"S" stands for Sermon.
What do people tell you not to do when you are near a steep cliff? Don't look down. Why? The ground rushes up at you. Dizziness may ensue. Looking down increases your fear. What should you do instead? Look ahead. Look up!
Spiritually speaking, God tells us to do the very same thing. When things are frightening or challenging, unexplainable or unbearable, what does God tell us to do? Look down? Maximize our problems? Dwell on how terrible things are? Ponder how we can save ourselves? No. He calls us to look up. He inspires us with his promise of grace and mercy to look to him and be saved.
As simple and as confusing as a snake on a pole is to salvation from venom, so also the cross of Jesus is to our salvation from sin, death and the devil. And yet:
"Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.” For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
The Text - Numbers 21:4-9
They traveled from Mount Hor along the route to the Red Sea, to go around Edom. But the people grew impatient on the way; 5they spoke against God and against Moses, and said, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? There is no bread! There is no water! And we detest this miserable food!”
Then the Lord sent venomous snakes among them; they bit the people and many Israelites died. 7The people came to Moses and said, “We sinned when we spoke against the Lord and against you. Pray that the Lord will take the snakes away from us.” So Moses prayed for the people. The Lord said to Moses, “Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.” So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, they lived.
This sermon was delivered on March 10, 2024, at St. Peter's Lutheran Church (School Gym on this particular day) in Helenville, WI, and preached by Rev. Titus Buelow.
