Step Into the Light

John 3:14-21

Have any of you been snake bitten before? How about a spider bite? Bee sting or wasp sting? Those hurt, don’t they. The sting is painful enough, but as the venom starts working it’s way through your body, the pain gets worse and worse. And, as you know, for some, the body reacts to these stings and bites in such a harmful way that one could even die if medical attention isn’t forthcoming. Again, it’s not so much the sting itself that causes harm, but the poison that spreads through your body that hurts so much.
I mention this as a way to get to a powerful way sin is portrayed in scripture, as well as the remedy for sin, which we have for us today. Jesus compares his saving work for all humanity to when Moses lifts up a bronze serpent in the desert. Sin and the effects of a snake bite go hand in hand. Sin is more than doing something bad. Sin is more like a poison that lingers and causes great harm if the antidote is not applied. Sin is sort of like being snake bit.
Listen to the story that Jesus is referring to in this conversation he has with Nicodemus. It is in Numbers 21:4-9:

From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; but the people became impatient on the way. The people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we detest this miserable food.” Then the Lord sent poisonous serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many Israelites died. 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.” So Moses prayed for the people. 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.” So Moses made a serpent of bronze, and put it upon a pole; and whenever a serpent bit someone, that person would look at the serpent of bronze and live.

It is clear how Jesus takes this event in the history of Israel and shows that it is a symbol of what is happening when Jesus is raised up on the cross. The serpent, which was causing the people harm, when lifted up and gazed upon in faith, brings healing. Just so, Jesus, who took on the sin of all the world, when lifted up on the cross and is gazed upon with faith, brings healing to those who are dying from the poison of sin. It is a vivid image for us, and inspires us to turn again to Christ, to dare to look at him on the cross, the Lord of life sacrificing his life on the cross so that everyone who looks on him in faith might not perish, but have eternal life.
This is the good news of the gospel, that we can be healed from the corrupting poison of sin in our lives by looking upon Jesus and believing that he is like the bronze serpent in the desert that brings healing to those who look on him in faith. Those who refuse to look upon Christ are hurting themselves. They hurt themselves by refusing to stand in the light of truth, look upon the crucified Christ, and live.
So many people refuse to do this. So many people refuse to acknowledge the depth of their sickness, and their need for healing. Or, they believe that if they just try harder, that somehow they will be able to make everything right. Many of you are familiar with the 12 step recovery program for those trapped in addiction. It is the teaching of this program that the first step toward recovery is acknowledging your need for help; that you are powerless to help yourself. Many people will acknowledge their lives are not as they should be. They know they need to change their life. But they will not admit their helplessness. This is the hardest thing, which we have to rediscover as we go through different stages of our life, that we don’t have the answers, that we don’t have the strength necessary, that we can’t make it on our own, that we need help. The first step toward healing, from addiction, from sin, is to acknowledge one’s complete powerlessness and need for help.
What scripture teaches us this morning is that those who acknowledge their powerlessness over the effects of sin, and allow themselves the vulnerability and humility of standing in the glaring light of God’s truth, to not trust in their own goodness but trust in Christ with faith, these receive the blessing of God and become healed from the poison of sin. This is the crucial step that so many people miss. John Wesley speaks of the “almost Christian.” It is one who believes that Jesus saves us from sin. They assent to it mentally. Or, caught up in the passion of the moment, they come forward and pray the sinner’s prayer. But they still refuse to acknowledge the truth of their lives, how completely poisoned and corrupt our lives are by sin. The poison of sin is so strong, to the extent that we have to turn again and again to Christ, allow the light of God’s truth to shine ever more fully into the dark corners of our lives to have the truth of our deeds exposed, so that we can humbly plead again for the mercy of God. This is the ongoing act of salvation that we live in to. Our life in Christ is one of being saved. It is a process.
It is hard to submit ourselves to the glaring light of God’s truth, especially when we are living a good life. Think of Job, who was without question a man of great piety. God was even bragging on him. But when the time of testing came, Job increasingly grew angry with God. It revealed in Job the sin of pride. He could not understand why God had done this to him. He did not deserve it. He argued with God about it and demanded of God a defense. Then, God finally answers by blowing Job away with his arrogance and presumptuousness. God impresses upon Job how insignificant he is in the great scheme of things. The light of God’s truth shines brightly on Job, and instead of being defensive or hiding from God’s truth, he makes a statement of contrition. From Job 42:1-6:

Then Job answered the Lord: “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. ‘Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’ Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. ‘Hear, and I will speak; I will question you, and you declare to me.’ I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes.”

Dorotheus, a wise teacher from the past, taught from experience that the closer we draw to God, the more evident it becomes to us of how sinful we truly are. Nearly all of us live with blinders on, content in our self-delusions, even those of us who have given our lives to Christ. Like Job, so it is for us, that although we have heard the gospel and have responded to it positively, how many of us have seen God? And if we did, would we not realize that all our falsehoods would drop, and we, like Job, would find ourselves in need to despise ourselves, and repent in dust and ashes? When we look upon Christ, who is God in the flesh, suffering and dying on a cross, drawing out the poison of sin that has corrupted all of creation, are we not pierced to the heart, humbled, and find ourselves letting go of the façade of having ourselves all together, but rather in desperate need of healing?
This is what is involved in allowing the light of God’s truth to shine upon us. It is the painful acknowledgement of our complete infatuation with our own self-image. I think I am like many of us, to truly be confronted with my false-self, the delusions I have constructed in order to cope with my insecurities and live out my fantasies. That’s too painful, too brutally honest, too raw. Yes, I believe in Jesus. I trust Christ for my salvation. But when the searchlight of God’s truth gets flipped on, I join Adam and Eve and run for cover. Am I the only one here for whom this is the case? How many of us, with complete honesty, say to God what the psalmist said, in Ps. 26:2, “Prove me, O Lord, and try me; test my heart and mind.” How many of us request that test?
For many of us, me included, we have to go beyond believing in the name of Jesus. We have to trust completely in the power of Jesus to save us. We have to move beyond believing about Jesus, but rather believe in Jesus. We have to trust not in our own goodness, our own motives, our own will, our own desires, our own feelings, but rather trust in the mercy of God expressed in the unconditional love of Jesus, who suffered and died in order to redeem the whole of creation by drawing out the poison of sin.
This story Jesus teaches should haunt us, when he tells of how people will come to him saying, “We healed in your name, and cast out demons in your name.” But Jesus will say to them, go away from me, for I do not know you. Their fault lay in what they said. They said “we healed, we cast out the demons, in your name, of course.” Rather, we should be like Paul, who said, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” Paul did not trust his motives, his power, his strength, his moral effort, his emotions. He relied on the strength of Christ. Paul had allowed the truth of God to shine on him and reveal his complete bankruptcy and total dependency on the grace and power of God to do any good thing. The poison of sin is so great. Or, as John Wesley taught, any good we do is made possible by the grace of God.
And so, this is the good news for us: that we can’t save ourselves. But God can save us. God loves us so much. God has acted. God has saved us. God has provided the remedy for the poison sting of sin that is killing us. We can look upon the cross and be healed, and believe that by looking on the cross, and trusting in the healing power of the cross, that we will have eternal life. The poison of sin is drawn out of us when we gaze upon the cross. This is the mystery of our faith. We don’t know how it works. It is what God has revealed to us. We can receive this healing and be thankful. We can trust in the saving power of God to such a degree that we can allow the truth of our lives to be in the glaring spotlight, and be able to say, “Do not look on my many sins, but have mercy on me, O God, in your loving compassion, and save me.”
That’s a scary thing. It’s scary to acknowledge that we are hopelessly messed up. It’s scary to confront the painful truth of ourselves. It is scary to acknowledge that our lives, which may last seventy, eighty, even ninety years or longer, are but a puff of wind, a flower that blossoms during the day, but dries up and withers away at night. It is scary to acknowledge that all our hopes and dreams, our successes and disappointments, our goals and plans, are but a flash in a pan. And the years of pain, rejection, and abuse we have been inflicted with, and the wearing out of our bodies over time, to face our mortality, it is a fearful thing.
Sarah Foulger offers a powerful perspective on this. She points out how interesting it is that God has Moses make a bronze serpent, that which the people feared most. The people did not want to see snakes. They were frightening and the source of so much death. But, if they could muster up the courage to gaze upon what they feared, the snake, then they would be healed. If they could confront their fear, and realize that the power of God can overcome what they fear, then they will be healed.
Foulger makes the connection for us. We fear rejection. Christ was rejected. We fear pain. Christ suffered. We fear being abused. Christ was abused. We fear death. Christ died. And as we gaze upon Christ on the cross, we can realize that our fears of abuse, pain, suffering, rejection, even death, can be overcome because we can know that God does not condemn us. God does not condemn us, He loves us. God does not reject us, He forgives us and claims us as His own, by His own choice. We come to realize that God’s love is so steadfast that nothing but our own choice can separate us from God’s love. We begin to discover that the poison of abuse, suffering, rejection, and death, has lost its sting in Christ who conquers, and that we need not fear anything, for perfect love casts out all fear. And to live without fear is to live an abundant life.
This is the gospel. We can stand in the glaring spotlight of God’s truth, and allow our life, our thoughts, our deeds be tried by God. And we can be assured that they will be found wanting. Yet, God loves us anyway, for He knows of what we are made. He knows we are but dust. We can be assured that God still loves us, in spite of our many shortcomings; because God loves us, not because of our purity, but because of God’s mercy.
I invite you to pray this psalm with me. Psalm 62:

For God alone my soul waits in silence;
From him comes my salvation.
He alone is my rock and my salvation,
My fortress; I shall never be shaken.
On God rests my deliverance and my honor;
My mighty rock, my refuge is in God.
Trust in him at all times, O people;
Pour out your heart before him;
God is a refuge for us.
Those of low estate are but a breath,
Those of high estate are a delusion;
In the balances they go up;
They are together lighter than a breath.
Put no confidence in extortion,
And set no vain hopes on robbery;
If riches increase, do not set your heart on them.
Once God has spoken;
Twice have I heard this:
That power belongs to God,
And steadfast love belongs to you, O Lord.
For you repay to all according to their work.