Title: THE CROSS OF CHRIST—DIVINE MEDICINE

Focus: The cross of Christ is God’s antidote to the curse of death for all who believe in Christ.

Function: To move the people to turn in faith to the crucified and risen Christ

Text: John 3:1-21

INTRODUCTION

We have a wonderful son-in-law by the name of Scott. When he began dating our daughter a number of years ago, it became our job as parents to accept and love Scott. That really was not hard to do, because Scott is a likeable fellow. He’s kind, calm, and cool as a cucumber. He treats people well, and he loves animals. And that’s where I had a problem. I, too, like animals; some of them, however, I prefer to appreciate and watch from a distance.

Not Scott. He’ll pick up a lost baby skunk and make it his pet project for a while. He will care for rabbits, raccoons, and snapping turtles. And that’s ok with me. But when he started to show me his snakes in an aquarium, I drew a line. I will love Scott, but not his snakes. I hate snakes. Don’t ask me why; it’s just the way it is.

Do you know that over 8000 people a year receive venomous snakebites in North America alone? About 15-20 victims die of snakebites. Moses and the Israelites in the desert would have been envious of such a record. For when they encountered poisonous snakes on their journey to the promised land, many of them died—so many that the people cried out to Moses with a spirit of repentance and said: “Pray that the Lord will take the snakes away from us.”

I wonder if Moses and the Israelites would have prayed that prayer if they had the same death rate of snake bites as we have today. You see, when poisonous snakes bite people today, most doctors will administer an antidote or medicine called “antivenin.”

Antivenin is made from antibodies created in a horse’s blood serum when the horse is injected with snake poison. When a doctor injects that antivenin into one of our veins, the antivenin works by neutralizing the snake poison in our body. Most of the time the antivenin saves the life of a victim or protects the victim of a snake bite from serious side effects.

All people suffer from the poison of sin. You and I, by virtue of our human nature going back all the way to Adam and Eve, share in their sin and in the consequences of their sin and of our own as well. When sin entered the world, death entered with it. And ever since our first parents fell into sin, all of humanity is under a shroud of death. Our human nature suffers from the effect of the poison of sin.

Is there an antidote, a medicine against this curse of death? Yes, thank God there is! On this fourth Sunday in Lent, we consider Jesus’ journey to the cross at Calvary, and we notice Jesus offering us a wondrous medicine: it comes from a heavenly Snake who died on a horrendous cross only to give eternal life to lost sinners and a perishing world. There is hope and life for anyone who turns in faith to the crucified and risen Lord Jesus Christ.

THE PASSAGE: JOHN 3:1-17

Listen to Jesus speaking to Nicodemus (and to us): “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.” Jesus speaks these words to Nicodemus, a religious teacher of Israel. Nicodemus, then, is a man of God’s Word; he knows the Scriptures and its stories of faith. But Nicodemus has a hard time knowing what to make of Jesus and his claims that Jesus is the Messiah, the Christ who has come to seek and save the lost. Jesus tries to explain to Nicodemus that he must be born again to enter or see the kingdom of God in his life.

And Jesus illustrates his point by first referring to the Prophet Ezekiel’s vision of the valley of dry bones, which come alive as God sends his Spirit or “wind.” Jesus tries to help Nicodemus understand that Nicodemus, too, must be made alive by God’s Spirit, so that Nicodemus can enter God’s kingdom and have new, that is, eternal life.

But Nicodemus does not get it. So the Lord Jesus gives him another illustration from the Scriptures. Jesus speaks of Moses and the Israelites in the desert: how God sent venomous snakes to His people because:

· The Israelites turned against God’s provision of manna—you remember? That heavenly food that sustained them on the journey toward the Promised Land?

· The Israelites grumbled about the travel route through the desert; they thought Egypt was better, after all.

· The Israelites ungratefully discounted God’s provision of water from a rock in the desert.

In short, God punished the whining, ungrateful, and cantankerous spirit of His people by sending poisonous snakes their way. Many received bites; many got sick and died. Here a snake! There a snake! Snakes galore! Graves galore! Thus it was that the Israelites came to their senses. They confessed their sins and begged Moses to intercede with God on their behalf. Moses did. And God responded.

The Lord said to Moses: “Make a snake and put it upon a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live,” And so, says Scripture, “Moses made a bronze snake and put it up a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, he lived.”

This bronze snake, coiled and nailed unto a pole, became an instrument of hope, healing, and life itself. Think of it: the bronze snake

· Connected the Dying People With God’s Promise of Healing and Life; those doomed to die now could connect with God’s word of hope. That bronze snake connected the people with God’s grace. Also, the bronze snake

· Drew People Away From Themselves. It “forced” the people to look up to ‘God’s promise and provision of healing or life. Do you want to live? Don’t look for life in yourselves! Look up to God! The bronze snake also

· Tested the People: “You who are snake-bitten and doomed to die, listen: If you want to live, you must turn to God’s Word of promise. If you don’t, you’ll surely die.” The bronze snake forced the people to show their true color: will you persist in unbelief and disobedience, or will you turn to God in faith? Thus the bronze snake becomes Israel’s hope of life and healing in the midst of slithering, biting, poisonous snakes.

Now here is Jesus’ point to Nicodemus (and to us): the new birth we all need to receive so that we may enter God’s kingdom and live forever, is like the renewal of the natural life of all those snake-bitten, dying Israelites. If one of those bitten Israelites, who looked at the bronze snake and lived when he was at death’s door had been asked how he felt, he might well have said that he felt as if he had been born all over again and received a new lease on life. That was a renewal of natural life.

Jesus offers Nicodemus and us much more: eternal life. And that eternal life comes to us as we consider Jesus’ work on the cross: “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.”

As in the days of the apostles, so also today many people find the cross of Christ and his crucifixion something horrendously offensive. Ted Turner, one of America’s news media tycoons, has supposedly said a few years ago that he does not need anyone to die for him. A crucified Jesus is an offense to Mr. Turner. That’s also the case for many Hollywood types. Melvin Gibson’s film on Jesus’ crucifixion drew millions of people, but the religious film received very little praise or endorsements from Hollywood’s elite society.

Never mind the skeptics! We do well to pick up Jesus’ teaching about his crucifixion, death, and resurrection. Consider, for example,

· The Divine “Must”: Jesus says, “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man MUST be lifted up….” Jesus’ death on the cross has something to do with the will of our heavenly Father. As Jesus has come to do the will of his heavenly Father, so Jesus faces his upcoming crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension into heaven with a sense of divine purpose. It’s like he is saying: I have no other choice; I will not refrain from taking the road of the cross, for “the Son of Man must be lifted up.”

Here is the point: If God so ordained the cross of Christ His Son, who are we to close our eyes to Christ’s crucifixion and death and resurrection? Anyone who wants to follow a Christ without the cross ends up with an antidote that does not do the job of bringing healing and eternal life. Then what you’ve got is snake oil from a quack. Pay attention to the divine “must” in Jesus’ words! In fact, embrace

· The Cross of Christ as Divine Medicine: Have you ever noticed that the medical profession all over the world has this caduceus as a symbol—a staff with two snakes coiled around it? That staff is a symbol of healing. There’s a story about this staff—a story about Asclepios, a Greek god, whose legendary powers of healing are part of Greek mythology.

One day, so the story goes, Asclepios was called to heal and raise the son of Minos, another Greek god, from the dead. The son’s name was Glaukos. Asclepios went to the body of Glaukos and secluded himself in a lonely place.

As Asclepios was pondering what to do next, a snake crawled up against Asclepios’ staff. Asclepios killed the snake. But all at once another snake entered the place with a certain herb in its mouth. The snake placed the herb in the mouth of the snake killed by Asclepios, and the snake revived.

Then Asclepios knew what to do with the corpse of Glaukos. He got some of the same herbs and placed it in Glaukos’ mouth. And, so the story goes, Glaukos revived and came alive again. And that’s how Asclepios became a famous physician, and how the medical world all throughout the centuries has chosen the caduceus, or staff with two snakes coiled around it, as its insignia or symbol of healing.

It’s a nice story. But that’s all. There is no historical truth to it. But here is a story filled with truth, foretold by the prophets, based on historical facts, verified by eyewitnesses, and attested to by generations of Christians world-wide: the cross of Jesus Christ is divine medicine against the poison of sin and death. For Jesus died on the cross that we may live. Jesus was raised from the dead, that we may see and enter God’s eternal kingdom. And Jesus ascended to heaven as King of kings and Lord of lords, that we might serve Him and exalt Him as sovereign ruler over all.

Here’s the good news: Anyone who embraces by faith the Lord Jesus Christ—crucified, dead, raised to life, and ascended as Savior King—may live with hope today, and shall live with eternal vigor and life when Christ comes again.

In this, as in all things, glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. Amen.