Today’s gospel reading seems to give us two religious symbols: the bronze serpent and the Son of Man. But what the symbols have in common is this image of either the bronze serpent or the Son of Man being lifted up. Let’s first look at the bronze serpent, which is called the ‘Nehushtan’ in Hebrew. This story of the bronze serpent begins with the Israelites’ impatience with God and Moses in the wilderness. They petitioned God to liberate them from Egypt, having Moses as their leader to the Promised Land. They were glad that when they finally got out of slavery. But as they feel like wandering in the wilderness without any progress, they start complaining against God and Moses. This is quite typical of all human beings. When we stumble upon something and struggle with challenges we aren’t so prepared, we become frustrated and angry. We then complain.
Let’s hear exactly what the Israelites say in the first lesson. They shout out, “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.” No food and no water, they say. Actually they take back about the food part. It’s not that there’s no food. They have manna from heaven. Yet they detest, dislike intensely, hate the food God provides. They refuse to eat this food in protest against God. What about the water part? It is actually not true that they have no water. We didn’t get a chance to read the previous chapter of the Book of Numbers. But in chapter 20, the Israelites already asked for water. God listened to their cry and commanded Moses what to do. Here’s what God says: “Take the staff, and assemble the congregation, you and your brother Aaron, and command the rock before their eyes to yield its water. Thus you shall bring water out of the rock for them; thus you shall provide drink for the congregation and their livestock.” (Numbers 20:8) The Israelites might be suffering from amnesia. They do have water and food. Their claim of no food and no water is not a good reason to blame God and Moses for taking them out of Egypt. As their stay in the wilderness gets longer, they realize more and more that this is not what they signed up for. The life in the wilderness on the way to the Promised Land from Egypt is not about obtaining their independence. It is about learning their total dependence on God. This life of trusting in God feels like no water and no food for them. It feels more like suffering and death to them. And they do experience death in the wilderness. Poisonous serpents bite them. This crisis of the poisonous serpents’ attack brings the Israelites back to God. They cry out for help and ask Moses to pray on behalf of them, “We have sinned by speaking against the Lord and against you. Pray to the Lord to take away the serpents from us.” At this point, we might wonder if God sent the poisonous serpents to the Israelites to teach them a lesson to the point of killing them. I suggest that this is how the Israelites make sense of the crisis of being bitten by poisonous serpents. They interpret this incident as God’s punishment for their complaint and consistent amnesia about God’s act of deliverance from Egypt. God answers the Israelites’ prayer request not in the way they want. God doesn’t take away the serpents. They would still get bitten by the serpents. And when they are bitten, they must look at the poisonous serpent that is made of bronze. They should look up the bronze serpent being set on a pole. What God has in mind is to let them face what they most fear, which is death. Instead of escaping from their fear of death, they must face it. Fear doesn’t disappear by avoiding it but through it. Healing happens when we overcome our own fear of death. The bronze serpent becomes the symbol of both death and healing. In today’s gospel reading, Jesus uses this symbol of the bronze serpent in comparison to the Son of Man, himself. The bronze serpent is to be lifted up on a pole, and so is the Son of Man. This image of the Son of Man that is Jesus being lifted up comes easily to us as the symbol of the cross. The cross in the time of Jesus is another symbol of death. People in his time probably consider it strange and shocking to see how the cross is being used in our time. For them, the cross is not a sign of glory or victory or fame or honor. It is indeed a sign of public judgment and shame in which a criminal is tied, nailed, and hung to death. Crucifixion is a method of capital punishment. As the bronze serpent is set on a pole so that the Israelites can face their fear of death, the Son of Man, Jesus is lifted up on the cross for the entire world to face their fear of death. Death has always been the subject matter of that which to overcome. It has always been the subject of the deepest fear that humanity has struggled with. Jesus doesn’t want us to look away from this reality of death. As he is hung and killed on the cross, he wants us to look at it, face what we most fear. As we see the body of Jesus, more specifically speaking, the corpse of Christ (literally corpus Christi) on the cross, we face our own fear of death. It is a scary thing to face our own fear. And it is even scarier to have no fear. There’s a reason why Lent begins with Ash Wednesday on which we hear we are dust and to dust we return because what we most fear is death. Some say our fear of death is worse than death itself. During this Lenten season, we’re again and again being invited to face what we most fear as we reflect on the Son of Man hung on the cross. But this is not the main goal. We’re to see the corpse of Jesus on the cross to really see death is overcome by him. God enters into what we most fear. God faces what we’re most afraid of. God jumps into death willingly and sacrificially. This is how God loves all of God’s creatures. The cross then obtains a different meaning. It becomes the sign in which God joins the suffering of the world out of love. The resurrection is nothing but this love enfleshed in the crucified and risen Body of Jesus Christ. Look at the cross. We see what we most fear. But don’t forget that we also see God’s love towards us. The Body of Jesus on the cross is God’s way of expressing God’s unconditional and eternal love and compassion for us and others. When that divine love touches us, our fear of death disappears. Nothing matters but love. As St. Paul says, “neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 838-39) Believing in Jesus is not about accepting all the church teachings. It is about realizing that you’re loved as you see the corpse of Jesus on the cross and in turn, you also love him with enormous gratitude for that love. Remind yourself that you’re loved every time you look at the cross. At times, however, you might wonder or doubt whether you’re really loved by Jesus. I think this is quite common to experience in our culture that often judges, punishes, and shames us. It requires some spiritual muscles to remind ourselves of God’s love. Here’s some practical tips I can share with you. This is about how to remember that Jesus loves me. In your own heart, you might have experienced love and compassion for some people you don’t really know. Now, ask yourself where that love originates from. Let me give you an example. I hope you will excuse me for sharing my personal story. As a person who doesn’t have a good relationship with his father, I often wondered if I can be a good loving father myself. My logic behind is based on causality, cause and effect. If I didn’t get much love from others, how can I have any love to give to others? Quite surprisingly, Jesus’ love doesn’t work that way. After becoming a father myself to my son, I not only learn to love him more but also discover love in me that I never thought I would’ve had. I don’t believe I created it. I believe it comes from the love of God in Jesus. It is the sign or inner sacrament that shows Jesus loves me and I am his beloved. God’s love enters in and through the crucified Body of Jesus and reveals itself through the risen Body of Jesus. During this Lent, it is my prayer that we open up our hearts to experience anew this love of God shown in Jesus Christ. It is my prayer that as we reflect on the cross, we are reminded of God’s love that never leaves us and that we discover our inner sacrament of love as we love others. And lastly, it is my prayer that the more we discover ourselves being loved, the more we love Christ and others. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. |
Paul"...life up your love to that cloud [of unknowing]...let God draw your love up to that cloud...through the help of his grace, to forget every other thing." Archives
January 2025
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