In today’s Gospel (John 3:14-21) we overhear Jesus saying to Nicodemus:
“Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life” (John 3:14).
While the People of God were wandering through the desert on their long trek to the Promised Land, they became discouraged and wanted to return to the very slavery they had escaped from Egypt. Their selfishness brought about affliction in the form of a plague of serpents. In accordance with what God told him to do, Moses raised a serpent on a stake and all who gazed upon the serpant were restored to health (Numbers 21:8-9).
In today’s Gospel, Jesus not only speaks to Nicodemus but tells everyone that the Son of Man similarly must be lifted up in order that everyone may gaze upon Him and be saved.
The evangelist John uses a Greek verb that has a double meaning. It can mean a physical “lifting up” from the ground. The very same word also can mean a spiritual “lifting up” or what more frequently is called “exalting.”
It is in the lifting up of Jesus on the Cross that God’s love is made known to us in a most powerful way. When we gaze upon the crucified Son of Man, then we can begin to understand just how much God loves the world. He gave His only Son so that we may have life and have it to the full forever.
LENT is the time when we can look especially toward the Cross and meditate on it; that is, to look upon it and pray through it. It rightly brings forth unsettling feelings of sorrow for what we have done to God. Yet, today’s Gospel tells us that the same Cross also shows how much God loves us.
