4th Sunday in Lent “The Antidote for All”
March 10, 2024 Numbers 21:4-9
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Dear brothers & sisters in Christ,
There are certain events in the history of God dealing with His people that we might call ‘eccentric’ = or ‘coming out of left field’, offbeat, or odd. God will do something unconnected to reason or logic. And if it seems that way to us, try to view this event from
the eyes of the Israelites. They felt they had some legitimate reasons to be mad at God, & upset with God’s spokesman ~ Moses. After they voice their concerns, poisonous snakes slither into camp, and people get bitten, get sick, & die. They realize their sin, & cry out
in repentance, and God instructs Moses to fashion a snake, put it on a pole, so that a bitten person can look at this artifact, and will live.
But what does a snake & a pole have to do with anything? And is that it? If bitten, just find Moses & this snake-on-a-stick, look at it, and you’ll be better? How does that work? Why does it work? Is there some mysterious cosmic power connecting a bronze snake, a pole, & our eyes? No.
And even tho the prophets would later speak a little about its meaning, the people had to just take God at-His-word; tho it didn’t seem logical or connected to anything in particular. It would be 1,500 years before it’s full meaning would be clear, and the connection fulfilled. St.Paul says that many people died in those days, when all they had to do – was trust God’s word, look, & live.
The Israelites were not ‘special’ people; they were just descendants of a man named Abraham. But they were chosen by God to represent Him & His promise of salvation to the world = which was cut off from God by sin. In His grace, God kept saving & sustaining Israel as an illustration of His grace for all mankind. Yet, the Israelites didn’t always trust God, or obey His word. At different times, & in various ways, God disciplined them back into line with His important purpose for them. For this time, He chose poisonous snakes.
Their painful discipline was immediately clear to them: they had sinned against God & Moses. God’s remedy would not be completely clear until Jesus was resurrected from the dead.
But, the bronze serpent recalls the origins of the sin which brings us death, & cuts us off from God & from life.
That condemnation of sin was taken to the cross, and was defeated by the Son of God, who was lifted up from the earth – to be looked to & believed as man’s forgiveness.
Now, a man dying on a cross is also an ‘eccentric’ event, and cannot be understood in normal or logical terms. Only by the Holy Spirit can a person grasp -by faith- the word of promise that is connected to that crucifixion. Adam & Eve looked up to the fruit on the tree & believed a lie over God’s word; and mankind & all creation was ruined. But God’s word now invites us to look up to the Messiah on the tree of the cross, to reject the lies of sin, to take God at His word, believe His promise, and live.
The working outline for this sermon is in 4 ~ A’s. For the Abomination of all; For the Abnormalities of all; In the Absolution for all; our Antidote is in the One Lifted Up on
The Cross.
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First, ‘abomination.’ In Numbers 21, we find the Israelites passing thru the wilderness area of the Red Sea and Mount Hor when they commit this sin of criticizing the Almighty = this is ‘blasphemy.’ Both of those geographic places are sacred. The Red Sea was the place of their incredible deliverance, a proto-salvation & baptism, where the horse & rider of Egypt were thrown into the sea = utterly defeated. As for Mt.Hor, Moses’ brother, Aaron, was buried there. God had used Aaron’s abilities to support his brother in conducting God’s saving word for the life of the people.
It is near these places of God’s holy deliverance & leadership that the people fall into sin. They ‘loathe’ or ‘hate’ the way God has sustained their lives. The Hebrew word here means ‘abomination,’ ‘to make one sick to the stomach.’ They are cursing God for His gracious quail & manna. ‘God, we’re sick of it; & we’re sick of You too!’ This was more than an insult;
it was rebellion against faith. They weren’t physically sick, they were spiritually sick; and so they didn’t need physical medicine, they needed a peculiar remedy – so that they would know it was God at work.
I’ve heard preachers say: ‘go ahead & get mad at God, He can take it.’ That is not good advice; don’t put the Almighty to that test! We can be tempted to loathe God’s holy things, such as His Divine worship service, His Word and Sacraments. But those sins make us abominable; they make God sick to his stomach.
When God’s own people have received gift after gift at the cost of His Son, and then they neglect to give thanks to Him, even in simple meal-prayers, we become offensive to Him. If we should treat His worship as ‘optional’, or live our lives by our own ideas instead of His, then we become distasteful.
When the signs of His divine care for us are all around us, as they were for the Israelites, we do not want to have our mouths or lives speak against God. Why should He be more patient with us than He was with them? Be thankful that you live in the time you do. God was particular in His discipline for the Israelites back then; He even purged them, because
-for the abomination of all- He was using them to bring into the world His promised Messiah.
And even tho Jesus was treated as an abomination by His own people, He would crush the evil serpent & our condemnation, once & for all.
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Second, abnormality. Snakes are rather abnormal creatures, as very few other creatures have no legs & crawl on their bellies. Some theologians think that, in the context of the curses in Gen.3, the original creature of this serpent, was changed that day. That is, just as -before sin- there were no thorns to bother Adam in his farming, and no pain in childbirth to bother Eve, so likewise this serpent-creature had legs, and it was normal for humans & animals to communicate in a clear way. It didn’t bother Adam & Eve to talk to this snake. Things changed that day; sin made a ‘new normal’ for man; which is abnormal to God.
In Num.21, God sent venomous snakes among His people, which brought sickness & death. This was abnormal; having a bunch of deadly snakes in the camp was not an everyday event. When something abnormal happens, we might be stunned & say something like:
‘this can’t be happening.’
An airplane being flown into a tall building, causing it to fall down, is not normal;
it’s abnormal. Two people making a heart-felt, legally binding vow to each other & then divorcing is abnormal. God designed holy marriage, so He still hates divorce – because it disrespects that purpose for His creating male & female. Even tho our wicked world wants
to say differently, men exchanging marriage vows with men, or women with women, is not normal = it’s abnormal.
Likewise, a child being conceived & growing toward birth -for life in the world- is normal; to murder that child by abortion is abnormal. Natural biology is normal. For a man to dress up & act like a woman is abnormal; for a woman to have surgeries & call herself a man is abnormal. In God’s creation, and under God’s laws for His creation, He has spoken to what is normal; we are not allowed to remake it in whatever we want.
Then also, us attacking our neighbor’s reputation with lies or gossip is abnormal.
For us to steal something that belongs to someone else; or for us to fool someone into giving us something that we did not pay for or earn – is abnormal. For that matter, for a woman to serve in the role of pastor is abnormal. Since God is the one who created the world & governs His Church, He is the one who determines what is normal, right, & good for us. For our thoughts, words, & deeds to veer off the road of God’s holy will & ways is abnormal. Sin has made you & me abnormal to God.
At this point, some of you may be reminded of the 1974 movie Young Frankenstein. Dr.Fredrick ‘Fronkensteen’ tells his assistant ‘Eye-gor’ to find a brain at the laboratory.
By mistake, Igor reads the label as ‘Abby somebody; Abby Normal.’ So the monster receives an abnormal brain. That movie is a comedy; but the deadly effects of sin are not. Humanity’s history is ‘Abby Normal.’ We are distorted by the effects of our rebellion against the one true God. For the abnormalities of all, God designs an unusual antidote. We are to look up to the crucified Savior and live.
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Third, absolution. As the people cried for mercy, God was not deaf to their repentance. He provides a very eccentric means of healing; and also provides a type of the Christ’s salvation. Even today, paramedics wear that odd symbol on their uniforms: a snake on a pole. Some want to look to Greek mythology to explain this symbol, but God’s history is far better than the Greeks. Without a Biblical explanation, this symbol is illogical. Snakes & poles have nothing to do with medical healing. Except, that the snakebitten Israelites were told to look to the bronze serpent, on a pole, and God healed them.
Who wouldn’t have looked & done such a simple thing in order to be healed? Well, those resisting God’s word = that’s who. Whether back then, or in our day, there are plenty of people who resist God’s word, & refuse to look to the Son of God for healing.
The snake on a pole was a precursor, a ‘type’; Jesus Christ hanging on Calvary’s cross is the real thing. God saw the poison of sin running rampant in the world, and He gave His only Son; that whoever looks to the Son, whoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.
Just as an earthly antidote is drawn from venom, so our Savior came to be bitten by the world’s sin to make our cure in His blood. As we look in faith to what He did so graciously, as we obey God’s call to be Baptized into His name, we are healed. He took our abominations, and our abnormalities, and He absolved us freely – and fully.
When we think back to Num.21, there were those who persisted in their unbelief, and made a 101 excuses for rejecting God’s eccentric remedy. I also think that it helped some people -who were doubting- when they saw their friends or family members healed as they believed God’s word and looked to that bronze snake on the pole. I’m sure it helped some overcome their doubts. Those that were healed became good witnesses to others = that God’s healing was for them, too; & for all.
You & I are those witnesses today; we witness to those odd forms of His healing promise made thru the Gospel. Forgiveness in the Word, water, bread & wine is for all people to hear & believe the good news of sin’s antidote in Jesus.
Our serving His church, our worship, offerings & prayers, our lives obedient to His teaching, all support the mission of His healing medicine being given for all who have been sin-bitten & are looking for hope. For the abomination of all . . . For the abnormalities of all . . In the absolution for all . . . The Antidote for all is Jesus = the One Lifted Up on the cross for us to see. We are healed of sin & death in the crucified and risen One.
Amen.