgiveness.
God accepted the people’s confession and instructed Moses to make a bronze snake and lift it high on a pole so that anyone who was bitten could look at it and live. Moses did as he was told and those who focused on the serpent lived.
Isn’t it interesting that God did not remove the source of the trouble. Instead God simply provided a way for the people to live through the plague. This is one of the central messages of scripture. Sometimes God removes the cause of our pain, but more often God provides us with the strength we need to survive and even to overcome our adversities. We find victory by living faithfully in spite of the pain that sometimes comes in life.
One day Jesus was talking with Dr. Nicodemus, and he says, “And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up so that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.”
Jesus knew that the people remembered the story of Moses with the life-giving serpent that was lifted up for the people’s salvation. Now in his conversation with Dr, Nicodemus he offers a similar image for believers to focus on. He invites us to see the Son of Man high and lifted up. The image is a foreshadowing of Jesus’ glorification which begins with being lifted up on the cross.
In this promise God does not take us out of the troubles and difficulties of life. Instead God provides us One on whom we can focus, who gives us life beyond the things that bring us pain.
Look at the cross! Like the bronze serpent in the wilderness it is the way God chose for our salvation. Look at the cross, high and lifted up and see who is hung there. When we focus on the saving act of Jesus on the cross, many of the things which afflict get us become less important. Look at the cross! It is the greatest symbol of God’s love, because on the cross Jesus died so that we might live.
Look at the cross and remember those timeless words, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son (to die on the cross) so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but have eternal life.”
Look at the cross and know that one day Jesus hung there and died. Look at the cross it is the symbol of God’s overpowering, amazing, protective love. Look at the cross and focus on the One who was lifted up so that we might find security in God’s love.
As we journey more deeply into Lent and toward the events of Holy Week, look at the cross for the One who hung there brings us salvation. The image of the crucifixion is almost too horrifying to look at but in it we know that no matter what life brings, we have it good. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, so that whoever believes in him may not perish, but have everlasting life.
Copyright © 2008 by Dwight R. Blackstock
posted by Dwight Blackstock | 7:11 AM
1 Comments:
Thanks for writing this.
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