Sermons from the Pulpit
A Snake on a Stick
Preached to Exeter Congregational United Church of Christ at a family Communion service on the fourth Sunday in Lent, April 2, 2000, by Michael L. C. Henderson, pastor.
Numbers 21:4-9, John 3:14-17, 19-21
Are you scared of snakes? I mean not just nervous, but really, really freaked out, like they kind of make you shiver inside? Some people are. Jane is. There's a snakepit scene in one of the Indiana Jones movies that gives her the creeps, but not me! Except of course if you're talking about spiders.
Sometimes we are afraid when there is nothing to be afraid of. Other times we are not afraid when there is something to be afraid of.
The Israelites were God's special people, in this story we heard, but they were slaves in the land of Egypt, and God saw how unhappy they were there. And God sent Moses to the king of Egypt, to Pharaoh, to say, "Let my people go!" Pharaoh said no, of course. So Moses said, "If you don't let them go, you're going to be sorry, because we're going to do some nasty stuff to you until you do." And Pharaoh said, "Ha ha, go ahead, you can't do anything to me, I'm the Pharaoh of Egypt and you're only a slave." So God helped Moses to send some very weird and disgusting things into the land of Egypt, such as a zillion frogs.
Some of the Egyptians were really, really scared of frogs, but some of the Egyptians thought frogs were cool, so that didn't work. But God and Moses kept trying, and finally Pharaoh did let their people go, and they all left Egypt and started walking across the wilderness together, men, women, children, sheep, goats, and cows, going to the new home that God had promised to give them. And God showed them the way, and God traveled with them and protected them and even gave them food to eat when they were hungry, and that food was not frogs either, it was good.
And what did the people do? They got mad at God and Moses. "We liked it better in Egypt! We don't think you're taking very good care of us! We're afraid of this wild place! We don't know where we're going! And this food is worse than frogs!" And that's when God got really annoyed with them and the snakes appeared and started biting them.
The problem with those people wasn't really the snakes The real problem was, they didn't know how to be happy. First they were miserable being slaves in Egypt, then they were miserable being free in the wilderness. I guess what they wanted was, they wanted to be free without having to go through the wilderness. They wanted to be in that new land God promised them, and they wanted it right now. Like when the whole family climbs in the car to go on a trip to someplace special, and before long the kids in the back seat are moaning and groaning and saying, "Are we there yet? I'm tired of this!"
Now when my kids have behaved this way, I have sometimes wished I had some snakes that I could throw in the back seat with them, although I'm glad I couldn't, because I wouldn't really want to do them any harm. But God could actually do it, and did! On the other hand, God also gave them a way to protect themselves from the poison in the snakebites.
What it means is, we can't have the freedom without the wilderness. Freedom in the wilderness, with God traveling alongside us and helping us to find our way and giving us what we need, that's as good as it gets. We might think we would be happier if we weren't traveling with God, because we could be richer and safer and have more fun things to play with and fewer things to be afraid of, but it's not true. Rich and safe with fun things to play with, that's not happiness, that's being slaves in Egypt. And if God sets us free from that slavery and leads us out into a new and strange and scary place and tells us we have a long way to go, we are lucky. And if we start thinking we were better off without God, that will ruin and destroy our happiness just like the bite of a poisonous snake. But if we face up to the way it scares us to be free and to put our whole trust in God, then we'll be all right.
So look at the snake on the stick, Jesus says, and it'll remind you of what really makes life good and what doesn't. And look at me, too, he says, because I'm like that snake, I can show you what's really important and what's not. I can help you to put your trust in things and people that can really be trusted, and get free of things and people that will not make you happy. I can help you to see things as they really are and not be fooled by things that aren't as good as they look. I can show you how the simplest food and the simplest drink, and only a little bit of each, might be the most wonderful meal on earth or heaven, just because you're sharing it together with me.
Amen
Everyone who is bitten shall look at it and live.-Numbers 21:8