One of the reasons that I like Lent so much is because Lent is REAL. Life, after all, is a convoluted journey filled with peaks, valleys, and periods of level ground. But there are times when events beyond our control drive us into the wilderness. When a pandemic strikes. When a loved one becomes ill. When a relationship comes to an end.
During Lent, the Spirit drives us into the wilderness to confront our fears, to travel the pilgrim path to the cross, and to stare death in the face. It’s a time in our liturgical lives together when we once again hear the stark proclamation: “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”
The text from Numbers 21 recounts a wilderness journey made long ago. A time when the Israelites were wandering in the Negev desert as they made their way from slavery to the Promised Land. It is, we learn in Numbers 20, a wilderness journey that is going to get a lot more difficult; due primarily to the King of Edom’s refusal to let the Israelites pass through his kingdom. This refusal matters. The Edomites and the Israelites are family. The biblical story teaches that Esau is the ancestor of the Edomites. His younger twin, Jacob, the one who stole Esau’s rightful inheritance and blessing, is the father of the twelve sons who would become the Twelve Tribes of Israel. Perhaps resentment still remains in Edom!
The king’s refusal requires the Israelites to make a detour during their wilderness journey. Hardships surface. The people become impatient; speaking out against God and Moses. They complain about the lack of food and water. Ingratitude soon sets in.
Keep in mind, this response comes from a people that God has recently liberated from slavery in Egypt. It is a response from a people among whom dwells/tabernacles the presence of the Lord — protecting, guiding, feeding, and sustaining the Israelites. Providing “bread from heaven” to keep the people from starving. And instructing Moses to strike a rock with his staff, thereby producing the waters of Meribah, a life-giving nectar that the people will need as they prepare to make the arduous detour around Edom. How quickly, it appears, God’s people forget God’s saving activity in their lives!
The text from Numbers 21 then tells us that the Lord responds to the people’s lack of faith by sending poisonous serpents among the people. The serpents strike the people and many of the people died. In time, the people discover that sin has consequences. And, coming to grips with this reality — the reality that sin leads to death — the people acknowledge their sin and call upon Moses to pray to the Lord to take away the poisonous serpents.
Moses responds to the people’s request by doing as they ask. He prays for the people. God, in turn, receives Moses’ prayers and sees the repentance of God’s people. But God does not take away the serpents. Instead, the Lord instructs Moses to make a serpent and place it upon a pole. Whenever a serpent bites someone, that person would look upon the snake lifted up on a pole and live.
Notice, God’s prescription is not to remove the snakes. Instead, God’s prescription is to take the instrument of God’s wrath, the poisonous serpent, and place it on a pole. To experience healing the people must look upon the serpent lifted above them. That is, the people must look upon the image of their sin and trust in God’s promise in order for the gift of life to occur.
No wonder that this gem of a text from Numbers is paired with the gospel reading from John 3:14-21. For one, in John’s Gospel Jesus directly references the incident from Numbers during his secret nighttime meeting with the Pharisee Nicodemus. “Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness,” declares Jesus, “so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life” (3:14-15). For only Jesus, the one lifted up high on the cross for all the world to see, offers salvation, life, healing, and wholeness to all who believe in him.
But the truth of the matter is that we are in bondage to sin. We cannot, on our volition, come to faith. We grumble. We complain. We waver in the faith. We do not love our neighbor as we ought to. And we struggle to trust the reality of God’s ongoing presence in our lives. Perhaps even more so now as we worry about what the future might hold as we grieve the end of a pastoral relationship and wonder what an interim ministry might bring.
During Lent the Spirit drives us into the wilderness and forces us to confront the reality of death with the words: “Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return.” Yet the cross testifies to another reality. One that reveals the power and wisdom of God. A God who desires to be in relationship with sinners so much that God does the unthinkable, sending the Son to be lifted up on the cross; to reconcile the world to God’s self.
In the cross we behold a ferocious battle, a struggle between life and death. In the cross life and death fought and death was utterly defeated! This is the reality we cling to.
The same God who defeated death and raised Jesus from the dead is at work today. Bringing life out of death, hope out of despair, and a new future out of the end of a relationship. As we move forward into an uncertain future together, may we do so continuing to trust that God with us IS … every step of the way.
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Walking to Golgotha 