Medical research workers are scrambling to find a drug for the cure and prevention of the corononavirus. When a plague of some form comes upon the world, we turn our attention to methods of healing.
Today’s first reading is a familiar one from the Book of Numbers (21:4-9). The initial excitement of leaving Egypt and beginning a desert journey began to wear off. Conscious of the scarcity of food and water, the Israelites began to complain to Moses.
“Why have you brought us up from Egypt to die in this desert, where there is no food or water? We are disgusted with this wretched food!”
As a consequence, a plague broke out among them.
“In punishment the Lord sent among the people saraph serpents, which bit the people so that many of them died.”
Their earlier circumstances seemed as nothing compared with this serpent “plague.” And, so, instead of complaining, they admitted their sin and asked Moses to pray for them. He did and the Lord answered.
“Make a seraph and mount it on a pole, and whoever looks at it after being bitten will live.”
Moses obeyed the Lord and,
“Whenever anyone who had been bitten by the serpent looked at the bronze serpent, he lived.”
Fast-forwarding we enter into an encounter between Jesus and the Pharisees. He told them what they did not want to hear (John 8:21-30).
“You belong to what is below, I belong to what is above. You belong to this world, but I do not belong to this world…But the one who sent me is true, and what I heard from him I tell the world.”
The stage was being set for Jesus’ crucifixion. Those leaders could not tolerate the truth that Jesus spoke, and as members of “the world” they would take steps to evict Jesus. Knowing this, Jesus continued:
“When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will realize that I AM…”
Not a bronze serpent, but the body of the Son of God, would be lifted up not on a pole but upon a cross. As Jesus hung on the cross in apparent defeat, little did the people know, that those who looked upon this cross and opened their hearts to Jesus would be set free from the plague of sin. Just as God in his mercy provided a means of healing to the Israelites, so he did the same for a repentant humanity.
Faced with a plague that has the power to take away human life on earth, we are awakened to the deeper plague that has the power to take away a life in heaven. And so we turn to Jesus “mounted on a pole,” and seek mercy and healing.
We are reminded of the blood of the lambs that was smeared on the doorposts of the Israelites to protect them from the Angel of Death. And so, as we see Jesus lifted up, we are reminded to plead his blood to cover us at this moment—not just to protect us from a current plague, but to guard our faith in a time of trial. It is his blood that forgives us and protects us from evil.
Two passages from the Book of Revelation come to me:
“Do not damage the land or the sea or the trees, until we put the seal on the foreheads of the servants of our God” (Revelation 7:3)
“These are the ones who have survived the time of great distress; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.”
