In the passage Kim read this morning from the book of Numbers, the Israelites are wandering around in the wilderness after they have been freed from slavery in Egypt. While they are wandering around, eating manna, they begin to reminisce. They think back to the times in Egypt when they had a banquet of food before them every night. The memories of the hard labor – being forced to make bricks, working long hours in the hot Egyptian sun – seem to fade away. These memories of reality are replaced with these constructed memories of good times.

In response to the people’s complaints God sends poisonous snakes to bite the people. This infestation of snakes gives the people a reality check and they ask Moses to pray that God will take away the serpents. Well, like in so many other instances, God listens to the prayer and answers it – just not in the way the people were expecting. Instead of taking away the snakes, God saves the people by giving them something to focus on – a bronze serpent. Instead of taking away the people’s problem, God gives them a way to get through it.

I have no doubt that it still hurt when one of the people got bitten by a snake – after all these snakes are still poisonous. But instead of succumbing to the venom, God offers them anti-venom in the form of a bronze serpent on a stick. So those who are bitten can look at the serpent and live.

This seems like an odd story and may have fallen from our memory if it were not for the reference Jesus makes to it in John’s gospel. Jesus makes a comparison between Moses lifting up the bronze serpent and Jesus being lifted up on the cross. Those who look upon Jesus lifted up, believe and receive eternal life. The bronze serpent delivered the people from death by snakebite to life. The cross will deliver the people from death to sin to eternal life.

The question that still bounces around my mind is, "Why?" Why would God deliver God’s people from death to eternal life? This is an amazing thing to think about. God is offering a way through death to eternal life. But why? That question is answered in one of the most memorized and most quoted verses of the Bible. John 3:16: "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life." There’s the answer. Why did God deliver us from death and offer eternal life? Love. Love – that most confusing of all emotions. Love – that topic of countless novels, songs, and movies. Love.

The Beatles sang, "all you need is love." Perhaps if we were to look at that song in connection with this passage we hear the gospel preached in a different form. Indeed, Jesus seems to be saying to Nicodemus that all you need is love – God’s love. And that has already been given to the world. All the world has to do is embrace it.

Throughout the gospel of John, Jesus is referred to as light coming into the world. Jesus is the light that shines in the darkness. Jesus is the light that no darkness can overcome.

In his commentary, Lamar Williamson offered this illustration. When you walk into a dark kitchen and flip on a light roaches will flee from the light while moths will fly to it. By flipping on the light you were merely intending to get a glass of water not to cast judgment. But when the light was flipped on, those that loved darkness fled from the light while those who love light flew to it. They judged themselves.

John consistently uses the image of God’s light coming into the world as a metaphor for Christ. So we have Christ coming as light into the world and the people rather than running toward the light act more like cockroaches and run away instead.

I don’t know about you but I don’t see very well in the dark. I tend to run in to things when I can’t see them. The cats know that if I’m stumbling around in the dark that they had better just get out of my way. When you flip on the light in the bathroom there is that time when you squint your eyes and try to escape the light for just a little longer. The dark was rather comfortable and the light can hurt your eyes.

Recent studies have shown how important morning light is for your body’s health. Researchers have studied the health of people who work the night shift and compared it with those who work a day shift and the results were fascinating. Those who worked the day shift were healthier than those who worked the night shift. After eliminating other possible factors, scientists were able to determine that exposure to light is a major factor in the difference of health between these two populations. Light is good for you.

Of course marketers have picked up on this study and I have now seen alarm clocks that will simulate the light that occurs during sunrise as a way to wake you up. There are special light banks available for people who live in climates that are low in sunlight. Like milk, light does the body good.

In this passage, Jesus tells Nicodemus that the people preferred the darkness to the light. If the light is so good for us then why would we want to avoid it? I saw a recent commercial for Chef Boyardee where the father notices that the can says "full serving of vegetables." When he tries to share that information with his wife (the son is eating a bowl of the food next to him) she first turns on the garbage disposal to block out his words. The man tries again and the woman clanks pots and pans together and gives him the "be quiet" look. The message is unmistakable. If the boy realizes that the food is supposedly good for him, then he won’t eat it.

We don’t always like to do what is good for us. Sometimes doing what is good for us will mean that we will have to change our ways. Jesus tells Nicodemus that the people loved the darkness because they didn’t want their evil deeds exposed to the light. There are certainly some things that we have all done that we wish we could take back. There are some things that we all want to keep hidden in the dark reaches of the closet.

We might think that if someone knew that one thing about us they would be incapable of loving us so we shove it back into the closet. We might think to ourselves that certainly if someone was able to find out that I had done this, they would not love me. We might even think that if God knew that one thing about us that God would certainly consider us un-loveable.

Well I’ve got a news flash for you: God already knows. God loves you all the same.

The Israelites were wandering around in the wilderness, complaining that God had rescued them from slavery to the Egyptians. When faced with the snakes, the people cried out to God and God delivered them by lifting up the bronze serpent. Even when the people were complaining about being delivered from slavery, God loved them.

And just as Moses lifted up the bronze serpent, God lifted up Christ on the cross that whoever looks upon him might live. And the reason for all this: love. God’s love for God’s people was so strong that in order to get them through any ordeal he offered his Son that we might look upon his light. Christ’s light comes into our lives and illumines all the dark corners. When Christ enters your life, nothing can be hidden. The things you shoved under the bed and in the dark recesses of the closet are illuminated and known by God. And you know what? The light still shines, the love of God still surrounds you.

God gave the Israelites a way through the snakes to life. God gives us a way through sin and death to eternal life. The way is illuminated by God’s love. Thanks be to God.