A reading from the book of Numbers (21:4-9)
They left Mount Hor by the road to the Sea of Suph, to skirt round Edom. On the way the people lost patience. They spoke against God and against Moses, ‘Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to die in the desert? For there is neither food nor water here; we are sick of this wretched food.’ At this, God sent fiery serpents among the people; their bite brought death to many in Israel. The people came and said to Moses, ‘We have sinned by speaking against the Lord and against you. Intercede for us with the Lord to save us from these serpents.’ So Moses interceded for the people, and the Lord replied, ‘Make a fiery serpent and raise it as a standard. Anyone who is bitten and looks at it will survive.’ So Moses made a serpent out of bronze and raised it as a standard, and anyone who was bitten by a serpent and looked at the bronze serpent survived.
The Israelites continue their journey through the desert led by Moses. The preservation in Scripture of the curious tale of the bronze serpent might surprise us. King Hezekiah abolished such totems and had them destroyed, including the bronze serpent mentioned explicitly in the second book of Kings (2 Kings 18). The persistence of the tradition and its preservation in the book of Numbers perhaps show moderation in understanding the manifold ways in which people can reach out for God’s help, and express faith in something greater than themselves. The people acknowledge their guilt and ask Moses to intercede for them with God. It is God who tells them to ‘look at the serpent’, and it is God who heals.
Psalm 102 (101) The psalm speaks of those condemned to die being freed.
A reading from the holy gospel according to John (8:21-30)
Again Jesus said to them:
‘I am going away; you will look for me
but you will die in your sin.
Where I am going, you cannot come.’
So the Jews said to one another, ‘Is he going to kill himself, that he says, “Where I am going, you cannot come?” ’ And he said to them:
‘You are from below;
I am from above.
You are of this world;
I am not of this world.
I have told you already:
you will die in your sins.
For if you do not believe that I am He,
you will die in your sins.’
So they said to him, ‘Who are you?’ Jesus answered:
‘What I have told you from the outset.
About you I have much to say
and to judge;
but the one who sent me is true,
and what I have learnt from him
I declare to the world.’
They did not recognise that he was talking to them about the Father. So Jesus said:
‘When you have lifted up the Son of man,
then you will know that I am He
and that I do nothing of my own accord.
But as the Father has taught me, so I speak;
he who sent me is with me,
and has not left me to myself, for I always do what pleases him.’
As he was saying these things, many came to believe in him.
Jesus’ encounter at the Feast of Tabernacles continues. The repeated use of the phrase ‘I am He’ by Jesus is understood to allude to the name of God revealed to Moses (Exodus 3). As God is, so Jesus is. No wonder there is consternation among Jesus’ interlocutors. Jesus furthermore alludes to the healing with the bronze serpent by speaking of himself being ‘lifted up’. There is a developing understanding of Jesus, of his relationship with the Father, and of his mission, to be discovered in these chapters of John’s gospel. The passage concludes with the statement that ‘many came to believe in him’, and Jesus will address them.
Jesus is lifted up in death, and in resurrection.
Pray for those who are seeking to know and love Jesus.