Snakes: Lent, Week 4, Sunday, Year B

Through Jesus Christ our Lord; who was in every way tempted as we .are, yet did not sin; by whose grace we are able to triumph over every evil, and to live no longer unto ourselves, but unto him who died for us and rose again. 

Numbers 21:4-9                              Ephesians 2:1-10                          John 3:14-21

 I grew up in the Panhandle of Texas.  Just beyond our house was a vacant lot.  By late July or early August the grass was tall, dry and rattled in the hot, dry wind.  But, at the back of the lot was a small concrete slab shaded by an elm tree; perfect for playing marbles.  I knew I wasn’t supposed to go there. I was barefoot. Watching for sticker patches.  Watching for red ant beds.

I became irritable and cross.  I felt something slither across my foot.  There was the rattler end of a diamondback disappearing into the grass.  My next step would put me in a rattlesnake nest filled with hatchlings, small but many, and poisonous.  I screamed.  Daddy came.  I expected a spanking. I got picked up and embraced with incredible love.  Saved.

The children of Israel were up to their stiff necks in deadly snakes.  God suddenly had their full attention.  Suffer your consequences but “look up and be healed.” (Numbers 21:4-9 MSG)

The Ephesians were up to their necks in disobedience. “It’s a wonder God didn’t lose his temper and do away with the whole lot of us. Instead, immense in mercy … he embraced us … made us alive in Christ.”  (Ephesians 2:1-10 MSG)

Jesus said to Nicodemus “In the same way that Moses lifted the serpent in the desert…it is necessary for the Son of Man to be lifted up – and everyone who looks up to him…will gain a real life, eternal life.”  (John 3:14-21 MSG) Saved.  

Gracious Father, whose blessed Son Jesus Christ came down from heaven to be the true bread which gives life to the world: Evermore give us this bread, that he may live in us, and we in him; who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen