From death to life!
Commentary
One of the moral dilemmas that has to be dealt with in these days when human organs are being transplanted from one body to another is the question: When can a patient be pronounced dead? The medical profession has worked out its own elaborate scientific criteria for discerning the signs of physical death. But how do we discern the signs of spiritual death?
The Bible has a great deal to say about spiritual death, and in the passage from Ephesians for this Sunday, Paul makes three affirmations. Sin has a certain killing power. It kills our innocence, leaving a painful wound where once there was unscarred tissue. It kills our ideals, so that we find ourselves doing quite easily what once we would have shuddered at. It kills our freedom to make moral choices, our freedom not to sin. Sin is a murderer, and spiritually, the sinner is a dead person.
That same theme is reflected in the reading from Numbers. According to Hebrew tradition, this incident describes the last and the worst of Israel's apostasies in the wilderness. The people of Israel, wandering in the desert are plagued with serpents whose bites are fatal. The serpents, we are told, are God's punishment for the sinfulness of the people. In the face of great numbers of physical death, the people acknowledge their disobedience, and through Moses, call upon God for deliverance.
But in all three of our readings, it is the dramatic contrast between death and life that catches our attention. In the wilderness God provides an unexpected antidote to the serpents in the form of an artificial serpent set up high on a pole.
In John's gospel, the writer suggests that as an elevated serpent long ago brought health to the Hebrews, so Jesus' elevation on the cross brings healing (salvation) to humanity. John uses the term, "lifted up" in such a way that we see the otherwise ignominious death of Jesus on a cross as a kind of coronation of the world's King. For John, the cross is the love of God enacted in its purest form. The king of love is not humiliated in his death. On the contrary, his death is the enthronement of all that he stands for.
The same startling contrast between death and life is expressed in Paul's words in Ephesians. Sinners are cut off from God and are spiritually dead. Nothing but a miracle can reverse the death process. For Paul, that miracle was the resurrection. At the heart of the gospel stands the utterly unique fact of a man who was dead one day and alive the next, because God raised him from the dead. Only as we repent the drama of Christ's death and resurrection do we enter fully into life. How does this miracle take place? Paul insists it is the grace of God -- God doing for us what we do not deserve, God rescuing us from the misery we have brought on ourselves, and raising us from death to life!
OUTLINE I
Wholeness in the wilderness
Numbers 21:4-9
A. vv. 4-7: These verses describe the sinful rebellion of the people which has led to their death. The Hebrew idiom is that the people's "soul was shortened." They are thoroughly discouraged, depressed, and cheerless. They have been rejected by the kings of Edom and Arad; they have lost their high priest, Aaron; and they complain bitterly about the manna God has provided. Their sinful rebellion evokes the anger of God. The serpents (literally seraphim) are the messengers of God's judgment, and the judgment on the sin of people is death.
B. vv. 8-9: In sharp contrast, these verses describe the gracious deliverance God provides for his sinful people. The serpent of bronze is lifted up over the people, and the glory of God is revealed in the healing power which flows forth. The Lord alone is the healer! As the serpents brought death, so the Lord brings the cure which leads to life. Why didn't God just rid them of the serpents? I suggest that God is showing both the ancient Hebrews and us that the healing God is also the Lord of the serpents.
In New Testament terms, Jesus is the antidote to our death-oriented sinful lives. As the Lord used the form of a serpent to counter the effects of the deadly serpents, so Jesus was made sin for us to counter the effects of sin in our lives.
OUTLINE II
Always amazing grace
Ephesians 2:1-10
A. vv. 1-3: Here Paul points to the signs of spiritual death which are familiar enough to us, because we see them around us everyday. There is: (1) Worldliness, our enslavement to the world's standard of values which are human-centered and not God-centered, (2) Superstition, our enslavement to the mythologies, philosophies, and ideologies which are opposed to God, (3) Sensuality, our enslavement to sex, drugs, alcohol, or anything else that promises us instant gratification and happiness. By giving ourselves over to any of these things, we make God an enemy and since God is the source of life, a person cut off from God is spiritually dead.
B. vv. 4-10: But here Paul turns to the centrality of the resurrection. The Christian religion is not based on propagating the moral teachings of a certain Jew named Jesus. It is centered in the fact of the resurrection. For Paul, it is God who brings life when all that we can see or deserve is death. The authentic experience of every Christian is an experience of spiritual resurrection. As John Mackay wrote of Ephesians, "I owe my life to this book. I was a lad of only 14 years when in its pages, I saw a new world. Jesus Christ became the center of everything." That new life for Paul is made possible by grace. The glory of the Christian faith lies not in anything we can do for God, but in something God has done for us, something God has done without us, and in spite of us!
OUTLINE III
The glory of the cross
John 3:14-21
A. vv. 14-15: The use of the Old Testament allusion may seem strange to our ears, but the point is clear. John Wesley wrote of these verses, "All those who look to Christ by faith recover spiritual health, even as all who looked at the serpent recovered bodily health." The pattern of action in the Old Testament is repeated and fulfilled in the action of Jesus Christ.
B. vv. 16-21: John's unique insight was that Jesus was glorified not only in his resurrection but in his crucifixion as well. For John, the death of Jesus is not defeat. His executioners have enthroned him! John turns the scandal of the cross into a positive thing, not by portraying it as a sacrificial death, but as the enthronement and demonstration of Jesus' kingship. We can glory in the cross, because it gives us a sense of our worth as human beings. We can glory in the cross because it restores our integrity as human beings, and opens a new and living way into God's presence. We can glory in the cross, because it gives us strength to live new lives in Christ.
The enthronement of Jesus is for John the enthronement of divine love. A love which goes as far as a cross to reach sinners can only come from the living God. Before us stands the issue. Can we dare to embrace a love which does not feel scandal or disgrace but goes to the extreme to find its true expression? Can we dare to see in the death of Jesus the expression of what love is really all about?
The Bible has a great deal to say about spiritual death, and in the passage from Ephesians for this Sunday, Paul makes three affirmations. Sin has a certain killing power. It kills our innocence, leaving a painful wound where once there was unscarred tissue. It kills our ideals, so that we find ourselves doing quite easily what once we would have shuddered at. It kills our freedom to make moral choices, our freedom not to sin. Sin is a murderer, and spiritually, the sinner is a dead person.
That same theme is reflected in the reading from Numbers. According to Hebrew tradition, this incident describes the last and the worst of Israel's apostasies in the wilderness. The people of Israel, wandering in the desert are plagued with serpents whose bites are fatal. The serpents, we are told, are God's punishment for the sinfulness of the people. In the face of great numbers of physical death, the people acknowledge their disobedience, and through Moses, call upon God for deliverance.
But in all three of our readings, it is the dramatic contrast between death and life that catches our attention. In the wilderness God provides an unexpected antidote to the serpents in the form of an artificial serpent set up high on a pole.
In John's gospel, the writer suggests that as an elevated serpent long ago brought health to the Hebrews, so Jesus' elevation on the cross brings healing (salvation) to humanity. John uses the term, "lifted up" in such a way that we see the otherwise ignominious death of Jesus on a cross as a kind of coronation of the world's King. For John, the cross is the love of God enacted in its purest form. The king of love is not humiliated in his death. On the contrary, his death is the enthronement of all that he stands for.
The same startling contrast between death and life is expressed in Paul's words in Ephesians. Sinners are cut off from God and are spiritually dead. Nothing but a miracle can reverse the death process. For Paul, that miracle was the resurrection. At the heart of the gospel stands the utterly unique fact of a man who was dead one day and alive the next, because God raised him from the dead. Only as we repent the drama of Christ's death and resurrection do we enter fully into life. How does this miracle take place? Paul insists it is the grace of God -- God doing for us what we do not deserve, God rescuing us from the misery we have brought on ourselves, and raising us from death to life!
OUTLINE I
Wholeness in the wilderness
Numbers 21:4-9
A. vv. 4-7: These verses describe the sinful rebellion of the people which has led to their death. The Hebrew idiom is that the people's "soul was shortened." They are thoroughly discouraged, depressed, and cheerless. They have been rejected by the kings of Edom and Arad; they have lost their high priest, Aaron; and they complain bitterly about the manna God has provided. Their sinful rebellion evokes the anger of God. The serpents (literally seraphim) are the messengers of God's judgment, and the judgment on the sin of people is death.
B. vv. 8-9: In sharp contrast, these verses describe the gracious deliverance God provides for his sinful people. The serpent of bronze is lifted up over the people, and the glory of God is revealed in the healing power which flows forth. The Lord alone is the healer! As the serpents brought death, so the Lord brings the cure which leads to life. Why didn't God just rid them of the serpents? I suggest that God is showing both the ancient Hebrews and us that the healing God is also the Lord of the serpents.
In New Testament terms, Jesus is the antidote to our death-oriented sinful lives. As the Lord used the form of a serpent to counter the effects of the deadly serpents, so Jesus was made sin for us to counter the effects of sin in our lives.
OUTLINE II
Always amazing grace
Ephesians 2:1-10
A. vv. 1-3: Here Paul points to the signs of spiritual death which are familiar enough to us, because we see them around us everyday. There is: (1) Worldliness, our enslavement to the world's standard of values which are human-centered and not God-centered, (2) Superstition, our enslavement to the mythologies, philosophies, and ideologies which are opposed to God, (3) Sensuality, our enslavement to sex, drugs, alcohol, or anything else that promises us instant gratification and happiness. By giving ourselves over to any of these things, we make God an enemy and since God is the source of life, a person cut off from God is spiritually dead.
B. vv. 4-10: But here Paul turns to the centrality of the resurrection. The Christian religion is not based on propagating the moral teachings of a certain Jew named Jesus. It is centered in the fact of the resurrection. For Paul, it is God who brings life when all that we can see or deserve is death. The authentic experience of every Christian is an experience of spiritual resurrection. As John Mackay wrote of Ephesians, "I owe my life to this book. I was a lad of only 14 years when in its pages, I saw a new world. Jesus Christ became the center of everything." That new life for Paul is made possible by grace. The glory of the Christian faith lies not in anything we can do for God, but in something God has done for us, something God has done without us, and in spite of us!
OUTLINE III
The glory of the cross
John 3:14-21
A. vv. 14-15: The use of the Old Testament allusion may seem strange to our ears, but the point is clear. John Wesley wrote of these verses, "All those who look to Christ by faith recover spiritual health, even as all who looked at the serpent recovered bodily health." The pattern of action in the Old Testament is repeated and fulfilled in the action of Jesus Christ.
B. vv. 16-21: John's unique insight was that Jesus was glorified not only in his resurrection but in his crucifixion as well. For John, the death of Jesus is not defeat. His executioners have enthroned him! John turns the scandal of the cross into a positive thing, not by portraying it as a sacrificial death, but as the enthronement and demonstration of Jesus' kingship. We can glory in the cross, because it gives us a sense of our worth as human beings. We can glory in the cross because it restores our integrity as human beings, and opens a new and living way into God's presence. We can glory in the cross, because it gives us strength to live new lives in Christ.
The enthronement of Jesus is for John the enthronement of divine love. A love which goes as far as a cross to reach sinners can only come from the living God. Before us stands the issue. Can we dare to embrace a love which does not feel scandal or disgrace but goes to the extreme to find its true expression? Can we dare to see in the death of Jesus the expression of what love is really all about?
