John 3:1-16 — Sermon by Rev. Drew Ibach

May I speak to you in the name of the

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

One of my favorite things about the

Bible is how it can catch you off guard.

The Bible constantly keeps you on your

toes. Just when you think you know how

God works, just when you think you know

what he is going to do next, he does

something unexpected.

In our Old Testament lesson for this

morning, Numbers 21:4-9

Numbers 21:4–9

tells an unexpected

story.

The people of Israel had been freed from

Egypt and found themselves wandering in

the desert. And they begin to complain

against God and Moses, saying, "Why have

you brought us up out of Egypt to die in

the wilderness? There is no bread. There

is no water. And we detest this

miserable food.

Now, as a result of their complaining,

the Lord sends venomous snakes

throughout the camp.

And in verse 7, we see the Israelites

plead with Moses to advocate on their

behalf, saying, "We sinned when we spoke

against the Lord and against you.

Pray that the Lord will take these

snakes away."

So Moses prayed to the Lord.

Now, at this point, I can't help but

wonder what the Israelites thought might

happen next. After all, they had seen

God do miraculous things in the past.

They had seen him send 10 plagues on

Egypt. They had witnessed God part the

Red Sea. They had watched as God

provided water from a rock in the middle

of the desert.

So, I wonder what they thought God might

do this time.

How might God save them from these

poisonous snakes? Would God simply

direct the snakes away from their camp?

Or would he do something miraculous?

Maybe God would cause an earthquake that

would crush all the snakes. Or perhaps

he would send a mighty wind that would

blow throughout the camp and blow the

snakes away.

Yes, the Israelites had seen God do

miraculous and unexpected things, but

I'd be willing to bet that no one

anticipated what happened next.

In verse 8 and n we're told that God

told Moses, "Make a snake and put it on

a pole.

Anyone who was bitten can look at it and

live." So Moses made a bronze snake, put

it on a pole. Then when anyone anyone

was bitten by a snake, they looked at

the snake and they lived.

What a strange and unexpected way to

save his people.

Rather than killing them, instead of

sending the snakes away, God saves his

people from poisonous snakes

by instructing Moses to make one.

In a twist that I'm sure no one saw

coming, God used the very thing that was

killing his people to save them. God

makes the instrument of death the means

of salvation.

And in response, the people of Israel

had to look at the snake and be saved.

They had to be reminded of the thing

that was causing their affliction.

If they wanted to be healed, they

couldn't ignore the snakes. They

couldn't wish them away or act as if it

they they weren't there.

If they wanted to be healed, the people

of Israel had to look at the very thing

that was killing them. If they wanted to

be healed, they had to look at the very

thing that was killing them.

And it is this strange and unexpected

event in Israel's history that Jesus

directly references in our gospel

passage for this morning.

Nicodemus comes to Jesus in the cover of

night and Jesus tells him all sorts of

surprising things that he must be born

again of water and of spirit. And he

tells him that the spirit blows where it

wishes. And in verse 14 and 15, Jesus

says,

"Just as Moses lifted up the snake in

the wilderness, so the Son of Man must

be lifted up that everyone who believes,

may have eternal life in him."

Jesus knows that Nicodemus, like any

good Pharisee, would recognize this

story.

But rather than focusing on the snake,

Jesus reinterprets this story in light

of his coming crucifixion.

Jesus predicts his death on a cross and

says that he, the son of man, will be

lifted up. And just as the Israelites

looked to the bronze serpent and were

healed, we

must look to the cross.

believe in Jesus and be saved.

There is no other way. If we want to be

healed, we must look to the cross.

And when we look to the cross, we will

begin to see two things.

First,

we see ourselves

for who we really are.

Much like the bronze serpent reminding

the Israelites of the very thing that

was killing them, the cross acts as a

reminder to us. When we look to the c

cross, we are reminded of what is

killing us, our sin.

The cross shows us who we really are

when left to our own devices.

We might like to tell ourselves that we

are good people, that we aren't so bad,

that we aren't too sinful.

But when we look to the cross, we see

exactly who we are. We see that we

prefer violence rather than peace. We

prefer cruelty over mercy, revenge

over forgiveness, hatred rather than

love.

Jesus Christ is the very embodiment

of peace, forgiveness, mercy, and love.

And we killed him.

We killed him.

That's who we are when we have our own

way.

That's what the cross shows us.

It shows us the depth of our sin.

And this is one of the reasons why we

might feel tempted to look away from the

cross, to look somewhere else, to look

to things like money, power, or culture

to name a few instead of the cross.

Because money, power, and culture won't

tell you how sinful you are.

Money will never tell you that you are

sinful. Money will tell you that you've

worked hard and deserve everything that

you have.

Worldly power doesn't tell you that you

are a sinner in need of mercy. The power

of this world tells you that you have

the right to do whatever it is that you

want, even if it's at the expense of

another.

Our culture won't tell you that you are

sinful. Rather, it will tell you that

the West is the most developed culture

in history.

Therefore, we are incapable of sinning

or at the very least, our sin isn't as

bad as others.

We are tempted to take our eyes off the

cross, and when we do, we slowly begin

to lie to ourselves.

we slowly begin to tell ourselves that

our sin isn't all that bad.

This, friends, is why the season of Lent

is so important.

In this penitential season, we take time

to repent, to fast, to pray.

We do these things not as a means to get

healthy or to try some type of new diet

or in some type of effort to earn grace.

No, we repent, fast, and pray so that we

may see the cross more clearly.

And we repent, fast, and pray as a

response to what we see when we look at

the cross.

That is what Lent is about. Keeping your

eyes on the cross in the midst of a

world that will tell you to look

elsewhere.

We must keep our eyes on the cross

because if we don't, not only will we

begin to lie to ourselves and not

recognize our sin for what it is, but we

will also never come to know the second

thing that we see when we keep our eyes

fixed on the cross.

Yes, the cross shows us the depth of our

sin.

It shows us exactly who we are.

But thanks be to God,

it also

it also shows us who God is.

In yet another unexpected twist, God

uses the cross, the very thing that

shows us how sinful we are to show us

the depth of his love for us. Just like

the Israelites and the serpent, God

takes the instrument of death and turns

it into the means by which we are saved.

He takes the cross, the very pinnacle of

our rejection towards him, and he turns

it into the means of reconciliation.

At the cross, God refuses

to leave us to our own devices

and we see the extent of God's steadfast

love towards us.

And not only that,

we see that the peace of God is

accomplished through self-sacrificial

love, not violence.

We see that justice is accomplished by

giving up yourself for the sake of

another, not through domination.

We see that forgiveness is always

radically extended

even to the very people that were

crucifying him.

At the cross, we see that true power is

not in military might. True power is not

found in empire. True power is not found

in vengeance. True power is found in the

love of Jesus Christ at the cross. A

love that is stronger than death itself.

This friends

is what we put our faith in.

This is what we believe in.

Not just as an historical fact. We not

only believe in Jesus Christ by

affirming that he died on a cross

roughly 2,000 years ago. We believe in

Jesus Christ by embodying the

self-sacrificial love that we see at the

cross. We believe in Jesus Christ by

following his example and by loving the

world the way that he loved us.

This means that we do not try to conquer

the world by force. We the church don't

wait for the world to figure itself out

before we love it. We don't try to force

the world to change. Rather, we enter

into the world just as Christ did and

just as Christ loved us even when we

were profoundly wrong.

Just as he was peaceful when we were

violent. Just as he was merciful in the

midst of our vengeance, just as he loved

us in the midst of our hatred,

so too must we, the church, be peaceful

in the midst of a violent world. Be

merciful in the midst of a world that is

opposed to grace,

to love even when we find ourselves in

the midst of hatred.

We the church

must always remember that it is the

cross that is it is our that is our

example. It is the cross Jesus Christ

and him crucified that we follow.

And as one New Testament scholar puts

it, we must always re remember that we

can only accomplish Christian ends

through Christian means.

Which is to say that if the church wants

to participate in true peace, true

justice, true mercy, true joy, true

love, we must follow the example of the

self-sacrificial love of the cross. We

must keep our eyes on the cross.

We do this not because it's effective in

the eyes of the world. Let me tell you

friends, it is not effective in the eyes

of the world.

We don't do it because it's the best way

to change the world.

We do this because we, the church, must

be the part of the world that is already

changed by the gospel.

We must be the part of the world that is

already changed by the love of God.

We love the world at a cost to ourselves

because we believe in Jesus Christ and

we desire to be faithful to him.

We love at a cost to ourselves because

our self-sacrificial loves bears witness

to the cross.

It bears witness to a God who transforms

the cross, the very thing that we used

to kill him into the very thing that

brings about our salvation.

We love the world. We love the world to

remind it that God so loved the world

that he gave his only begotten son that

whoever believes in him should not

perish but have eternal life.

Amen. Amen.