Today’s Scripture Readings

Gospel Reading

NRSV

Again he said to them, ‘I am going away, and you will search for me, but you will die in your sin. Where I am going, you cannot come.’ Then the Jews said, ‘Is he going to kill himself? Is that what he means by saying, “Where I am going, you cannot come”?’ He said to them, ‘You are from below, I am from above; you are of this world, I am not of this world. I told you that you would die in your sins, for you will die in your sins unless you believe that I am he.’ They said to him, ‘Who are you?’ Jesus said to them, ‘Why do I speak to you at all? I have much to say about you and much to condemn; but the one who sent me is true, and I declare to the world what I have heard from him.’ They did not understand that he was speaking to them about the Father. So Jesus said, ‘When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will realize that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own, but I speak these things as the Father instructed me. And the one who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what is pleasing to him.’ As he was saying these things, many believed in him.

Whinging in the wilderness is very much part of the repertoire of the children of Israel once they leave Egypt, make it through the Red Sea and then out into the desert. They begin to whinge because they think that God and Moses have led them astray. They feel betrayed and want to go back to Egypt where they may have been slaves but at least they had enough to eat and drink. But the negativity leads to punishment courtesy of the fiery serpents. Just as the punishment comes from God, so too does the healing; and the agent of punishment becomes the agent of healing as a bronze serpent is lifted up among the people. To look on the bronze serpent is to move beyond whinging to trust in the God who is saviour of his people.

“Who are you?” the Jewish leaders ask Jesus. They do not recognise the truth of who he is; and still less, when he’s on the Cross, will they recognise that he is the bronze serpent lifted up by God for the healing of the people. His death will be the healing of the cosmic wound of death. Sin has led to death, and sin will lead Jesus to the Cross which heals the wound of death. Until the leaders recognise this, until they look upon the crucified Lord and understand what they see, they will be like the people in the desert for whom there was no remedy for the bite of the fiery serpents. They will die in their sin.