Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for March 14, 2021

First Reading: Numbers 21:4-9

In Sunday’s first reading we hear a strange account of poisonous snakes sent by God to punish an ungrateful people – and a curative bronze serpent that seems suspiciously like an idol.

Moses and the Brass Serpent, (late 16th century), oil painting on oak wood, by the flemish painter Jacob de Backer (c.1555-c.1591). Schorr Collection, United Kingdom. (Click image to enlarge.)

This might just strike us as another of Scripture’s ancient legends, easily ignored. But then we turn to John’s Gospel and find Jesus alluding to this strange passage to set the context for his famous words in John 3:16, “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son”! This connection makes the serpent story a little more difficult to ignore. Perhaps it’s as simple as this: When we feel that we’re surrounded by serpents, look up and remember that God is with us.

Psalm: Psalm 107:1-3, 17-22

Following that startling passage about poisonous snakes and bronze serpent idols in the first reading, the Psalm appointed for this day provides some relief. Give thanks for God’s enduring mercy, the Psalmist tells us. Even when we are foolish; when we rebel and when we sin, and even when we are afraid, once we cry out for God and repent, return, and give thanks for God’s mercy, God hears our prayers and showers us, like children, with healing and salvation.

Second Reading: Ephesians 2:1-10

We find no actual serpents in the Letter to the Ephesians, a document likely written in Paul’s name by a later follower. But it imagines something just about as frightening and potentially deadly: a shadowy spirit, a “ruler of the power of the air.” Those who prefer passion and the flesh to life in Christ can be lured by this spirit, the writer says. But like those healed by gazing at Moses’ bronze serpent, we are saved by God’s mercy and raised up by God’s gift of grace through Jesus; not by anything that we can do to try to earn salvation.

Gospel: John 3:14-21

“God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” For many Christians, this week’s lessons could start and finish right there. But wait! What is that serpent doing there? We might wonder if Jesus is teaching from Torah, with which he and his followers would have been intimately familiar, and Numbers is his text. We cannot yank John 3:16 out of its context without considering the verses that surround it. In his nighttime conversation with the Pharisee Nicodemus, Jesus makes clear that we all have power to choose between darkness and the light. Just as God provided the Israelites a way to repent and be healed, so God offers us healing grace through Jesus.