Snake on a Stick

Delivered March 18, 2012

Numbers 21:4-9; John 3:14-21

See the video of this message at: http://youtu.be/m-4KqUq5qhY

You have had ice cream on a stick and candy apples or caramel apples on a stick. Perhaps you have even had the misfortune of having a corn dog on a stick. Well today I am going to talk about a snake on a stick. Thankfully it is not a new culinary delicacy. It is an ancient symbol. You have likely seen the image pictured on ambulances. Actually there are two very similar symbols; one is called the Rod of Asclepius, also known as the asklepian. It is a single snake entwined around a staff. It is associated with the Greek god Asclepius, god of medicine and healing in Greek mythology. A similar symbol is called a caduceus. This symbol has a staff with two snakes wrapped around it and facing each other; another difference is that the staff has wings on top. It is also a medical symbol today, although originally it was the symbol of Greek god Hermes, the messenger god, hence the wings. There is a Biblical symbol that looks like this as well. It is called in the Nehushtan, and like the Rod of Asclepius, it is a single snake on a staff. It predates the Greek symbol and is also associated with healing. We in the West have inherited the symbol from both the Greek and Hebrew traditions. Today we are going to look at the Biblical story behind the symbol.

The Old Testament account takes place during the 40 years that the Hebrews wandered in the wilderness before they were allowed to enter the Promised Land. The people of Israel had been bittten by what are called ‘fiery serpents,” which means poisonous snakes. Many of the Israelites died. Moses prayed for a cure, and God told him to make a replica of the fiery serpent out of bronze and lift it up on a pole. When the people looked upon the bronze serpent, they were healed. That is the story in a nutshell. This snake on a stick means four things.

I. First it is a symbol of suffering. The poisonous snakes in this story caused suffering and death in the people who were bitten. So first of all the snake in the story is bad – the source of poisonous evil, suffering and death. The snake symbol in the Bible often represents evil.  That is not true in all religions and cultures, but it certainly is true in the Judeo-Christian tradition. The first time a serpent appears in the Bible is in the Garden of Eden; there the serpent represents the tempter and deceiver. That is true throughout the Bible all the way to the Book of Revelation where the dragon is called “that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan.” We are conditioned to think of a serpent as the symbol of evil which causes suffering and death. These fiery serpents in this story in the Book of Numbers are creatures that are causing suffering and death.

This throws us headlong into the whole theological question of the source of suffering and death in the world. It is too simple to attribute all suffering to an evil force in universe, as our story makes clear. Verse 6 of the story says “So the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people….” The serpents are the instruments of God in this story. This complicates matters. I wish the problem of evil and suffering was so simple that we could blame all suffering and evil on the Big Bad Guy - the devil. But we know that is not the case. Even the ancient Hebrews who wrote this story knew that. In the story of Job, Satan can do no bad thing to Job without the permission of God. God ultimately permits everything bad that happened to Job. Job knows that and spends almost all the book struggling with that and yelling at God. And we never really stop struggling with that problem of suffering and evil. It is one of the most difficult theological problems.

Ultimately in the Bible the buck stops with God. As Christians we do not have a theological dualism – two equal celestial beings - a good god and a bad god battling it out on the cosmic stage. Satan is not divine in the Scriptures, nor is he described as equal to God in any way. Ultimately we have to trace everything – good and bad - back to God. President Truman was famous for the sign on his desk in the oval office which read “The buck stops here.” We could use more of that in politics these days. It seems to me that today every politician wants to blame someone else, especially the other political party, for everything that goes wrong in our nation and our world. No one wants to take responsibility. Politics is increasingly one big blame game. Theology is not. Picture God at his heavenly desk with a sign that reads, “The buck stops here.”

You can blame some suffering on natural causes if you want. You can blame some on human choices – our freewill – if you want. But ultimately God made the natural world and free human beings. The buck stops with God. Christian apologists mean well when they try to get God off the hook – explaining that it is not God’s fault when bad things happen to good people. Even here in this story you could point out that the bad things are happening to bad people. The people admit they did wrong in our story and it prompted the snakes. In verse 7 they confess their sins to Moses, saying, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you; pray to the Lord that He take away the serpents from us.”  But you still have to deal with the fact that in the story God sends the snakes to bite the people as well as heal the people of the snake bites. The snake on the pole represents suffering and death.

II. The snake on the pole also represents judgment. In the story, the serpents are sent as a divine judgment on people for their disobedience. That is another very difficult issue in Christian theology. Judgment is a very unpopular topic. We do not like the concept of God as Judge. We like God as the kindly Father. In fact we prefer God as the kindly Grandfather in the sky. I am a grandfather. We have two grandsons, and soon we will have another grandson due to be born on Easter Sunday. It is so much easier being a grandfather than a father! A father has to discipline his kids. I don’t have to worry about that. I am not expected to discipline or punish them. I can spoil them. The parents have their own ideas on what is appropriate or not when it comes to discipline; I am fine with that. I still have my opinions on the subject of discipline. We used to spank our kids, and it didn’t do them any harm physically or psychologically. But I keep my opinion to myself, and I will not lay a hand on the tender backsides of our grandkids. We may scold them and instruct them, but any stronger form of discipline is for the parents to administer.

That is the type of God people want - a grandfather God who spoils us, and never disciplines us. But the Bible presents God as a Father who disciplines his children. The Book of Hebrews says: “My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, ⁶ because the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son.” ⁷ Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father?”

Our story in Numbers goes beyond discipline to judgment. That is a much harsher concept. The whole concept of divine judgment is very difficult for people today. When it comes to religion, we say, “Judge not lest ye be judged” and we think that applies to God as well. But the fact is that as a society we believe in judgment. We have courts and judges and juries who judge people and exact punishment on people – all the way from fines to imprisonment to capital punishment. So we believe in judgment; so judgment is not really the issue. So let’s get over our self-righteousness – our feigned righteous indignation at the concept of divine judgment. We judge people as an American society, as does every society that has ever existed. Why would we think that God’s kingdom would be any different? Why wouldn’t God judge, especially when human courts fail in their administration of justice? When the guilty get away with murder in our society, we hope God will hold them accountable them in a higher court. So we need to get over our reluctance at seeing God as Judge. There is nothing inherently wrong with that idea. Here in this story the snake on a pole is a symbol of divine judgment.  

III. Third, the snake on the pole represents healing and salvation. It is amazing what the Bible does with this symbol! It takes this symbol of suffering, death and judgment, and reinterprets it to mean something healing, salvation and life. This is how the apostle John interprets this story. Our Gospel Lesson says, “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” Then comes that most famous verse in the Bible: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” John sees the snake on the pole as a symbol of salvation representing Jesus on the Cross.

The parallels between the two symbols – the snake on the pole and Christ on the Cross - are striking. Like the snake is a symbol of evil in the OT, the death of Jesus on the Cross was a great evil. No greater evil has ever been done than when human beings killed the Son of God on the Cross. They executed an innocent man. We read and hear today of cases when an innocent man was unjustly convicted of a crime he did not commit. Years later DNA evidence reveals that the man is innocent, and he is set free. It makes us wonder how many innocent people have been executed by our legal system for crimes they did not commit. Jesus was an innocent man, yet he was executed by guilty men. He was executed for no other reason than thatt they could not stand to have a perfectly righteous man in their midst. His very presence among them judged them for their sins. When you feel judged, people judge in return. And that is what they did. They tried, judged and executed Jesus unjustly.

The snake on a pole was a symbol of suffering and death. So is the Cross. The Roman cross was an instrument of torture and execution. It was a disgraceful and painful way to die. On the Cross Jesus suffered and died. We sing the hymn: “On a hill far away stood an old rugged cross, the symbol of suffering and shame.” Symbols are important nowadays. Corporations spend lots of money to get just the right graphic to represent their business or product. Religious denominations have symbols. The symbol of the United Methodist Church (one of our two denominations) is a black cross with a red flame of fire coming from the base. It is supposed to represent the cross of Jesus and the Holy Spirit. But a survey was done some years ago, and it was found that more people thought it was the burning cross of the KKK than the Methodist Church. Methodists obviously have an image problem.

The Roman cross was a symbol of punishment, torture, suffering, and death. Christianity has reinterpreted it to mean a salvation and eternal life. That is what God did in our OT Reading. God told Moses to make an image of the snake that was killing people and make it into an image that healed people. Whoever looked upon that bronze serpent on the pole would be healed and not die. The apostle John says that the Cross does the same thing. When people look upon the Cross of Jesus Christ in faith, then they are spiritually healed and given spiritual life. “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” It is a symbol of salvation.

IV. There is one final meaning of this symbol of the snake on a stick. It is more of an interesting postscript than a point. This bronze snake on a pole makes another appearance in the OT. It seems that this bronze serpent on a pole that Moses made was preserved. The Hebrews didn’t just throw it away after it had served its purpose in this chapter. They kept it. After the temple was built in Jerusalem, it was stored there in the temple. At some point it was taken out of storage, erected in the temple, given the name Nehushtan and worshipped, in direct disobedience to the command in the Ten Commandments not to make an image and bow down to it and worship it. Centuries later King Hezekiah carried out some religious reforms in Jerusalem. At that time it says in 2 Kings 18 that he destroyed this bronze serpent on a pole because the people had burned incense to it and worshipped it. This symbol of salvation had become an idol.

This serves as a warning to us about our religious symbols.  Anything can become an idol. Even the cross – as central as it is to Christian theology - can become an idol. Our theology can become idolatrous. As soon as we think that only we have it right, then our theology has become an idol. Our theological interpretations of the cross can take the place of the spiritual power of the cross. Our doctrines about Jesus can take the place of Jesus himself. Instead of knowing and serving the living risen Christ, we can create a designer Jesus the way we want him to be and worship our man-made Messiah. We need to follow in Hezekiah’s footsteps and tear down the idols so that nothing takes the place of the living Lord Jesus in our lives or our church.

Moses crafted a snake on a stick. Those who looked upon it were healed and did not die. It served as a prophecy of the one who was to come – a man on a cross, so that whoever looks to him and believes in him would not perish but have everlasting life.