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.

 

Scripture says that death was not God’s doing, and that he takes no pleasure in the destruction of the living. To be – for this he created everything. How then does it continue? It was through the devil’s envy that death entered the world. The devil could not force upon man the death he held before his eyes; he had no power to deter­mine the human will. All he had was his own cunning and persua­sive skills. Without your consent, the devil could have done noth­ing to harm you; it was that consent which brought death upon you. Though born mortal of mortal flesh, it was from an immortal state that we were brought to mortality. Since Adam all human beings have been subject to death. Even Jesus, Son of God, Word of God through whom all things were made, the only Son equal to the Father, was made subject to death; for the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. Because he accepted death, death itself was hung on the cross, while humankind was freed from death.

 

What took place symbolically in times of old was recalled by the Lord when he said: As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. A great mystery is here, as those who have read the Scriptures know. When the Israelites were in the desert, they were struck down by bites they received from serpents, and death claimed countless victims. This was the stroke of God, scourging and correcting them for their instruction. A great mystery, prefiguring something yet to come, was thus revealed, as the Lord himself testifies in this passage, ensuring that it should bear no interpretation other than the one he, the Truth, gives about himself. For the Lord had bidden Moses to fashion a bronze serpent, lift it up on a pole in the desert, and tell the Israelites that all who were bitten by a serpent should fix their eyes on the serpent raised up on the pole. What does this serpent lifted on high signify? The Lord’s death on the cross. Death came into being through a serpent, and so the figure of a serpent is its symbol. But whereas the serpent's bite was deadly, our Lord’s death is life-giving. Is not Christ life itself? And yet Christ died. But in the death of Christ, it was death that met its end: life by dying slew death, the fullness of life swallowed up death, in the body of Christ death was destroyed. This is what we shall proclaim at the resurrection when we sing in triumph, O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? But in the meantime, to find healing for our sins, let us fix our eyes on Christ crucified.

 

Musical Selection (Josh Groban)

 

 

When I am down and, oh my soul, so weary

When troubles come and my heart burdened be

Then, I am still and wait here in the silence

Until You come and sit awhile with me.

 

You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains

You raise me up, to walk on stormy seas

I am strong, when I am on your shoulders

You raise me up to more than I can be

 

You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains

You raise me up, to walk on stormy seas

I am strong, when I am on your shoulders

You raise me up to more than I can be.

 

You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains

You raise me up, to walk on stormy seas

I am strong, when I am on your shoulders

You raise me up to more than I can be.

 

You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains

You raise me up, to walk on stormy seas

I am strong, when I am on your shoulders

You raise me up to more than I can be.

You raise me up to more than I can be.