Look to Live!
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Bitter Medicine!
Bitter Medicine!
Lissa Smith’s 3yo toddler had been mauled on the face by a dog in their hometown of Stone Mountain GA.
The doctors treated him successfully but then he developed an infection bigger than a tennis ball that swelled his eye shut.
The 3yo had to take oral antibiotics to save his eye. And he hated it! He’d gag and spit it up… and his father would gather it back up until he’d taken what they hoped was the full amount.
They persisted for 10 days… and finally the wound healed and his eye was saved.
According to webmd.com medicines generally taste very unpleasant.
They usually don’t try to make them unpleasant. Active ingredients in many medicines are usually very bitter or unbearably salty. But even when they aren’t, the ingredients used to make the mixture stable enough to have a decent shelf life can be very distasteful!
And on the odd occasion when researchers have made pleasant medicines… some people, especially children can overdose on them.
This Good Friday we come again to a most distasteful day in human history. The day when the Son of God was sentenced to die… as a relatively young man.
The death of Jesus was certainly tragic.
But was it really necessary?
And honestly… was it really necessary for me… and for you?
Because sometimes as I listen to people they think that it wasn’t. Oh, they would never say as much… but so often, ask people if they think God will accept them into heaven… and the answer is, “I think so. I’ve lived a good life!”
You Must be Born Again! Jesus must be lifted up!
You Must be Born Again! Jesus must be lifted up!
Early in Jesus’ ministry he was visited by a man who didn’t think he needed any medicine.
Jesus’ reputation was evidently growing and Nicodemus, a wealthy, educated… (man!) from the ruling council of the nation of God’s own people wanted to check out this young Rabbi who’s causing such a stir.
He approaches Jesus with a “We know… “ v2
We know God is with you.
(Makes us wonder if perhaps Nicodemus may have gone on to offer Jesus some advice....
You’re doing OK out in the back blocks around Nazareth by yourself. But here in Jerusalem you might need some help. Perhaps we could help you navigate your way…)
Jesus doesn’t “beat around the bush”.
Jn 3:3 ““I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.””
In effect Jesus says to Nicodemus: “No matter how good you are wealthy, respectable, ruling council man… you cannot see the KOG unless you are born again."
Nicodemus thinks that’s the stupidest thing he’s ever heard.
A man… go back into the womb? You’ve got to be kidding.
But Jesus is insistent… “you MUST be born again”.
“How can this be?” Nicodemus replies, v9
You are Israel’s teacher and you do not understand these things?
14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.
There are now two “musts” we have come across here.
Jesus told Nicodemus that he “must” be born again
And now Jesus says he “must” be lifted up…
People today probably struggle to know what Jesus is referring to… but Nicodemus would have clicked immediately.
Jesus is referring to an incident in Israel’s history… one of many incidents where God’s medicine for Israel’s complaint tasted nasty indeed.
Num 21:4-9
Israel’s Sin
Israel’s Sin
We pick up the story long after Israel has left Egypt. Israel has been wandering in the desert… for the best part of 40 years.
They are impatient to enter the land flowing with milk and honey.
Num 21:5 “5 they spoke against God and against Moses, and said, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the desert? There is no bread! There is no water! And we detest this miserable food!””
What’s this miserable food?
Well decades ago the parents of these people had no food in the desert so God said he would give them food from heaven.
And 7 days a week 52 weeks a year… for over 30 years God had fed his people with bread from heaven. It was called manna. We read about it in
Num 11:7-9 “7 The manna was like coriander seed and looked like resin. 8 The people went around gathering it, and then ground it in a handmill or crushed it in a mortar. They cooked it in a pot or made it into cakes. And it tasted like something made with olive oil. 9 When the dew settled on the camp at night, the manna also came down.”
It was what God had graciously given them every night for over 30 years. It was their lifeblood, their sustenance in the desert.
The people calling the bread God gave them from heaven every morning Sunday to Friday they called detestable!
So God gives them a taste of what is really detestable… and it is a bitter medicine indeed!
6 Then the Lord sent venomous snakes among them; they bit the people and many Israelites died.
God’s people call his bread from heaven detestable? God will give them a taste of detestable…
Venomous snakes slither into the camp among them and many Israelites are bitten and died.
Snakes… it is not without exception but the majority of people in every society in every age detest snakes.
They slither silently along the ground, forked tongue going in and out, in and out. Then they either sit up and stare at you with lidless eyes or they strike so fast and without warning.
When I was growing up we often saw red belly black snakes in summer. Dad used to always say… leave them alone. They won’t hurt you. But he also told the story of someone who had been bitten on the finger by a snake… and he was so petrified of the venom he pulled out his shotgun and shot the end off his finger!
They are indeed detestable creatures to most people.
It’s the stuff of horror movies
How could they? What were they thinking? Calling manna from heaven detestable!
But the snakes did the trick. Israel said sorry to God.
Num 21:7 “7 The people came to Moses and said, “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.”
Amazing!
But God didn’t make the snakes slither off into the desert.
God didn’t change their venom into water.
The snakes stayed for a time and continued to bite people.
But God told Moses to do something very strange.
9 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.
They have called the bread from heaven detestable.
Their judgement was something truly detestable… snakes slithering under and behind everything in camp… killing everyone that was bitten.
So now they get a symbol of their detestable judgement… that is the best medicine they will ever receive.
Look at how it worked.
Look at how it worked.
When anyone… anyone… was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake… he (she) lived!
Can you see how it works?
The people are being punished for their sin.
The punishment is death by snake bite.
The medicine is to look in faith at a symbol of their judgement and they will be healed! [Repeat]
Look and Live (Nicodemus and Us!)
Look and Live (Nicodemus and Us!)
Today is Good Friday.
You and I have been bitten by the same venomous serpent that bit Adam and Eve, Jew and Gentile… all of us.
Like Israel, we complain about the world; the sin and sicknesses and pain and sufferings, the losses we endure in a million different ways… not least when people we love get old and the venom works to end their earthly days.
That’s God’s judgement. But God gave us the antidote!
14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. 16 “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.
This comes from the Father heart of God who loves us and doesn’t want us to perish!
Remember the two musts!
Jesus said…
I must be lifted up.
You must be born again.
A couple of things we can take away from this and ponder this Good Friday.
A couple of things we can take away from this and ponder this Good Friday.
Firstly, the cure for our sin is very nasty medicine indeed.
It’s not you need to stop lying, start getting fit, get a good job… tidy up your life.
It’s perishing under the wrath of Almighty God
Our rebellion against God destroys relationships and it destroys life.
We see that everywhere in daily life.
Isn’t there a war going on at the moment?
There are wars everywhere, in our own being, in our family, our communities, church.
Relationships are tough.
Relationships with self, the creation, other people and supremely God himself are obviously not right!
We are not going to tidy this mess up with a few good deeds.
Jesus must be lifted up…
Jn 3:14-15 “14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.”
And we must be born again… simply by looking at the symbol of our judgement and believing it was for us.
For some this is the hardest medicine of all.
Jesus took the bitterest of medicine and all we have to do is look… and believe it was for us.
It can be tough… especially for good people… to have other people do things for them.
But that is the only way to be born again and to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.
Will Nicodemus look in faith at the disgusting symbol of his snake bite and be healed?
Will Nicodemus look in faith at the disgusting symbol of his snake bite and be healed?
We read in Jn 19 that after Jesus died at 3pm on that first Good Friday Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus … “the man who earlier had visited Jesus at night” and took Jesus body down and wrapped it in 75 pounds of spices ready for burial.
Nicodemus believed, was born again, and simply looking by faith on the disgusting death of Jesus became the best medicine he ever took.
Jesus was lifted up… Nicodemus looked, believed that Jesus was paying the price for his sin… and was born again!
It cured him of God’s righteous wrath against him and brought him Life, relationship, forgiveness and joy and hope.
And it will still do the same for us today.