Lifted

"Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness," John 3:14.

You know that medical icon, that badge that shows a snake winding around a pole? They say it comes from Greek mythology, some god of healing or other, from a few centuries before Jesus was born. Turns out that the earliest icon was a thousand years even earlier than that. During Israel's wilderness wanderings, venomous snakes were killing off the people. Moses made a bronze snake lifted up on a pole and anybody bitten by a snake could look at the image and be healed. Mildly entertaining story so far. But this is where it gets weird. Jesus told Nicodemus that just like that, the Son of man would be lifted up and anybody that believed in him could have eternal life.

Brothers or sisters, we point each other to our Lord lifted up, nailed to a cross. That's where he took our sin, where we find his healing, where we receive eternal life. And, together, believing in him, we lift him up in praise forever.