And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life

 

 Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name when they saw the signs which He did. But Jesus did not commit Himself to them, because He knew all men, and had no need that anyone should testify of man, for He knew what was in man.  

There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.  This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, "Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him."  Jesus answered and said to him, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."  Nicodemus said to Him, "How can a man be born when he is old?  Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?"  Jesus answered, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.  That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.  Do not marvel that I said to you, 'You must be born again.'  The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes.  So is everyone who is born of the Spirit."  Nicodemus answered and said to Him, "How can these things be?"  Jesus answered and said to him, "Are you the teacher of Israel, and do not know these things?  Most assuredly, I say to you, We speak what We know and testify what We have seen, and you do not receive Our witness.  If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?  No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven.  And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life."

 

- John 2:23—3:15 

 

Yesterday we read that the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.  And He found in the temple those who sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers doing business.  When He had made a whip of cords, He drove them all  out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers' money and overturned the tables.  And He said to those who sold doves, "Take these things away!  Do not make My Father's house a house of merchandise!"  Then His disciples remembered that it was written, "Zeal for Your house has eaten Me up."  So the Jews answered and said to Him, "What sign do You show to us, since You do these things?"  Jesus answered and said to them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up."  Then the Jews said, "It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?"  But He was speaking of the temple of His body.  Therefore, when He had risen from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this to them; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had said.   

 

  Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name when they saw the signs which He did. But Jesus did not commit Himself to them, because He knew all men, and had no need that anyone should testify of man, for He knew what was in man.  As mentioned in yesterday's reading and commentary, this is the first of three Passover feasts reported in John's Gospel, between Christ's Baptism and Passion (see also John 6:4; 11:55).  These show that Christ's earthly ministry lasted three years.  Let us note also the powerful word of discernment here, that Christ did not commit Himself to those who were persuaded only by marvelous signs.  This also is Christ presented to us who is the "heart-knower" (καρδιογνώστης/kardiognostes); this is the Greek word used in Acts 1:24; 15:8.

There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.  This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, "Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him."  My study Bible comments that Nicodemus believed Jesus was from God, but his faith was still weak, as he was afraid of his peers and thus came to Jesus by night.  Following this conversation, it notes, Nicodemus's faith will grow to the point of defending Jesus before the Sanhedrin (John 7:50-51), and finally he will make the bold public expression of faith of preparing and entombing the body of Jesus (John 19:39-42).  In the Eastern Orthodox Church, his memory is celebrated on the third Sunday of Easter along with the Myrrbearing Women (those who were at the tomb) and Joseph of Arimathea.  According to some early sources, my study Bible also tells us, Nicodemus was eventually baptized by Peter and consequently was removed from the Sanhedrin and forced to flee Jerusalem.  

Jesus answered and said to him, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."  This phrase, born again, is translated from a literal meaning of "from above."  It indicates both "again" and "above" so that there is a clear indication it refers to the heavenly birth from God through faith in Christ (John 1:12-13).  This heavenly birth, my study Bible notes, is baptism and our adoption by God as our Father (Galatians 4:4-7).   This new birth, it says, is the beginning of our spiritual life, with its goal being entrance into the kingdom of God.  

Nicodemus said to Him, "How can a man be born when he is old?  Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?"  Nicodemus misunderstands Jesus' teaching, and questions the possibility of a second physical birth.  This sort of misunderstanding -- an earthly understanding of the terms Jesus uses to illustrate heavenly things -- is a frequent occurrence in John's Gospel, and a method of teaching (see John 2:19-21; 4:10-14, 30-34; 6:27; 7:37-39; 11:11-15).  Jesus uses these opportunities, my study Bible explains, to elevate an idea from a superficial or earthly meaning to a heavenly and eternal meaning.  

Jesus answered and said to him, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." This birth of water and the Spirit clearly references Christian baptism and the gift of the Holy Spirit which is given at chrismation.

"That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit."  In the Prologue to John's Gospel (John 1:1-18), we read, "But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God" (John 1:12-13).  Thus we understand adoption as children of God is not a matter of ethnic descent, nor natural birth, nor by a person's own decision.  This is a spiritual birth by grace, through faith, and in the Holy Spirit and is our understanding of Holy Baptism (see Titus 3:4-7).  

 

 "The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes.  So is everyone who is born of the Spirit."  This is a play on words in the Greek.  The Greek word πνεῦμα/pneuma means both wind and Spirit.  My study Bible explains that the working of the Holy Spirit in the new birth is as mysterious as the source and destination of the blowing wind.  So likewise, the Spirit moves where the Spirit wills and cannot be contained by human ideas or agendas.

 

Jesus answered and said to him, "Are you the teacher of Israel, and do not know these things?  Most assuredly, I say to you, We speak what We know and testify what We have seen, and you do not receive Our witness.  If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?  No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven."   Citing St. John Chrysostom, my study Bible suggests that earthly things refer to grace and baptism given to human beings.  These are "earthly," not in the sense of "unspiritual," but only in the sense that they occur on earth and are given to creatures.  The heavenly things involve the ungraspable mysteries of the eternal generation of the Son from the Father; they relate to Christ's eternal existence before all time, and to God's divine plan of salvation for the world (Matthew 13:35).  My study Bible adds that a person must first grasp the ways in which God works among humankind before one can even begin to understand things that pertain to God Himself.  

"And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life."  Here Jesus refers to the time when Moses lifted up an image of the serpent in order to cure the Israelites from the deadly bites of poisonous snakes (Numbers 21:4-9).  This miracle-working image, my study Bible notes, prefigured Christ being lifted up on the Cross.  It says that as believers behold the crucified Christ in faith, the power of sin and death is overthrown in them.  Just as the image of a serpent was the weapon that destroyed the power of the serpents, so the instrument of Christ's death becomes the weapon that overthrows death itself.  

Jesus speaks of Moses lifting up his staff with the serpent fashioned on it (Numbers 21:4-9).  This was done at the time when "fiery serpents" plagued the Israelites.  Moses was told to fashion a bronze image of such a "fiery serpent," and raise it so that the people could gaze on it -- and when they did so, they lived, even if they had been bitten.  The word "fiery" suggests some interesting things, as does "serpent."  Combined they hint at characteristics of demons.  Angels (the same type of creature in origin) are often called "fiery" in many traditions, and the serpent is associated with Satan (Genesis 3).   Clearly Jesus' purpose in comparing Himself on the Cross to Moses' command to lift up the image of the fiery serpent in order to save Israel is a powerful message about His willing sacrifice on the Cross.  It will be the "lifting up" of Christ on the Cross that will "save Israel" (God's people) from the things that tempt and bite and cause harm.  In the Lord's Prayer, when we pray, "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil," that can also be translated from the Greek, "deliver us from the evil one" (implying Satan and the demonic).   That word for evil or the evil one is πονηρός/poneros in Greek, and its root is πόνος/ponos which means "pain."  That "pain" can also include wearisome laborious toil, anguish, distress, and suffering.  The "fiery" quality of such serpents can also describe the burning and painful effects of venom, and we can also look at such poison in its metaphorical senses as well.  Taken all in all, Jesus gives this comparative image of Moses' staff with the bronze serpent in order to tell us something profound about His being raised on the Cross; that will be the ultimate instrument that defeats evil, death, pain, poison -- those things that plague and are destructive to human beings and to life.  In the Orthodox hymn for Easter, it is sung that Christ "trampled death by death" and in so doing gave life to those in the tombs.  It might be worth noting here that the word for medicine and the word for poison is the same in Greek (in modern Greek there is simply an accent on a different syllable).  In the Bible that same word is also used for sorcery.   For us, it is that greater power of the Lord that turns Moses' serpent into a saving measure, and the Cross into salvation for the world.  In this transformative power, a Man's self-sacrifice becomes the ultimate act of conquest.  The power that Christ brings into the world is transformative in a way that overrules everything else, turns anything to God's purposes, and defeats that which is against God and seeks to harm.  If we pay close attention to today's reading, Jesus gives us a sense of the greater meanings of the spiritual reality He brings with Him that add layers and depth to the things that are "earthly," that we experience of this world.  To be "born again" or "born from above" does not mean to be born once again from the womb in an earthly sense.  This is why we read these passages and seek to understand the power in Christ's teachings, and especially here on the power of Holy Baptism (water and the Spirit) to transform one kind of birth to the birth of a spiritual inheritance, the adoption claimed by God in this salvation mission of Christ.  For just as Moses' staff, and the Cross of Roman crucifixion, were transformed by the power of Christ, so everything touched by God (Father, Son, and Spirit) and faith is transformative in our lives.  But we must have the eyes to see and ears to hear for this.  Jesus teaches Nicodemus by night so that Nicodemus can come to an understanding of these "earthly things" that God, through Christ, gives to the world -- but he is also told that there are greater things which are mysteries beyond them.  Christ comes from that place of heavenly mystery to bring some of heaven to us, to be at work among us and within us in this world, and we discount that power at our peril.  For when we fail to discern Christ's power of judgment -- at work in Moses' fiery serpent and the Cross of Christ -- then we lose that which delivers us from the pain of the evil that plagues us, transfiguring what we know.  We don't want to be so used to those "fiery serpents" that bite and burn and sting and hamper our lives that we simply accept that is all there is.  Let us take hold of Christ's words and look to His Cross.  In Luke's Gospel (Luke 21:28), when Jesus speaks of His Second Coming, He says that when the signs He warns about begin to appear, His disciples are to "look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near."  The Cross is that sign and remains that sign for us.  Let us not forget its power, and what it is all about, nor that He is the ultimate way to address our pain.