JOHN 3: 14-21

Jottings on John…Lent 4…2018 

This old story of the bronze snake from hundreds of years before is seared deep into Jesus’ psyche. So much so that He takes the story & beats it into shape like the smiths beat that original snake into shape. Jesus beats it into representing Himself & what’s going to happen to Him. Beats it into representing Himself & how He’s going to be beaten. Beats it into how He’s going to be hung up on the pole of the cross. Beats it so all who will look up to Him will find their healing; in every sense of that word.

It’s not clear whether this passage is still part of Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus, but it makes sense to take it as being so. Look at how Nicodemus is later so moved at Jesus being beaten & hung up to die, that against the odds, he assists Joseph of Arimathea in giving Jesus a decent burial. Had the snake-on-the-pole story begun to sear itself into Nicodemus’ psyche, too, after this conversation with Jesus? 

It’s easy to focus so much on the popular appeal of v. 16 that we skip over 14 & 15 in our haste to get to it. To do this is to fall into the trap of selectively choosing texts rather than taking each as part of a whole. Jesus undergoes His own ‘being lifted up’ experience so we might find our healing through His loving us so much (our beloved v.16). He’s prepared to prophetically re-enact & fulfil His being the antidote for all that’s biting us as we journey towards our Promised land.

At the start of Lent we learned that wilderness may be hard going, inhospitable, & a challenge to body, mind, & spirit, but it’s never God-forsaken; though we may refer to it as such. Today we have Good News about finding our healing from the things that bite us as we journey onwards with God through life on earth, including our various wildernesses. How can we lovingly, patiently, & confidently encourage those being ‘bitten to death’ by the various scourges of today’s society to take this Gospel into themselves? Taking this story as deeply as Jesus takes the original story into Himself may produce healing at a deeper level than a lot of other ‘remedies’ on offer. Are we up for it?

Jesus Himself is healed through being raised to new life. Whatever happens to us, whatever bites us, He’s our guarantee of the deepest healing of all.