Sermon preached at St Cross Appleton Thorn

At Holy Communion on Sunday 14 September 2014

Introduction

‘For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son,
so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life’.
John 3:16

Perhaps the most famous Bible verse ever. So famous that the reference – John 3:16 – sometimes turns up in the strangest places. There was a time when in the crowd at sporting events you might see someone holding up a placard with ‘John 3:16’ on. In 1994, when the World Cup was held in the United States, my brother – who is not a regular church-goer – found a bible and looked it up. He was surprised to discover that it has nothing to do with football.

It comes as part of the dialogue between Jesus and a Jewish religious leader, Nicodemus. Nicodemus was a Pharisee and a member of the Sanhedrin. John tells us he came to Jesus one night to talk religion (John 3:1–21). Why at night? Perhaps he was busy all day, praying. Or perhaps he was embarrassed that he, a religious teacher, with all the qualifications and status that goes with that, found himself coming to Jesus, the carpenter’s son, with no qualification or status to teach. (Nicodemus addresses Jesus as ‘Rabbi’, a title to which he was not entitled.)

Jesus tells Nicodemus, the man with the qualifications and status, that all his religion will get him nowhere. (Nicodemus had probably realised that already.) What he needs is to be born again, born from above. And the problem with the expression ‘born again’ is that it has been hijacked. Some Christians are not just Christians, they’re ‘born again’ Christians. Which is better. Apparently. (“This is not just food. This is M&S food.” “I’m not just a Christian. I’m a born again Christian.”)

In John, the expression ‘born again’ could equally be translated, ‘born from above’ (as it is in NRSV). Either way, there aren’t two types of Christian. Jesus tells Nicodemus that he needs to be born from above, born spiritually. Are you are alive physically? You were probably born. Are you alive spiritually? You must have been born spiritually, from above.

What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit.
John 3:6

Nicodemus has religion. But he doesn’t have the reality – the spiritual reality – that he sees in Jesus. The reality of a life-giving relationship with God, which is the gift of God’s Spirit. He needs to be born of the Spirit. Otherwise, he’ll never understand the heavenly realities that Jesus has come to share.

The Serpent In The Wilderness

And then it gets weird. 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.
John 3:14, 15

The story behind this is in Numbers (22:4-9). The people of Israel, having been brought out of Egypt are thoroughly fed up of life in the wilderness. They start to moan:

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.
Numbers 22:5-9

I told you it was weird!

The problem was snakes. The solution was something in the form of a snake, lifted up. Those who look up to the snake are saved.

The problem that Nicodemus had – and that you and I have – is that our human selves are broken, flawed. We are self-centred, self-interested, self-satisfying. The problem is our broken humanity. The solution comes in the form of that humanity. Jesus, incarnate in the very flesh where the problem resides.

Jesus

who, though he was in the form of God,
did not regard equality with God
as something to be exploited,
but emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave,
being born in human likeness.
And being found in human form,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to the point of death
— even death on a cross.
Philippians 2:6-8

And just as the bronze serpent was lifted up and became the salvation of those who looked up, so Jesus will be lifted up on the Cross and all who look up to him on the Cross will be saved.

And 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.
John 3:14, 15

Conclusion

Today is Holy Cross Day (and I’m preaching at St Cross Church). As Archdeacon Michael said in his sermon at my Induction on Wednesday: The Cross is not an optional extra. It is not an embarrassment to be swept under the carpet.

In Jesus on the Cross we see God’s answer to our human problem. It looks like foolishness to us. It looks like weakness. But

God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom,
and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.
1 Corinthians 1:25

Today we are invited to look up to Jesus on the Cross, Christ crucified, and to celebrate God’s love made known to us in the folly and weakness of a crucified man.