“Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert”
Search: Lift High the Cross
Today’s gospel reading opens with Jesus speaking to Nicodemus about the story of Moses and the serpent. This story has very important symbols and parallels to Jesus and the cross.
Why does Jesus mention Moses? “He introduces the teacher of the Mosaic law, to the spiritual sense of that law; by a passage from the Old Testament history, which was intended to be a figure of His Passion, and of man’s salvation.”[i]
What was this story of Moses about? The story that Jesus refers to is from the book of Numbers. After a long journey, many people complained to Moses about their travels and the food. God punished the people with serpents that began attacking them. Many people went back to Moses and God and repented, asking for a cure. God told Moses to make a serpent, wrap it around his staff, and hold it high enough for all to see. Anyone who gazed upon the staff with the bronze serpent would be cured.[ii]
What does this have to do with Jesus? Jesus takes on the new staff and is hung high on Golgatha for all to see. He died so that all could be cured not temporally, but spiritually. “Many dying in the wilderness from the attack of the serpents, Moses, by commandment of the Lord, lifted up a brazen serpent and those who looked upon it were immediately healed. The lifting up of the serpent is the death of Christ”[iii]. “God had offered the free gift of salvation to the Jews also, as, for instance, when, in order to free them from poisonous serpents, he had ordered Moses to lift up a brazen serpent, so that when anyone who had been bitten by the serpents looked upon the brazen serpent, he was saved from death. But that was but a pale image of the salvation brought by Jesus, who was raised upon the cross ‘that whoever believes in him may have eternal life’[iv]”.[v]
What does serpent signify? The serpent has two meanings. The death of the serpent in the Old Testament is the death of the people’s illness. The death of the serpent in the New Testament is the death of Satan, the original serpent in the Garden of Eden.
The other more powerful meaning is that the serpent represents Christ. Jesus takes the place of what the serpent represents, which is sin, although Jesus had no sin. The book of Wisdom says that the serpent was a sign of salvation.[vi] While the serpent that Moses held up looked poisonous, it was not. Jesus looked like a man, like any one of us who are sinners, but was not just a man or a sinner. Some of our Church Fathers put this imagery into better context: “The serpent was the cause of death, inasmuch as he persuaded man into that sin, by which he merited death. Our Lord, however, did not transfer sin, i.e. the poison of the serpent, to his flesh, but death; in order that in the likeness of sinful flesh, there might be punishment without sin, by virtue of which sinful flesh might be delivered both from punishment and from sin.”[vii] “See then the aptness of the figure. The figure of the serpent has the appearance of the beast, but not its poison: in the same way Christ came in the likeness of sinful flesh, being free from sin.”[viii]
What does the “lifting up” signify? The “lifting up” meant His cross being lifted up. “By Christ’s being lifted up, understand His being suspended on high, by which suspension He sanctified the air, even as He had sanctified the earth by walking upon it. Herein too is typified the glory of Christ: for the height of the cross was made His glory for in that He submitted to be judged, He judged the prince of this world… And in this the devil found himself vanquished, that he could not upon the cross torment our Lord into hating His murderers: but only made Him love and pray for them the more. In this way the cross of Christ was made His lifting up, and glory.”[ix]
Why did Jesus have to hang on a cross? Jesus tells us this story to help us understand the relationship of life by lifting the cross. “Do you see the cause of the Crucifixion, and the salvation which is by it? Do you see the relationship of the type to the reality? There the Jews escaped death, but the temporal, here believers the eternal; there the hanging serpent healed the bites of serpents, here the Crucified Jesus cured the wounds inflicted by the spiritual dragon”[x] As St. Theophilus of Antioch explained, “for Adam died justly, because he sinned; out Lord unjustly, because He did no sin. So He overcame him, who delivered Him over to death, and thus delivered Adam from death.”
Who saw Jesus on the cross and was saved from death? There were several people who were saved from certain kinds of death. First, “We could say that the good thief was the first to experience the saving power of Christ on the cross: he saw the crucified Jesus, the King of Israel, the Messiah, and was immediately promised that he would be in Paradise that very day.”[xi] Second, St. John, who was at the foot of the cross, was spared a martyr’s death and died naturally. Third, Mary witnessed her son hanging on the cross for three hours and was spared death by being assumed both body and soul at the moment of her death. Fourth, Mary Magdalene, who chose to “go and sin no more” is strengthened in her resolved to live a life of Grace and amend her life of sin, placing herself at the feet of Jesus. Fifth, Saint Longinus, who was the Roman Centurion who pierced the side of Christ, had the blood, representing the Eucharist, and the water, representing Baptism, flowed over Saint Longinus bringing about conversion.
Search: The Cross: A Privileged Place
Activity – The Star of Life or EMS symbol
Have the group look at The Star of Life or EMS symbol and ask if they have ever seen it before. Read Numbers 21:4-9 and then have them look at the symbol again. Have them point out all of the things that relate. They will see that every aspect of the symbol is represented in this story and that just as medicine can heal and sustain our life, Jesus Christ heals our souls and gives us eternal life. The Star of Life or EMS symbol has a rod with a serpent, and is usually seen on ambulances. This sign has origins in Greek mythology, with the rod of Asclepius and is a sign of healing. It reminds us of the healing that God gave through the staff of Moses.
[i] St. Bede
[ii] Num. 21:4-9
[iii] St. Augustine
[iv] Jn. 3:15
[v] Divine Intimacy Vol. II pg. 69
[vi] Wisdom 16:6
[vii] St. Augustine
[viii] St.Theophilus of Antioch
[ix] St. Theophilus of Antioch
[x] St. John Chrysostom Homily 27 Jn. 3:15
[xi] The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries