Tuesday in the Fifth Week of Lent
Nm 21 4-9; Jn 8:21-30
We live in a culture that wants to keep us entertained. Boredom is taboo. We are not allowed to repeat anything. Everything must be new and original. Routines must be broken and fun is a must.
We can therefore very easily see ourselves in the situation of the Israelites as they complain about everything. They have been freed from oppression and yet that act as though they actually crave that oppression. They were slaves, denied freedom and now that they are free they do not know how to appreciate and make good use of that freedom. In fact, they prefer to be slaves again.
The cycle is broken when they realise their mistake and start feeling in their own flesh and in the flesh of the whole community the result of their narrow mindedness. Cracks start appearing in their community and the only thing that can heal their sin is the bronze snake that Moses is commanded to fashion on a rod, so that whoever looks at the snake with faith is healed.
It is no coincidence that God asks Moses to place a bronze snake on the pole. What will save the Israelites is that very thing that they have rejected. This image also brings to mind the symbol for medicine, which is based on ancient Greek mythology, Asclepios the ancient Greek god of medicine who purportedly healed patients just by touch. Already then, snakes were known to possess an antivenom against their own poison, thus having benevolent properties.
Beyond Greek mythology and beyond the bronze snake Moses fashioned on the rod, the Son of God himself. The snake on the rod prefigures, or foreshadows, Jesus. By submitting himself to death, Jesus conquers death. The very thing that we reject - the ultimate boredom, if you like - that is death, will break our boredom once and for all, and will free us from death itself. It is a paradox. Jesus conquers death by "slaying Death" and as a result we have everlasting life. By allowing himself to be victim of sin, Jesus overcomes sin for us and becomes Master of Life.
He takes us to another level. When we look at him raised on the cross, we realise God's love for us. All other things become secondary. His love saves us from our need of being constantly entertained, of being afraid of boredom. He saves us from all those things that oppress us and which make us slaves of money or power or whatever it might be.
The Gospel passage ends with the words, "and many came to believe in him." Can I say the same for myself as well? Can I really take the words of Jesus to heart and seek to believe more in him? What is lacking in me that I too may believe in him?
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