EXPLORE IT! - John 3:1-15

The first part of chapter 3 begins with Nicodemus, who is said to be a member of the ruling council, and he secretly comes at night to talk with Jesus, whom he calls Rabbi. 

During this conversation, Jesus makes an odd reference to a passage from the Book of Numbers, where he compares himself to… a snake!?!

Well, that’s a little bit odd…

Now the Book of Numbers says that Moses led the Israelites through the desert to avoid going through Edom, and they spoke against God and against Moses. They wanted to go back to Egypt, and they whined that there wasn’t enough food or water. And so God sent poisonous snakes to attack the Israelites. And the Israelites confessed their sins and Moses prayed for them. And God told Moses to make a bronze snake and put it on a pole. And anyone who had been bitten and looked at the bronze snake survived.

And so, as we jump forward to John’s Gospel in the New Testament, Jesus uses the story of the bronze snake to explain his own death.

Jesus tells Nicodemus that he must be “born again” to see the kingdom of God.

Now Nicodemus has known this his whole life, but he wants Jesus to take the answer in a different direction, so he’s like, “Born again? What’s that supposed to mean, anyway? How can I crawl back up into my mother’s birth canal?” 

And Jesus is like, “Don’t play stupid with me, Nicodemus. The case has always been that you must be ‘born again.’ That’s what I’m all about. The reason God sent me into the world was so that my death would bring new life to all the world. I’m going to be lifted up on a symbol of death, just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert – in order that you may experience new life, rebirth, resurrection.” 

Now that’s still all kind of weird, what with Jesus comparing himself to a lifeless snake hung up on a pole. Usually we think of Jesus as the hero who kills the snake. But when you think about it, what does the snake represent?

Well, in the story about the Israelites whining in God’s face, the snakes represent the consequences of sin. They represent death. And when Moses hangs the snake on the pole (or the cross), he is symbolically putting death to death. Which is what Jesus does on the cross, Jesus takes all of the consequences of sin and places them upon himself and he is crucified. And in doing this, the promise of Moses through the symbol of the bronze snake is fulfilled.

Death itself has died.

And all who look to and embrace the death of death will live.

Because of what Jesus did.