The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today challenge us to contemplate the Word in our Testaments that calls out our faith in the Love of God expressed in Jesus' exaltation on the Cross.
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The reading from the Book of Numbers describes the bronze serpent totem that God ordered to bring healing to the Israelites.
* [21:8] Everyone who has been bitten will look at it and recover: in the Gospel of John this scene is regarded as a type for the crucifixion of Jesus (Jn 3:14–15).1
Psalm 78 praises God’s goodness and notes Israel’s ingratitude.
* [78:38] God is always ready to forgive and begin anew, as in choosing Zion and David (Ps 78:65–72).2
The reading from Paul’s Letter to the Philippians proclaims Jesus Humility in His kenosis.
* [2:6] Either a reference to Christ’s preexistence and those aspects of divinity that he was willing to give up in order to serve in human form, or to what the man Jesus refused to grasp at to attain divinity. Many see an allusion to the Genesis story: unlike Adam, Jesus, though…in the form of God (Gn 1:26–27), did not reach out for equality with God, in contrast with the first Adam in Gn 3:5–6.3
In the Gospel of John, Jesus instructs Nicodemus in how God so loved the world.
* [3:14] Lifted up: in Nm 21:9 Moses simply “mounted” a serpent upon a pole. John here substitutes a verb implying glorification. Jesus, exalted to glory at his cross and resurrection, represents healing for all. * [3:15] Eternal life: used here for the first time in John, this term stresses quality of life rather than duration. * [3:16] Gave: as a gift in the incarnation, and also “over to death” in the crucifixion; cf. Rom 8:32.4
Molly Mattingly comments that the cross serves as a reminder that God brings life out of death. God subverted a tool of death to become a sign of hope, life, and a call to sacrificial love! Suffering is so closely tied to love and resurrection in our Christian lives that we are signed with the Cross every chance we get: from the beginning of our Christian lives at baptism, we are marked with it.
I attended grad school at the University of Notre Dame, run by the Congregation of the Holy Cross. (Happy feast day to them!) I had expected the hymn “Lift High the Cross” to be used frequently at campus liturgies, but was pleasantly surprised to learn the equally triumphant but less militaristic “Cross of Our Hope.”* The verses offer a glimpse of a life lived following the Cross:
The spirit of the Cross is a spirit of charity, Cross of Christ, be our glory!
The spirit of the Cross is a life of forgiveness, Cross of Christ, be our mercy!
The glory of the Cross is the triumph of sacrifice: Mystery of love, Cross of glory!
The sorrow of the world is our work and our mission, Sign of the Cross, be our vision! May our work continue to address the sorrows of the world as we continue to follow the One who destroyed death and turned even its tool into a sign of life!5
Don Schwager comments that the Lord Jesus came to unite earth with heaven and to raise those on earth to the glory of heaven. Jesus explains to Nicodemus, one of the chief leaders of the Jewish nation, that he is the "Son of Man" sent by the Father in heaven to restore our broken relationship with God. The "Son of Man" is a key Old Testament title for the Messiah who comes from heaven to establish God's kingdom on the earth (see the prophecy of Daniel 7:13-14). Don quotes “Story of Moses and the bronze serpent,” by Cyril of Alexandria (376-444 AD).
"This story is a type of the whole mystery of the incarnation. For the serpent signifies bitter and deadly sin, which was devouring the whole race on the earth... biting the Soul of man and infusing it with the venom of wickedness. And there is no way that we could have escaped being conquered by it, except by the relief that comes only from heaven. The Word of God then was made in the likeness of sinful flesh, 'that he might condemn sin in the flesh' (Romans 8:3), as it is written. In this way, he becomes the Giver of unending salvation to those who comprehend the divine doctrines and gaze on him with steadfast faith. But the serpent, being fixed upon a lofty base, signifies that Christ was clearly manifested by his passion on the cross, so that none could fail to see him." (excerpt from COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 2.1)6
The Word Among Us Meditation on John 3:13-17 notes that in the medical world, vaccines protect us from disease by training our immune system to recognize and attack a virus or bacteria. Vaccines inject antigens from the disease into our bodies—small bits, in layman's terms—so that we produce antibodies to fight off that disease in the future. The very thing that overpowers us and brings sickness and death now empowers us to resist and overcome it.
This is similar to what Jesus’ cross has done for us. Today, we celebrate that cross as the source of our life, our hope, and our salvation. How ironic that this instrument of death would bring us life! Yet this had happened before, as we heard in our first reading. In the time of Moses, a seraph serpent that had brought sickness and death became an instrument of healing (Numbers 21:9). In the same way, the cross of Jesus, where he was condemned, wounded, and sinned against, brings us forgiveness, healing from the wounds of sin, and freedom from death. No wonder we have a feast devoted entirely to declaring the mighty work of the cross!7
Tom Shufflebotham SJ, a Jesuit of the British Province, points us in the direction of some New Testament characters, like Nicodemus who can be a source of encouragement for anyone who might be questioning whether they have, or still have, faith, or who might feel that prayer has deserted them. If you really wish, then prayer is happening within you (the Holy Spirit is praying within you – see how St Paul puts it in Romans 8). It may not feel like prayer: you are being invited to grow in faith. Try to pray, without fear or worry, and you will be praying. As St Augustine kept insisting, ‘your desire is your prayer’.
Nicodemus flits in and out of John’s Gospel. It sounds as if he may have come away dispirited from a night-time conversation with Jesus (chapter 3): his embryonic faith had shown up as limited, unadventurous, mean-spirited. When he tries (chapters 7 & 12), timidly but with some dogged courage, to put in a word for Jesus, he gets short shrift from the Pharisees – and, it seems, from the evangelist, too. However, after the crucifixion (chapter 19) he is there, and he brings spices for Jesus’s burial. While all looks to be darkness and defeat, he doesn’t seem to say anything; he just does his corporal work of mercy, and that is no insignificant crumb of faith. And his name will forever be associated with the Jesus Christ who died and rose.8
Friar Jude Winkler connects the bronze serpent to the totem pieces that the faithful leave at Christian sites of healing in the world. Jesus, dying on the Cross, is the exaltation of the Love of God. Friar Jude reminds us to take up our cross to share in the Love of Jesus.
Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, comments that the genius of Jesus’ ministry is that he embraces tragedy, suffering, pain, betrayal, and death itself to bring us to God. There are no dead ends. Everything can be transmuted, and everything can be used. Everything.
It always comes through the wounding. What we do when faced with our deepest wounds determines whether there is authentic spirituality at work or not. If we seek to blame other people, accuse, attack, or even explain and make perfect, logical sense out of our wounds, there will be no further spiritual journey. But if, when the wounding happens, we find the grace and the freedom to somehow see that it’s not just a wound, but a sacred wound, then the journey progresses. Then we set out to find ourselves, to find the truth, and to find God.9
We ponder the message and theology of the texts today as we accept the challenge to be Christ for others in the world.
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