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Ssssssssssssserpents. Creepy, crawly, slimy, ichy creatures. It was a Sssssssssserpent that got us into trouble in the Garden of Eden. Satan is often portrayed as having ssssssserpentine features. And here, in the book of Numbers, “fiery” serpents come and bite the Israelites and some died. What can we possibly learn from this story? Especially from serpents?
Something to get straight at the beginning: this is not a story about crime and punishment.
1) The Israelites were in the wilderness.
Serpents live in the wilderness.
(Is it so odd that the two bumped into each other?)
2) The Israelites had complained before (almost constantly, and about everything!) and no serpents had appeared.
Although the scripture says “Then the Lord sent serpents among the people…” it does not say God sent them as punishment, (remember that half of the psalms are complaints to God—and we don’t hear of psalmists being overrun with serpents).
In fact when God talks with Moses, the Israelites’ complaints don’t even come up. So this is not an action/reaction story.
If that’s the case, what is this story all about?
Ssssssssssserpents. I think this story is about painful experiences, things that we fear, maybe even about illness and death. Those poisonous serpents (I believe they are called “fiery” serpents—seraphs) can be seen as all the things in life that threaten to undo us. They are symbols of all that we fear. And the question is—what do we do when we find ourselves in such a situation—of being attacked by seraphs.
Look at what the Israelites do—They call on God—with their possibly mistaken conclusion of sin and punishment—the call on God to “TAKE IT AWAY.” The bad news is that God doesn’t take it away. The good news is that God has a plan.
God tells Moses to fashion a bronze serpent—and put it on a pole, and when people get bitten, they can look at the pole and live.
In our 21st century world this sounds like hocus-pocus—forget the pole, Where’s the anti-venom?
But let’s dig a little deeper.
We all can imagine something that scares us, maybe even something that has bitten us, given us pain, made us aware of our own mortality. It can be almost anything. And like a serpent, it leaps out at us, slithering here and there, we are always looking down, looking around, ready for it to strike at us again.
TAKE IT AWAY, GOD. What is so wrong with that prayer? Why doesn’t God get rid of the snakes? The legend is that St. Patrick got rid of them in Ireland! So the story goes. And we can pray that prayer. More than likely we will get the answer that the Israelites got.
The story from the book of Numbers is much more in keeping with real life, and with the promises of God. We are not promised that we will have a rosy life—we are promised that “nothing can separate us from the love of God.”
There will always be snakes—
just as there will always be things that we can be afraid of.
The question is how we handle it.
Back to our story.
So we are stuck with snakes,
but God gives us a snake on a stick.
Why?
As I thought about it, it seemed to me that this was another symbol—one of facing our fears. Sometimes when you truly look at something that scares you, you can get a handle on it.
--And God doesn’t ask us to pick up a slithering serpent, but to look at a bronze (and therefore stationary) one.
--God doesn’t ask us to face whatever it is that is hurting us alone—but asks us to look up at a symbol that God gave to us, a reminder that God is with us through it all, a symbol of life. In fact, this symbol has been so powerful (throughout the ancient world) that the serpent on a pole is still the symbol of the medical profession—of healing.
Now the new “life” that you get from facing your fears, from holding onto the promise that God is close by-- might be new eyes through which to see the world; the new “life” might be a new perspective on how to live your remaining moments; the new “life” might not have anything to do with being cured.
Eve Ensler, the playwright of The Vagina Monologues talked about this “new life” that she experienced when she was diagnosed with uterine cancer.
“When things get very, very, very extreme, you have an opportunity to go into the deepest parts of yourself. And really explore—you can resist it, but the door is open.”
So we have the “things that bite us.”
We have the antidote—a snake on a stick.
And all of this gets molded into the image of God being with us, even in the worst of times.
No wonder the writer of the gospel of John references this passage when talking about Christ on the cross. “Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.” (John 3:14-15)
And the crucifix, with Jesus entwined around the cross, does bear a striking resemblance to the Rod of Asclepius (the most used symbol of medicine).
Maybe this is why the cross and not the open tomb became the symbol for Christians.
Maybe this is why we are willing to wear it on our necks, and carry it in our pockets, and put it in our sanctuaries.
Because it is the symbol of life, not death. It is a static image of God’s love, God’s presence, with us. Emmanuel—not just in the happy birth scene, but in the dark death scene as well. It is an emblem of what is promised past that moment. For we know behind the cross lies resurrection—and in some sense, resurrection is all that the Israelites asked for and more.
Resurrection gives us a glimpse of a world without snakes, or at least snakes that are intent on biting us.
Resurrection shows the power of God in this world and the next.
Resurrection is a down payment on the truth of God’s promise of life eternal.
Ssssssssserpents are important. We should not wish them away. We cannot anyway. We are stuck with them. But we can remember the lessons we have learned.
--Running into serpents is a part of life.
--The first thing to do is to face them and see them for what they really are—not a punishment from God, but a risk of traveling in the wilderness.
--Then we need to remember God is with us, helping us to look up and have new life.
--And finally, in the ultimate sense,
in the eternal realm,
we have nothing to fear,
for the love of God, in Jesus,
is wrapped around us,
and God’s ultimate answer
to the fiery snakes round and about ,
is Resurrection.
And it has already been loosed
on our world.
So Ssssssserpents beware.
We have looked at you and lived.
For we are children of God.
May it be so. Amen and Amen.
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