"The Light Has Come Into the World"

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Today's lesson from St. John's gospel serves to illustrate the principle that no matter how many times you read a passage of Scripture, more will always come out to teach and admonish you, and to comfort and guide you along life's way. In particular, this passage requires a great deal of attention on account of the richness of the Word he proclaims to you.

Our lesson begins by recalling to your memory the event of Israel in the wilderness on their way toward the Promised Land. The people grumbled against Moses because they thought they were suffering because they lacked the pots of meat around which they used to sit while slaves in Egypt. On account of their murmuring and their slander against Moses, the Lord's servant, the Lord sent fiery serpents among them, who bit the people and caused many of them to die. In their misery, the people repented and implored Moses to ask the Lord for mercy. He then commanded Moses to raise up a bronze serpent on a pole, that whoever looked at the raised serpent might live.

In explanation of this, Jesus tells Nicodemus, “And 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.” The image of the serpent lifted up is a figure of the Son of Man who would be lifted up above the earth, that all might look on Him and live. Just as the ancient Israelites who were bitten by a serpent were forced to look upon a serpent to live, so you who are bitten with the poison of sin must look upon Him who is pierced in order to have life.

What are the serpents? They are sins, weaknesses of your corrupted flesh and blood. Your sins constantly nip at your heels and bite at your heart and mind. Thorns in your flesh disquiet and discomfort you. The death that seeps through your soul works death throughout your being. The workings of sin in the heart of man are much more powerful and painful than the bite of any serpent could be.

But of what use was it to lift up a serpent? Why should God have commanded this sign for the rescue of the Israelites? They were commanded to look upon that which was the source of their suffering and death, that they might confront it, and thus devoid it of its power. “A serpent is gazed on that the serpent may have no power,” writes St. Augustine.ⁱ To face death head-on is to remove its power over you. The devil hides in the shadows and dark corners, and would have you afraid of the unseen enemy. But the Son of Man is lifted up and displayed for all the world to see. His death is no hidden thing, but is a wonder displayed for all mankind to see, that you might believe, and believing you may have life in His Name.

The death of Christ on the cross is the death of death itself. For death cannot encompass life itself, and light cannot be contained in darkness. “Just as they who looked on that serpent perished not by the serpent's bite, so they who look in faith on Christ's death are healed from the bites of sins.”ⁱⁱ As great as was the miracle of the healing of the Israelites in their bodies, even greater is the miracle that you are healing in body and soul by looking upon Christ, the fullness of life who has burst the void of death.

The Son of Man must be lifted up, as Jesus says, “in order that everyone believing in Him may have life eternal.” The bronze serpent was lifted up in the wilderness so that all who saw would live. Likewise, Christ was lifted up above the earth, that all who see Him with the eyes of faith may believe and have life eternal through Him. Not just some, not only those who looked upon Him in the flesh, but all people. Jesus died not for a select few, not just for the good, or the worthy, or even the chosen. He died for all, and more importantly, He died for you. That “everyone believing” includes you, who have had faith poured into you by the Holy Spirit, so that when you look upon Christ and His death, you truly believe that they are for you, that they take away the sting of your death which was formerly upon you because of your sins. Salvation is for all who see and believe.

“For this is how God loved the world: that He gave His only-begotten Son, in order that everyone believing in Him might not die, but have life eternal.” God, the Father of all life, the creator of the universe, loved the world in this way. John says this, not to indicate a quantity of love. It is not that God loved you “soooo much”, like a bear-hug compared to a light squeeze. Rather, that He loved you in this very specific way, in which no one else could love you. He loved you in this way: that He sacrificed His only Son, His beloved, in whom He is well-pleased, for you, a lost and condemned sinner. He loved you in this way, that He took your sins upon Himself and destroyed death for you.

“For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” Jesus did not come to judge, to condemn, to accuse. You do just fine at that all on your own. The Law written on your heart works on your conscience. You know what the works of God are, and you know when you fail to do them. You know that your old sinful nature is rebellious and contentious. Jesus does not need to judge you, because you are judged already. Your works stand ready to testify to that.

But He is called your savior. He came that He might take your sins from you and carry them to the cross, where they have been nailed, and where they have been destroyed. He is your savior, who has delivered you from your sins, from the death and condemnation due for them.

For this reason, St. John says, “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.” Whoever believes in Christ looks upon Him with the eyes of faith and believes that the fruits of His cross and resurrection are for you, for the forgiveness of your sins. There is no longer any condemnation for those whose sins are forgiven in Christ.

However, as for those who do not believe, they stand judged already by their unbelieving hearts. For disbelieving without repentance is in itself a punishment. Unbelief, by necessity, brings a separation from God and His grace and mercy. It means isolation and abandonment to the crafts and assaults of the devil and the condemnation of a guilty conscience.

But you need not worry, because there is no condemnation for you who rest secure in Christ Jesus, your savior and your righteousness.

Therefore, “this is the judgment: the light has come into the world.” The life that is the light of men is come into the world in the person of Jesus Christ. The judgment that has come into the world is that all who look upon Christ with faith are not condemned, but are judged righteous for His sake. The light has come into the world, that you may be filled with His light and life and salvation. He has been lifted high upon the cross that His light might pierce the darkness of death, and by it death is destroyed. His light destroys the darkness of your sin, and His life consumes your death.

Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so also was Christ lifted up for your salvation. Just as the Israelites looked to that snake lifted aloft and lived, so you look up to the cross of Christ, which stands not for a time but for all ages as the source of your forgiveness, life, and salvation. “Faith points to it; death passes o'er, And Satan cannot harm us.”ⁱⁱⁱ

In the Name of Jesus. Amen.

iSt. Augustine, Tractate XII, para. 11. NPNF 1-07, p. 85 http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf107.iii.xiii.html?scrBook=John&scrCh=3-3&scrV=14-21#iii.xiii-p2.1 (accessed 15 Mar 2012).

iiIbid.

iiiLSB 458.5