Jesus: Lion, Lamb, and… Snake?
- felixthepastor
- Mar 16, 2016
- 2 min read
The reaction from Sunday was too perfect! When some learned that snakes would be in the building, they protested verbally or by actions. I get it. Snakes are scary. They are frighteningly disturbing. I still get chills when I revisit a childhood memory of coming close to stepping on a long snake I had mistaken for a branch while walking home after sunset. I screamed in an octave that would have made Mariah Carey jealous.
In last Sunday’s lesson, The Bronze Snake, we tackled a bizarre incident that occurred in Number 21. The Israelites continued to complain to God after all that He had done for them and God had had enough. He lifted His hand of protection from them and the next thing they knew, venomous snakes had infiltrated their camp. The people cried out to God and He provided a remedy- look at an image of a snake suspended on a pole and they would be healed.
Both a lion and a lamb have been used to describe Jesus in scripture, but most people would never think of a snake. Tucked away right next to the famous John 3:16 is a reference Jesus made to this unique event from Numbers 21. Jesus said, “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up.” The picture of the snake on a pole was a prophetic image of Christ’s work on the cross. Just as the repelling image of a snake suspended on a pole was the source of healing for the Israelites in the desert, the gruesome reality of the crucified Christ is the source of our spiritual healing from our sinful nature.
In their natural state, untouched by God, both the snake on a pole and the cross were hideous. The bronze snake was the image of a repulsive creature that had inflicted pain on people and the cross was an instrument of gruesome torture. Today, the image of the bronze snake is used as a medical symbol, and the cross adorns church buildings and is even worn as jewelry.
Using the image of the very thing that inflicted the Israelites was completely counter-intuitive. They had to put their trust in God and obey His instruction for healing. In the same way, our salvation comes by putting our faith in Christ. Faith is not an elusive feeling but a powerful trust that materializes in the form of obedience, or better yet, action.
Without trust, we have no relationship with Christ. Placing our trust in Christ is transformational. Only He could redeem us from the ugliness of sin and do something beautiful in our lives.
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