(Audio)
And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert,
so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.
When the seraph serpent was mounted on a pole there was a sense in which sin and the consequences of sin were put on public display.
if any who have been bitten look at it, they will live.
We can appreciate the value of recognizing where we went wrong and acknowledging it. This is repentance. The consequences of sin are difficult to fathom and easy to excuse when we see them in ourselves. They are worse even than the deaths caused by the serpents, worse assuredly than any figurative representation on a poll could be sufficient to convey. Even so, who would have guessed that Jesus himself would be lifted up, bear the full consequences of sin, and make true repentance possible?
We should marvel at the humility of Jesus who emptied himself to take the form of a slave, who, found human in appearance, humbled himself to an obedient death on the cross.
Rather, he emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave,
coming in human likeness;
and found human in appearance,
he humbled himself,
becoming obedient to death,
even death on a cross.
Now we do something so strange than only the force of time and familiarity can diminish the terrible strangeness of it. We venerate the cross, an instrument of torture, and a device of execution. We do so not for what it is in itself but rather for how it was transformed by Jesus. This tree which was meant for death was transformed into the new and irremovable tree of life from which we need never lose access again.
For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son,
so that everyone who believes in him might not perish
but might have eternal life.
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world,
but that the world might be saved through him.
The cross shows us our sin in a way that allows us to realize the full horror of our rebellion against God's good order. Because it is fully visible we can repent sincerely. But the cross is more than simply turning away from one path. Because and only because Jesus, who did not deserve the cross embraced it for our sakes he transformed it into the very ladder connecting heaven and earth. Death became the gateway, for those united to Jesus and his cross, unto everlasting life.
Because of this, God greatly exalted him
and bestowed on him the name
that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus
every knee should bend,
of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
Hard to find this version on YouTube, but I found it.
Stumbled across this one, too:
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