The Fourth Sunday in Lent - 18 March 2012
Numbers 21:4-9
Psalm 107:1-3, 17-22
Ephesians 2:1-10
St. John 3:14-21
Background: Serpents
Serpents were known throughout the Ancient Near East, and played significant roles in the religions of Israel, Egypt, Canaan, Greece, and Mesopotamia. Serpents seemed to enjoy two totally different identities, being associated with evil power, and chaos, and with healing and fertility. In Hebrew one word for snake, nahash, implies divination, and is the word used for the snake in the Garden of Eden. The other word, found in the Hebrew Scriptures is the word seraph, a word describing the various poisonous snakes found in the wilderness (see the first reading for today). This word is similar to the Hebrew word seraph (fiery one) from which we get the word “seraphim” (literally “burning ones”) Other associations are with the sea monster (chaos) that is common in most Ancient Near Easter creation stories, who also appear as the “Leviathan” in Isaiah 27, in the psalms, and in Amos. In the readings for today, the serpent takes on highly symbolic meanings, as well as a reality in the reading from Numbers.
Numbers 21:4-9
From Mount Hor the Israelites set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; but the people became impatient on the way. The people spoke against God and against Moses, "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." Then the LORD sent poisonous serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many Israelites died. The people came to Moses and said, "We have sinned by speaking against the LORD and against you; pray to the LORD to take away the serpents from us." So Moses prayed for the people. And the LORD said to Moses, "Make a poisonous serpent, and set it on a pole; and everyone who is bitten shall look at it and live." So Moses made a serpent of bronze, and put it upon a pole; and whenever a serpent bit someone, that person would look at the serpent of bronze and live.
Tis reading may serve as an etiology that explains the presence of bronze snakes in the cultus of the Canaanite cities. The snake was a sign of fertility and healing in these cultures (see above). In this story, which may represent a Moses tradition which the J editor takes and makes into a YHWH healing story, Moses assuages the fiery inflammations of the snake bites by having the people look at the healing serpent which he erects before them. YHWH becomes both scourge and healer in this story, sending the serpents to counter the complaints of the people, and also suggests the placing of the magic serpent on a pole.
Breaking open Numbers
- How are serpents treated in the scriptures?
- Do you have a positive or a negative reaction to serpents?
- Is this a story about faith?
Psalm 107:1-3, 17-22 Confitemini Domino
Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, *
and his mercy endures for ever.
Let all those whom the LORD has redeemed proclaim *
that he redeemed them from the hand of the foe.
He gathered them out of the lands; *
from the east and from the west,
from the north and from the south.
Some were fools and took to rebellious ways; *
they were afflicted because of their sins.
They abhorred all manner of food *
and drew near to death's door.
Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble, *
and he delivered them from their distress.
He sent forth his word and healed them *
and saved them from the grave.
Let them give thanks to the LORD for his mercy *
and the wonders he does for his children.
Let them offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving *
and tell of his acts with shouts of joy.
The psalm is a collective thanksgiving psalm, of which only a few verses are sung in the Liturgy for today. There is a universal character added by verse three, where the cardinal points of the compass are mention. “from the South”, is perhaps not an accurate translation where the Hebrew renders a “from the Sea” which would be West, or perhaps the author is thinking, way south, beyond the Negev to the Red Sea at Eilat. The sense of those giving thanks is that they are refugees, returning from the other parts, perhaps from exile. That would place the psalm somewhere in the 6th Century BCE. Other commentators, however, think that it is an older text, and perhaps the imagery of return is more of a universal nature, rather than tied to a specific event.
Breaking open Psalm 107
- What are the thanksgiving elements in this psalm?
- How does the psalmist colorfully recount the condition and situation of those returning?
- How have you been and exile?
Ephesians 2:1-10
You were dead through the trespasses and sins in which you once lived, following the course of this world, following the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work among those who are disobedient. All of us once lived among them in the passions of our flesh, following the desires of flesh and senses, and we were by nature children of wrath, like everyone else. God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ-- by grace you have been saved-- and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God-- not the result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.
Paul uses three actions to describe the state of the Ephesian congregation to whom he is writing, and these three actions relate equally well to the reading that have been chosen to surround it. 1. “Brought to life together” mirrored in the life that the family of Israel sought from the serpent that Moses raised us, and in the Gospel, the life that is given to whomever believes. 2. “Raised together” is an image begun in the first reading, where raises the serpent, and the people would raise their eyes in order to look upon it and be healed. In the Gospel, Jesus talks with Nicodemus and compares his own situation with that of the serpent that Moses raised. So “the Son of Man” must be raised, so that people might behold and believe. 3. “Enthroned together”, this action is not seen in the first reading, excepting the “enthronement” of the bronze serpent. In the Gospel it is implied in the “lifting up” of Jesus. The implication is that Christ rules from the cross, and draws in our minds the quotation from St. John 12:23, “and I when I am raise up from the earth will draw all (men) to myself.”
Breaking open Ephesians
- How have you been “raised up” in your life?
- In what way have you been “made alive” through your faith?
- What good works has God prepared for you?
John 3:14-21
Jesus said to Nicodemus, "Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
"For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.
"Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God."
St. John the Evangelist uses two descriptors to interpret Christ to his hearers and to his readers. The first is “raised up” and the second is “glorified”. In these actions the purposes of God in Christ Jesus are made manifest and clear. The first paragraph describes the situation with Nicodemus, and in the second, we hear the Evangelist’s own voice in his statement about God’s love for the world. Other comparisons are made in the third paragraph, namely a comparison of darkness and light. It is as if that the evangelist assigns to God, and God’s actions in Christ Jesus, the justification and motivation of our good deeds.
Breaking open the Gospel:
- Do you identify with Nicodemus?
- What do you think of Jesus’ explanations?
- How do you believe in Jesus?
After breaking open the Word, you might want to pray the Collect for Sunday:
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.
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