Grace and peace to you from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The Word of the Lord which engages us this morning comes from our Old Testament and Gospel lessons (Numbers 21: 4-9 and John 3: 14-21).

Years ago one Ozark family of men had been active in their country church, but somebody had said something to one of them he didn't like. Now, in spite of many visits by Pastor Jim and elders and others, they all four persistently avoided worship and their fellow Christians for years. One day, when the three boys were out at the lake, a rattlesnake bit John. The doctor came quickly, but back in the days before antidotes the situation was grave. The doctor pronounced him critically ill. "About all you can do now is pray," he concluded.

When the father called for Pastor Jim, he came immediately and offered this prayer: "O Wise and Righteous Father, we thank thee that Thou in Thy wisdom has sent this rattlesnake to bite John in order to bring him to his senses. He hasn't been inside the church for years, Lord, and it is doubtful that he has in all this time felt the need of prayer. We trust this will prove a valuable lesson to genuine repentance.

"And now, O Father, wilt Thou send another snake to bite Sam, another one to bite Frank, and another big one to bite the old man? We have been doing everything that we know for years to restore this family, but to no avail. All our combined efforts couldn't do what this little old snake has done. We, therefore, conclude that the only thing left that will do them any good is rattlesnakes. So, Lord, send us bigger and better rattlesnakes! Amen." (from the Dallas Morning News via the Redeemer Weekly Messenger, Austin, about 1977).

So you know, I don't believe that this hopefully fictitious pastor exhibited good pastoral care or bedside manner in this case. I share this with you in jest, not as an example for our elders to follow in making calls on delinquent members. While there are striking similarities between this story and our Old Testament lesson, its critical to note that Moses never asked God to send a punishment on these people who were constantly complaining. In fact, just a chapter earlier Moses had gotten into trouble with the Lord (Numbers 20: 11-12, Psalm 106: 33) because of the rash words he had spoken to those who opposed him. The only praying Moses does here in the Bronze Snake incident is to intercede for the people and ask the Lord to bring healing.

It is improper for Pastor Jim or Moses or anyone else to judge and call to God for some specific form of punishment on unrepentant people. We are called upon to gently admonish one another through the Word of the Lord (Colossians 3: 16, Galatians 6: 1), sometimes even culminating in church discipline like excommunication. But we the church are never called upon to exact or pray for a specific physical punishment (even if someone vandalizes and steals from the church. Note: I had earlier announced that there been minor vandalism here the previous. Someone had stolen letters from our sign out front and reordered a few of them to read "Satan saves" and "Anarchy." We had prayed for the perpetrators.) But yet the LORD Himself obviously can and does decide when some specific discipline will bring about repentance. In the case of our Old Testament story, it was, so-to-speak, "bigger and better rattlesnakes." The Hebrews were tiring of wandering in the wilderness. The Lord had actually instructed Moses to take a longer way around to prepare for their entering the Promised Land. The impatience and grumbling of the people burst through. They complain not only of Moses' leadership or of not having enough variety in their meals. They complain directly about God and the miraculous gift of manna, the bread from heaven. In this they have crossed a line of rebellion that the Lord could no longer overlook. He's not playing the role of bully. He had been protecting them in the desert for years from the Egyptians (Exodus 14), from other tribes who attacked them (e.g., Exodus 17: 8ff).

Their clothes were not even wearing out and they had been protected from scorpions and poisonous snakes (Deuteronomy 8: 4, 15). He in his gracious wisdom knows when they have stepped across a line that requires a specific discipline to bring them back to their senses, to bring them back to a point of daily repentance and trust in his trustworthy presence in their lives. He was the Lord who had saved them out of slavery in Egypt (Exodus 20:1) and had reigned blessing after blessing upon them: Manna, water, quail, military defeats of those who opposed them, etc. He would surely even bless them more (Exodus 20:24) if they would only continue trust in Him and ask for his blessings humbly and respectfully.

But they won't listen. They rebel and moan and complain. He sends the snakes, crawling, hissing, venomous snakes. I don't know how many of you have ever been bitten by a snake or been close to being bitten. I had several close calls with Water Moccasins and Copperheads as a kid. My first incident was probably the most dangerous. My Dad and I had driven out to a pasture to get pecans from our one pecan tree. I was about 8. As we were stopping and getting out of the truck, Dad said to be careful and watch out for any copper colored snakes. I said "you mean like that one right there" pointing at it about 3-4 feet away. My Dad whooped and pushed me backwards before getting a long-handled shovel and killing the snake.

For the Israelites in the desert there was not enough protection from these snakes. They were everywhere. The people came to Moses and repented: "We sinned when we spoke against the LORD and against you. Pray that the LORD will take the snakes away from us." So Moses prayed for the people."

The Lord answers this prayer, but in a most surprising way. He doesn't take away the snakes! "The LORD said to Moses, "Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live. So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, he lived." The Lord is saying to the people, "Don't look and worry about the snakes. Snakes are going to be with you. You need not plot an escape route to avoid them. You need not hit them with a shovel. They will be too numerous. But trust me. Don't look at them. Look away. Look to the one on the pole. Gaze at the saving snake on the wooden standard. Just stay there surrounded by the snakes and know that I have provided a way for any one to live even if they are bitten. Trust that my method of providing and keeping you alive will be sufficient, even wondrous" (paragraph modified from Moellering, Concordia Journal, p. 74, January 1991).

Today God calls us to look beyond the Bronze snake for our life and saving and look to another who was on a pole. Our Lord Jesus Christ directly tied himself and his crucifixion to this story. "Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life." We will go through this earthly journey of ours, often surrounded by difficulties and pains, pleading with the Lord to take them from us. Those troubles may be the result of our own sin, the choices we make to rebel against God and his Word, saying or doing things that harm others and ourselves. Other times these troubles may simply be the result of living in a dangerous world infected by cancer, heart and lung disease, and the sin of others.

In either case, these texts call on us to stop focusing our gaze on the problems and pains and to start -- to continue -- looking to the One who was lifted up for us on the wooden pole, the cross of Christ. Lift high that cross in our lives and continue peering at it alone. The snakes, the problems of this world will always be around us in this life, we can never conquer them, never find our own escape route, never hit them with enough shovels. But we can gaze to Christ and his cross and his resurrection. In Him alone we have hope and life.

John 3: 16 was embedded in our Gospel lesson "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." That verse so encapsulates the Good News of God's love for us that we can forget its context, that is the verses just before it. How did God love the world? How did he give his Son? He loved and gave by lifting the Son of Man up as our one and only ransom from the snakes and problems and sins of this world. Look beyond the standard of the Bronze Snake and see the cross of Christ. Let the problems and copperheads and rattlers of this life turn us away from our own solutions and see the one sure and eternal solution of our God. O Lord once lifted on the glorious tree, Raise us and let your cross the magnet be (Hymn #311, v. 4).

May the Light Who has come into this world continue to shine the truth of His Word into our lives forever. Amen