Thoughts for the Day

Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.
John 3:14-15

Today’s passage is the last in this Lent series, not a return to the famous John 3:16 ‘For God so loved the world …’, but to the passage to which it refers.  Often in the past, when reading about Moses making a bronze snake and putting it up on a pole, and about people only having to go outside their tents to look at it in order to be healed, I’ve found myself musing over questions such as why God instructed him to do that and how it worked.  If, sometime during the last couple of years, someone had erected a pole at the end of my road with a depiction of Coronavirus and claimed looking at it would cure people, I expect I would have had similar questions!  But the message to those suffering from deadly snake bites in the desert was simply to look and be healed and save any questions for later.

Similarly with Jesus being lifted up on the Cross.  We can understand in part.  We can see how it fulfils Old Testament prophecy.  We can recognise how the Old Testament sheds light on what God was doing.  We can read about Jesus in the gospels.  We can explore the insights of the rest of the New Testament.  Still, in this life we will never fully appreciate exactly how it worked or exactly why it had to be exactly that way.  But the most important question is whether we will believe and trust in Jesus, whether we will accept his call to repentance for the forgiveness of our sins. Amen? Amen!

Thank you for following, or dipping into, this Lent journey.  I wonder how you found it.  It would be lovely to receive any kindly-intended comments, or even a ‘like’ if you consider that appropriate.  I bid you Happy Easter for tomorrow!