Are We Grateful For Where We Are In Life?

TUE EP Reflection 091421 (HOLY CROSS DAY Numbers 21:4-9; John 3:11-17) Today we celebrate Holy Cross Day. We are reminded of the Cross of Christ where He was crucified. Our Church Father and Mothers often taught using symbolism to drive home a point. Jesus did it as well especially when he quoted Old Testament Holy Scriptures. In Numbers 21, Israelites were tired from their journey. They couldn’t find a shortcut through the land of Edom, so they had to go around it. As a result, they were so discouraged and they began to complain: “Why have you brought us out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? No bread, no water… God was angry about it. Can God be blamed? I saw a human behavior pattern here. When things are constantly going wrong and our frustrations reaching high levels, we complain in ways that can be inconsiderate and insulting. We know when we are out of line and need to scale back and apologize. Being out of line happens, but it shouldn’t just happen, we have to train ourselves to navigate the storms of life without spinning out of control. Life has a way of throwing all kinds of discomforts onto us. That’s no reason for someone else to bear the brunt of it. When we are out of line, if not careful, we can damage someone else dignity badly, and we can violate and disrespect their boundaries. God felt the brunt of it. Obviously, the writer sees a direct connection between the calamity of serpents and Israel’s inconsiderate ways and disobedience to God. That’s why he attributes the responsibility of the serpent’s attack to God as a consequence/ punishment. (v. 6 Then the Lord sent poisonous serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many Israelites died.) Hebrews have a long-standing tradition to understand and interpret events in light of their relationship with YHWH, their God. For example, Jonah understood that the reason the boat was stuck in the storm was because he was disobedient to His God. What Israelites were going through was serious. We cannot downplay it thinking that they are exaggerating in their reactions however, their situation is not that uncommon even in our postmodern experience. In fact, our reactions might be even more upsetting than theirs. Think of this: When a person is unhappy, generally he or she finds no shortage of things to complain about, and with passion. Someone made a comment in a movie: “It’s never about washing the dishes…” The visible complaint is a symptom of something much bigger and serious, a much bigger iceberg underneath the “washing the dishes” complaint. Back in Africa, in the very early days of the civil war, internally displaced refugees roamed in the city begging for something to eat. A rich businessman who was annoyed often insulted them. One day, eventually the fighting got into the city, and he lost everything: his house, his businesses. When he died, he was alone and could not find anyone to give him water to drink. We learn about perspective sometimes the hard way. Perspective: Israel needed some perspective: A life of slavery in Egypt? Or a life under God’s direct leadership using Moses. Are these even comparable? But for that particular moment of discomfort or suffering, they forgot these two can’t be compared. We humans forget past sufferings very fast. If you are in a position of strength today, it might be in your best interest to act as if you were not in position of strength. This would help weigh matters soberly, to be grateful to God and to learn to be content with what we have or where we are at in life. A friend of mine recently told me that growing old is not for the fainthearted: You have to put up with a certain degree of pain, and eventually let others help you when you have been helping yourself a lifetime. Israelites repented. God gave a remedy for the snake poison. Not the kind of remedy you would think: An ancient way of using symbolism. They had to look into the object of their calamity so that the poison in them would become powerless. The bronze Serpent on a tree pole was a symbol. It reminds us of the tree of life, it reminds us of the tree on which Jesus was crucified so that all would look to him, those who would place their faith in him, would be saved/ rescued from sin and death and gain eternal life. This divine cure has similar attributes: Sin is poison to our lives, and Jesus Christ, the Son of God crucified on a tree. He was made to be sin who knew no sin, so that we might become his righteousness (and heal from the wounds of sin). When we look at Jesus on the Cross, we identify with him. He became human so that like him, we can be divine. We are invited into the divine life to heal from the poison/wounds of sin. The parallelism is striking in John 3: 14 “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.”