Genesis 2:15-17, 3:1-7
March 5, 2023
Sermon by Rev. Caela Simmons Wood
Y’all, I know you might not believe it: but we’ve got snakes again this week in our Bible passage. Last week we were in the Garden of Eden, way way back at the beginning of Genesis and there was a serpent. Today we’re in the Gospel of John with Jesus and Nicodemus and we’ve Still. Got. Snakes.
When we talked about the serpent last week we listened to the wise words of the Rev. Danielle Shroyer who pointed out that “in the ancient world, snakes were a symbol of transformation. Their venom held the possibility of both poison and medicine.” [1] In Jesus' time snakes were symbols of both death (because snakes can kill you) and life (because in the ancient world they were symbols of fertility, too).
Now, there’s a LOT going on in this short story about Nicodemus and the snakes might seem like a weird part to pull out and feature. You’re not wrong about that. The reason I want us to notice the snakes, though, is precisely this tension between poison or medicine, life and death. Hold onto that, okay?
Why is Jesus talking about snakes and Moses in the wilderness anyway? Let’s back up a bit.
Nicodemus has come to Jesus at night. Nicodemus is such a relatable character, I think. He is both a person with authority, as a religious leader, and a person on the margins, as a Jew living in Roman-occupied Israel. Compared to some, he’s privileged. Compared to others, he’s not. He’s in-between, like a lot of us.
Nicodemus, this leader of the Jews, comes to Jesus - also a Jewish leader in his own right but on the fringes. Jesus is new on the scene and he’s not a part of the status quo power structure that Nicodemus is a part of. And that is one of the things I love about Nicodemus - he’s unafraid to come to someone who might be perceived as lower in stature and learn from that person.
Nicodemus comes to Jesus at night. Perhaps he’s been tossing and turning and unable to rest …so he goes to talk to Jesus, to find out what this teacher who has “come from God” might be able to teach him.
Even though some others within the formal power structure scoffed at Jesus or felt threatened by him, Nicodemus was curious. He wanted to learn more. He believed he still had things to learn. In this way, he serves as a model for all of us who are in leadership positions - which is to say, pretty much everyone. All of us have some realm where we have a bit of authority, whether it’s at work, or in our homes, our friend-groups, or even just in directing the flow of our own daily lives. We are all leaders. And this particular leader shows us the value of humility - always learning - and seeking out unexpected teachers and mentors.
Nicodemus and Jesus have this esoteric, ranging dialogue about some pretty existential stuff. The author of John seems to want to drive home a couple of points here: first, that we must all be born again, just as Jesus tells Nicodemus in this encounter, and, second, that Jesus is a critically important part of that process.
For those of us reading this in the year 2023, we’ve got to do a lot of excavating - a lot of setting aside contemporary interpretations of this passage to try and put ourselves in Nicodemus’s shoes. First of all, being “born again” has occupied a certain space in our contemporary religious landscape. And that famous verse, John 3:16, has been sucked up in the whirlwind of the modern big-E Evangelical movement. So we’ve got to deal with that, right?
I think it’s important to note that this passage does not have to be interpreted as being about going to heaven after you die. The phrase that Jesus uses in the 16th verse, “Everyone who believes in him may not perish but have eternal life,” probably didn’t hit Nicodemus the same way it hits us. For starters, the Greek word there for “believes” is not about saying some magical words and accepting Jesus into your heart as your Lord and Savior.
Belief in this instance is active. It’s about having confidence in another person. Putting your trust in them. Think back to Aladdin on the magic carpet holding out his hand to Jasmine, “Do you trust me?” he says. If she had simply said, “Yes,” and stayed with her feet planted where they were, that wouldn’t have been belief, right? Instead, she showed her faith in Aladdin by acting - she stepped onto the carpet with him. It’s not just a thinking thing, not just a “saying some words” thing.
So when Jesus says, “whoever believes in me” he’s talking about stepping onto the carpet, not just saying some words.
And when Jesus talks about “eternal life” the Greek he uses is aionios zoe. That phrase simply means life that is without beginning and without end. As in always present from before the beginning of time until after the end of the Age. In other words, like God - the one who is without beginning and without end. Made in God’s image, just like Genesis says. To me, this speaks more of being a part of something bigger than myself - recognizing the ways I can be a part of God’s eternal Spirit. It’s about the quality of our lives, not just the quantity of our days. Life beyond borders and boundaries. Full, overflowing life that exists outside the confines of our individual identities and human bodies.
In other words, believing in Jesus and having eternal life is about having an active confidence in Jesus - stepping onto that carpet like Jasmine did - in order to live an expansive, abundant, hope-filled life beyond the boundaries. A life held within the eternal love of God, who is without beginning and without end.
Might this include saying a prayer of thanksgiving for who Jesus is? Sure.
Might it also include hope for a life that continues beyond the confines of our physical bodies? Sure.
But it’s about a lot more than that.
Just as being “born again,” is not simply about “getting right with Jesus,” a la the massive Evangelical stadium revivals of the 1980s. Listen, I’m not going to bash on revivals because I have been swept up in the Spirit and moved to tears and joy in worship. I wouldn’t trade those experiences. I even responded to altar calls on more than one occasion in my youth. But all the altar calls in the world don’t make a person born again if we don’t become a new creation in Christ. And I have seen too many Christians talk about being born again who did not show the fruit of that new birth in their lives. Just as saying you believe in Jesus doesn’t mean much if you’re not actively trying to follow in his footsteps, saying you’re born again if you aren’t truly living in an altered way doesn’t sit right with most of us, either, does it?
And so we arrive back at the snakes. Jesus says, “Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.”
That’s a reference to an weird little story in Numbers 21. The Israelites are wandering in the desert and having a rough time of it. Then God sends poisonous serpents among them. The snakes bite them and people die. The people, believing that God is punishing them, say to Moses, “We are really sorry. Please tell God we’re sorry and have God take these snakes away.” So Moses talks to God and God says, “Put a snake up on a pole and then anyone who is bitten can look at it and they will be healed.” So he does and they do.
I told you it was weird.
Jesus in the Gospel of John is comparing himself to the snake on the pole. That symbol of both death and life.
And I think what Jesus is trying to tell Nicodemus here is that taking Jesus’s hand and stepping with him onto that magic carpet is both about death and life. Jesus tells this other religious leader, if you want to roll with me you need to be born again. And the quiet part of that that he doesn’t say out loud here is that in order to be born again, we have to be willing to die a death of sorts. We have to be willing to let some things go in order to pick new things up. And when we look at the life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus, we see this so clearly. In the way he lived and taught - in his death and resurrection - Jesus is both a healer and a reminder of what ails us. Just like that snake on the pole, symbolizing death and new life.
We know that Nicodemus accepted this offer to find active faith in Jesus’s ministry because we see him again at the end of Gospel of John - showing up after Jesus’s crucifixion with Joseph of Arimathea to make sure Jesus’s body is properly cared for. He steps onto the carpet and his life surely expanded because of that choice.
Nicodemus comes to Jesus as one person, but the lessons we can take away from this story go way beyond an individual life.
Through this story, God invites organizations to be born anew. Families to be born anew. Congregations. Communities. Schools. Governments. Yes, even whole nations. God holds in front of us the possibility of new life. The possibility of turning from old ways that harm and creating new ways of being together that bring abundant life for all of Creation. The Spirit holds in front of us the possibility of aionios zoe - the fullness of life - and says, “Do you trust me?”
Thanks be to God.
NOTES:
[1] Sanctified Art devotional.
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