“Using Jesus Rightly”
John 3:14-21
3/22/09
Whether you buy over-the-counter or prescription
drugs, all of them come with instructions as well as warnings printed
on their labels. They will tell you what drugs you should avoid
taking with them. They might tell you to avoid drinking alcohol
with them. They will tell you how often and how much of them
you’re supposed to take. They might tell you to take them
with food. And you’d better take these warnings and
instructions seriously. Otherwise, at best the drugs won’t
work as they’re intended to; at worst they could kill you.
In today’s Gospel text, Jesus makes reference
to an O.T. remedy that God had prescribed for His wayward people when
they were bitten by venomous snakes for complaining against Him.
He commanded Moses to set up an image of one of those snakes upon a
pole, with the instructions that if anyone looked at it, he/she would
be cured of their snake bite and would not die. I can imagine
that upon hearing these instructions many of the people laughed at
first, questioning in their minds how in the world anyone could
possibly be cured by simply looking at an image of a snake on a
pole. Some of them may have refused, seeking their own
self-chosen cures instead, none of which worked. But by the Word
of God, those who did what He said and looked at the snake on the pole
lived; those who didn’t died. The bronze serpent on the
pole was the only remedy God had provided for their condition, and
unless they used it as they were instructed to, they wouldn’t be
helped.
Now Jesus here, speaking of Himself, says that just
as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so the Son of Man
must be lifted, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal
life. Like that snake on the pole, Jesus, too, is given by God as
the remedy for death, only this is a death that’s much worse than
physical death alone. It’s a death that’s been
brought on by a much greater venom than that of any earthly
viper. It’s the venom with which we were injected by the
serpent in the Garden, when we ignored God’s instruction and
warnings regarding the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and
decided to be our own physicians, determining for ourselves what was
good and evil. And in eating what we were told not to we ingested
poison and we died. The fellowship we had with God was
broken. The image of God in which we were created was lost.
And we found ourselves under His sentence of both temporal and eternal
punishment. Not only had the poison introduced physical death,
but also the greater death of separation from God for eternity in
hell. This is the condemnation that Jesus makes mention of here,
a condemnation that hangs over our heads from the moment of our
conception.
But while the world tries to find its own remedies
for this condition, God has provided only one, and that is Jesus Christ
crucified. Like the snake on the pole in the O.T., Jesus was to
be lifted up on the tree of the cross, so that according to God’s
words and promises everyone who looks upon Him in faith may not perish
but have eternal life. God gives us very simple
instructions: Look upon Jesus and live. He sucked up the
poison of your sin into Himself, becoming sin for you. Like the
snake on the pole Jesus took upon Himself the image of that which
brought you death. But He nailed that image with Him to the
cross, so that through His death and His resurrection He might become
the poison of sin and death. He is now the antidote to sin and
death, so that as He says elsewhere in this same Gospel, “Whoever
eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise
him up on the last day.”
This remedy is now being delivered to the world
through the proclamation of Christ crucified for our salvation.
But again, the world despises this remedy, considering it to be
foolishness. “How can merely trusting in a crucified Jew
save you?” Not only that, but most people refuse to even
acknowledge that they’re sick. They might confess that
others are sick and need a Savior, but not they themselves. And
yet, the fact that everyone dies shows that everyone has been
bitten. The antidote, however, is for everyone. God wants
no one to perish, but all to be saved. And so the Church
continues to proclaim Christ crucified to whomever will listen.
Meanwhile, Christians are those who do listen to
God’s words and promises and look to Jesus Christ alone as the
cure for sin and death. However, there is still the tendency
within us to disregard the instructions and warnings that God places on
the use of this remedy. For example, some Christians look to
Jesus for their salvation in the beginning, but then they use Him
throughout their lives as little more than an example to follow.
Now, it’s not that Jesus isn’t our example, but this is
more of a secondary effect to the primary one, the reason for which He
is given, namely to save us from the poison of sin and death.
When we use Him only as our example and no longer as our Savior, we
really turn Jesus into another Moses, another Law-giver and
judge. But Jesus warns us against using Him in this way when He
says here, “God did not send His Son into the world to condemn
the world, but in order that the world might be saved through
Him.” At the beginning of this Gospel account the Apostle
John writes that “the Law was given through Moses; grace and
truth came through Jesus Christ.”
God wants you to use Jesus first and foremost as
your Savior, as the remedy for sin and death, then only secondarily as
your example. If you were to use Him as your example alone, you
would soon find that it’s impossible for you to live up to His
example. This is to use Jesus in the wrong way, and just like
when you use drugs the wrong way, if you use Jesus the wrong way the
end result won’t be life but death. The wrong way to use
Jesus is to use Him as anything other than your Savior. But to
use Him in the wrong way will not deliver you from your disease.
Those who use Jesus primarily as their example think that by obeying
the Law as Jesus did they’ll be less sinful and more acceptable
to God. But Jesus didn’t live a holy and godly life in
perfect obedience to God’s Law, in order to show you how to do it
yourself. He did it for you. His perfect life is part of
the cure for your imperfect life.
Through your Baptism that righteousness of His was
given to you, as you were sprinkled with His blood and clothed with
Him. Baptism, along with the Lord’s Supper and the
proclamation of the Gospel, are the means by which the cure for sin and
death are delivered to you. Some Christians don’t think
they need the cure any more, either because they don’t feel their
sin any more or because they think they’ve received enough
forgiveness. It’s like when the doctor prescribes a
medication for you and then tells you to make sure you take the whole
bottle, no matter how good you might feel after a few doses. Some
Christians think they’ve heard enough forgiveness.
“God has forgiven me all my sins already. Why do I need to
hear that message again?” Well, my answer is, Are you still
a sinner? Yes. And how often do you sin? Every second
of every day. And how long will you be a sinner? Until you
die. So, how often should you receive the medication? As
often as possible. The Israelites who looked at the snake on the
pole may have gone away and that very day been bitten again by a
snake. Suppose they said, “Well, I looked at the snake once
already. I don’t need to look again.” No, they
would have run to that serpent on the pole and trusted again in
God’s promise that whoever looked upon it would not die but live.
The same goes for you and me, who remain sinners in
this life until we die. We must continue to use Jesus as God
intends us to use Him - as the antidote for sin and death. Yes,
each time we look upon Him in faith, remember our Baptism, hear His
words of forgiveness, and receive His body and blood in the Holy Supper
all our sins (past, present, and future) are forgiven and we receive
life and salvation. God doesn’t give His antidote in
fractions. But God gives above and beyond what you need. He
gives you more forgiveness than you have sin. He gives until your
cup overflows, and then He gives you more.
The fact is, we need to hear God’s forgiveness
often, especially when our conscience bothers us on account of some
sin. There will come those times in your life (if they
haven’t come already) when the devil, the world, and even your
own sinful nature will deceive you into thinking that you are under
God’s condemnation, that, yes, even Jesus Himself has turned into
your Judge and is threatening to take away your salvation. That
is the time when you again need to hear these words spoken by Jesus
Himself, that “God so loved the world that He gave His
only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but
have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to
condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through
Him.” In the first of his epistles John writes that even
though our heart might condemn us, God is greater than our heart.
In other words, don’t listen to your heart (which is what the
world tells you to do). Instead, listen to the Gospel again, and
receive the antidote for your sins - Christ crucified for you.
That is, after all, what God has put me here to
proclaim to you. Church could be described as a spiritual
hospital, where the sick come to be made well. Those who
don’t believe that they’re sick, of course, don’t
think they need the Physician. They’ll stay away. But
those who do recognize that they’ve been bitten by the poison of
sin and death will come here often to receive from the Lord through me,
a called and ordained servant of His Word, the healing medication that
He gives through His Word and Sacraments. Here you will see Jesus
lifted up on the cross like the serpent in the wilderness that was
lifted up onto a pole, and you will hear God’s promise that
whoever believes in Him has eternal life. Use Jesus as
prescribed; use Him as your Savior. Amen.