Did You Hear the One About the Snake?
Rev. Eugene N. Nelson, Jr.
The Community Church of Sebastopol
March 26, 2006
Numbers 21: 4-9
I like to believe that I am a friend of God’s creation and of all God’s creatures. And I would include snakes in that statement. I just like to know where they are. Many times I have been working in the back yard, only to have a snake suddenly slither away as I came close. It was only a small garter snake, but the way I jumped back and grabbed my heart, it might as well have been a six foot rattler! Yes, snakes are okay and they perform a useful service in keeping down the numbers of rodents and other pests, but, having said that, I would still just as soon not place my hand on a shelf in the garage and see a pair of beady eyes looking back at me. I want some warning of their presence. So, yes, maybe I’m a little ambivalent about snakes. I don’t fear them; but I don’t want to be surprised by them. When it comes to snakes, I want them on my terms.
Snakes have been around for a long time and it would seem that people have always been uncertain about them, seeing them as both good and evil, as threat and promise. The hooded Cobra on the head- piece of Pharaoh in Egypt was there to protect him, to spit venom at any enemy who might try to harm him. The Sumerian God of Healing walked around with two intertwined snakes upon his staff – a symbol that was later adopted by the AMA in our country. It is a curious image of healing – both threat and salve, twined together in the act of healing. Any of you who have been through surgery know that those who work under the symbol of those snakes often must hurt us before they can begin heal us. Sometimes these ancient snakes were saviors, sometimes dreaded demons.
Which brings me to our text for today – a rather obscure and troubling text from the Old Testament Book of Numbers. I have never preached from this text before, and, depending how things go, may never preach from it again! But one reason I am drawn to it is because if we go to the Gospel of John, we find this text on the lips of Jesus. You recall in John 3, when the old Pharisee, Nicodemus, makes a late-night visit to Jesus. They have this puzzling discussion about being born from above, born again, born anew by water and spirit and it leaves Nicodemus hopelessly confused. Then Jesus just adds to his confusion when he says, “And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that whoever believes in him may have eternal life." In the words of scholar and teacher Barbara Brown Taylor, “The Gospel of John says that Jesus dares to use this bronze serpent on a pole as a figure of himself. In the dark of night, with Nicodemus sitting before him, Jesus used this shocking and gripping image as a parable of what he was doing to save the world. Nicodemus comes to Jesus with religious questions about eternal life. And Jesus speaks to him of slithering serpents, darkness, death, light, life and salvation, all mixed up together in him…Jesus, not only the good shepherd, but also the good snake.” Now there’s an image of Jesus I’ve never encountered before. “Jesus as the good snake.” I’m going to want to return to that, but let’s set it aside for a moment and return to our text from Numbers.
It’s easy to tell you why I haven’t preached from this text. I really don’t like it very much. Once again we find God associated with some rather shocking violence. The people of Israel, still in the wilderness following the exodus, are complaining once again. They have been wandering without a permanent home – 40 years is a pretty long time. You would have thought somewhere along the way Moses would have stopped and asked for directions! They are low on water, and they are really tired of the food. The manna in the desert, was pretty cool trick forty years ago, but it’s been a long time and what they’d really like is a nice steak. “We detest this miserable food.” And God, the same God who freed them from slavery, who provided food in the desert, seemingly loses the divine temper. God has had enough of these people. And so God sends snakes among them, poisonous snakes that bite and kill. It is as if God is saying, “You want to complain? I’ll give you something you can really complain about.” And they find themselves up to their ankles in snakes. I can’t wait to share this story with our children in Sunday school someday. What are we to make of this story?
Years ago an old woman down south had no money to buy food. But with complete trust in God, she got down on her knees and prayed, “Dear Lord, please send me a side of bacon and a sack of corn meal.” Over and over again she repeated the same prayer in a loud voice. Now, one of the town’s worst characters happened to be walking by and heard her plea. He decided to play a trick on her. Hurrying to the nearest store, he bought a side of bacon and a sack of corn meal. He returned to her home and dropped the food down the chimney. It landed right in front of the hungry woman as she knelt in prayer.
Jumping to her feet, she joyfully cried out, “Oh, Lord, you’ve answered my prayer!” Then she ran all around the entire neighborhood telling anyone who would listen about this wondrous miracle.
This was just what the scoundrel was waiting for. He ridiculed her before the whole town, calling her a fool, saying it had nothing to do with God, it wasn’t a miracle, but that he had gone up the roof himself and had dropped the food down the chimney. Without missing a beat, this wise and faithful old woman replied, “Well, the devil may have brought it, but it was the Lord who sent it.”
I wonder if the same thing could the same thing be said about this text? Thinking about snakes, Barbara Brown Taylor would have us note an important point: in this text all of the snakes belong to God. The slithering ones that are alive. The beautiful brass one on the staff. The death dealing ones. The life-giving ones. There are good snakes and there are bad snakes, but they all belong to God. And ultimately in this text, they serve God’s saving purpose. “The people came to Moses and said, ‘We have sinned by speaking against the Lord and against you; pray to the Lord to take away the serpents from us’…And the Lord said to Moses, ‘Make a poisonous serpent, and set it on a pole; and everyone who is bitten shall look at it and live.’” In the inexplicable mystery of this moment, evil and threat are transformed. The snakes that appear because of the people’s ungratefulness, evil and sin, become the means for leading the people out of their ungratefulness, evil and sin. That which had been an instrument of death becomes the way to new life. Sounds a lot like a cross.
Snakes as messengers of God, even of God’s grace. What is the Bible going to think of next? Have you ever seen that television program, Touched by an Angel? Della Reese plays a guarding, supportive angel. She never slithers on her belly, never bites or threatens anyone. She gives them what they want. Her appearance is always unambiguously good and positive. When God’s messenger appears, there are smiles all around.
But our text tells a different story. In the words of Taylor, “In the story at hand, serpents sent by God bite the people into their senses. Being close to death, they remember how much they appreciate the gift of life. They are shocked into recognition that they owe much to God and to Moses who do everything they can to preserve the people.” They are bitten into their senses. “Well the devil may have brought it, but it was the Lord who sent it.” Bitten into their senses… Sometimes I wonder if we shouldn’t ask God to call back the snakes!
I know a lot of people, including my father, who have angel pins. They wear them on their lapel or other places. But I haven’t seen too many snake pins. And yet, the more I work with this text the more fascinated I am with these snakes. God tells Moses to put a brass serpent on a pole so that, in the future, when they are bitten, when evil and pain inevitably overtake them, they can look at the saving snake on the pole and be preserved. In looking up to the light, instead of down into the darkness, they will be saved. Says Barbara Brown Taylor, “Somehow, in the hands of God, evil and good, threat and promise, life and death, are all mixed up. We can’t explain it, but we intuitively know that we are on the threshold here of a deep truth.” And Jesus seems to embrace that truth. “Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that you might have life.”
I love comforting images of Jesus, the One who welcomes and accepts us, warts and all, who forgives seventy times seven, who welcomes and blesses the children and invites us to become like children. But I am going to stay with this new image of Jesus as the snake, slithering into our illusions of safety and security, of good and evil, and challenging us with what can feel like venomous words of change and transformation, words that bite deep into our comfortable lives. Biting, challenging words that, curiously enough, become the means to new life.
Snakes in the wilderness – a man on a cross…It is strange stuff and it can be hard to know what it all means. But perhaps that is precisely what this strange story wants to do with us, to move us to the simple statement: I don’t know…I don’t always know the difference between good and evil. I don’t know when God, the same God who brings me good things and makes life easier, may decide to bite me on the ankle, a painful bite that may be just what I need if I am finally to see the death-dealing serpents I carry in my own heart. Maybe that is something of what this 40 day Lenten journey is all about.
In the words of one colleague, “We try to make God over into a more pleasing image as the one who always gives us our heart’s desire. But then one comes among us, with biting words, who might make life a little more uncomfortable for us, and who surprises us with the truth about ourselves. And sometimes with him, it feels like something is dying, in order that something might be reborn. Sometimes on Sundays in our encounters with him, it’s comforting, and sometimes it hurts and hurts deeply, before we can be healed. Jesus is God’s fiery reminder that angels can sometimes look like enemies, and messengers of God can bring us messages we may not particularly like. A true savior may sting us before he can save us. So dare to look upon him, to risk him, and be saved.”