Strange Remedy - Sermon for Holy Cross Day (September 14, 2025)

Scripture Readings: Numbers 21:4–9 | Psalm 78:1–2, 34–38 | 1 Corinthians 1:18–24 | John 3:13–17

“For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” (1 Corinthians 1:18).
 
Do you ever find yourself wondering “How did our world get into this crazy situation? Who led us into this mess? And how can things be set right again?”
 
There’s certainly no denying that things are not great in a lot of places right now. Our world is facing a whole host of complicated and serious threats. And understandably, a lot of people are worried about it… and are pushing for some sort of straightforward solution… a remedy for all these troubles that they can comfortably wrap their heads around… that makes sense to us.
 
Unfortunately, both history and current events reminds us that one of humanity’s go-to solutions for dealing with tough times is to turn on each other… to use violence, intimidation, and shame… attacking others, especially those we see as different, to try and make ourselves feel more powerful and secure.  
 
In contrast, and despite how some keep trying to co-opt and corrupt the Christian faith to serve this agenda… the Good News of Jesus turns this way of dealing with times of trouble completely on its head. And our Scripture readings this morning remind us that, instead of turning against others when things get tough… the Living God has given us somewhere surprising to turn to lead us into life.
 
Our Gospel reading today includes one of the most familiar passages in the Bible… John 3:16. In many ways, this verse has come to be understood as a short summary of the whole Christian faith… the key to understanding and wrapping our heads around what the Good News is all about.
 
But this beautiful, well-beloved passage doesn’t simply stand alone: it comes to us in the context of another story from Israel’s ancient past… a short, strange, and confusing story about God’s people bringing suffering onto themselves… and God giving them the strangest remedy in order to save them.
 
In our first reading today, from the Book of Numbers… Israel was nearing the end of their wilderness wanderings. They had been set free from slavery in Egypt, had been invited into a sacred covenant relationship with the Living God, and were now on their way to the Promised Land. Now that simplified version of the story is true, but the whole story is much less straightforward, and much more messy.
 
Instead of being a direct journey from slavery into paradise, God’s people consistently got themselves into trouble along the way: they complain against both God and Moses whenever they face trouble, despite everything the LORD had done for them… they break God’s sacred covenant almost immediately with the whole Golden Calf debacle at Mt. Sinai… and when they first reach the borders of the Promised Land, they flat out refuse to go in… afraid to face the powerful enemies ahead, despite God’s own presence with them. And so, for forty years, they have been forced to wander about in the wilderness… waiting until the old guard who doubted God died out, and the next generation was given their chance to faithfully follow the LORD.
 
But once again, when Israel finds themselves in trouble… in a difficult situation where they are being challenged to place their trust in God… they prove their unfaithfulness… and just like their parents, they grumble and complain against the LORD, calling His character and intentions into question.
 
Numbers 21:5, “The people spoke against God and against Moses, ‘Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we detest this miserable food.”
 
How did they get in this mess? Was it because God and Moses had it out for them? That’s what they seemed to think. But no, this was a mess of their own making.  
 
After all, God had originally intended for His people to be in the Promised Land by now! They were struggling because of the people’s own fear, and lack of faith, and their repeated refusal to trust the LORD… even after the many years that he already provided for and sustained them in that empty and wasted land.
 
Their real problem wasn’t a lack of food and water. Their real problem was that they would not trust God. Despite all He had done, they did not believe that He really cared about them… that He could provide them with what they needed. Despite their oath to be faithful to God at Mt. Sinai, and to follow His ways… when push came to shove, they were no different at heart than their unfaithful forefathers.
 
And so, God sends them even more trouble… a serious and straightforward consequence for their rebellious spirit: poisonous snakes enter their camp, and cause the people great suffering and even death.
 
But even though they had called this sad fate on themselves, once again the LORD proves that He is not the uncaring, unmerciful monster they imagine Him to be. God hears their cries, and in response to Moses’ prayers of intercession, the LORD provides a way for His ungrateful, unfaithful people to be spared the death they had earned for themselves.
 
Numbers 5:8-9, “And the Lord said to Moses, ‘Make a poisonous serpent, and set it on a pole; and everyone who is bitten shall look at it and live.’  So Moses made a serpent of bronze, and put it upon a pole; and whenever a serpent bit someone, that person would look at the serpent of bronze and live.”
 
Now, I don’t think this is the kind of remedy that you or I would have come up with. Am I right? It doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense. How does looking at a bronze snake counteract the effects of toxic venom? It seems like complete foolishness.
 
And yet, this was the way that the LORD opened up to spare the lives of His people: they were invited to look upon an image depicting the source of their suffering… and be healed. Or they could refuse to look at the bronze snake… the image of the source of their torment… and die. They were being confronted with the consequences of their unfaithfulness, and given a choice to trust in God’s remedy… or not.
 
They had led themselves there, and had gotten themselves into this mess… and were now reaping the rewards of their own unfaithfulness. But rather than have them make excuses, or even make amends… the LORD simply tells them to look… look at an image of a snake on a pole… and to trust that, even if they can’t yet understand how… this act of faith in God would truly lead them into life.
 
Of course, the ideas of images and snakes have a lot of weight in the story of the Bible, going way back to the earliest chapters of Genesis.
 
There we’re told that human beings were created to be God’s own living images… to represent Him within Creation, and to embody His goodness and holy love.
 
But after the humans were deceived by the serpent to rebel against God’s good rule, humanity’s ability to reflect God’s image became deeply distorted, and humans turned on each other, filling God’s good world with violence, fear, and shame.
 
And so in time, God rescued Israel and set them apart to be His chosen, covenant people… to faithfully follow His holy ways, and begin to reflect His goodness and holy love again… recapturing a clearer sense of God’s image, so that the other nations could draw near as well and find life.
 
But now, rather than embodying and reflecting God’s image, they too had become more and more like the snake… the devious enemy of humanity that worked to undermine our trust in the LORD… leading us to our deaths by cutting us off from the Living God, and from one another.
 
So when the bronze snake was lifted up, in a way they were witnessing their own distorted image… their sinful state was being held up and exposed. And yet, this painful confrontation with their own guilt was not the path to condemnation, it was the means of receiving the gracious gift of God’s great mercy and salvation!
 
Like the snake, they had deserved death. But God gives them life instead!
 
How much of our world’s ways of dealing with evil and sin rests on the denial that we’re also a part of the problem? We seem to easily turn to using violence, fear, and shame… locating evil and sin in those others, and seek to eradicate it by punishing them… but we don’t dare to look to closely at the image of the snake in our own hearts.

But the Good News is, despite the mess we have all made of this world… the LORD still seeks to save us. And as we heard in our Gospel reading today, Jesus draws on this strange story of a snake on a stick to shed light on His own story… and to show us the significance of the strange path of salvation that His own death opens up for us all.
 
John 3:14-16, “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. 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.”
 
Just as the snake was lifted up on a pole, Jesus, the Son of Man and Son of God… the true image of the Living God, was lifted up on the cross… so that all those bound to sin and death… that is, our entire world… might look to Him in faith, and find in Him God’s gift of eternal life.
 
This is the remedy that we believers have received, and this is the hope that we have to share with our world. This is the way God has offered to us in our sufferings to lead us all into life. We may think it strange, or even foolish at times, and we may not completely understand it all. We may even be tempted to grumble about it, and long for the resources and supposed answers being lifted up by those around us.
 
But the Good News of Jesus Christ the Risen Lord calls us to look at the cross, again and again, and remember that this is the way that God’s saving love has forever broken the power of death, and set us free from sin.
 
The world looks to the cross and expects to see a sinner… someone condemned to a violent, terrifying, and shame-filled death. But when we look at the cross with eyes of faith, in the place of the sinner we see God’s own sinless Son taking our place… and turning death into life… fear into freedom… and shame into eternal glory.
 
Looking at the cross, we now see Jesus’ new life offered to us freely as a gift… a gift that requires us to own up to our own share of the blame for our broken world… to look straight at the fate we have earned for ourselves… but find there the gracious gift of God given to us all. Not just to us, and those like us, but also to those we see as enemies.
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The cross of Jesus Christ is our remedy, and the heart of our Christian response to the brokenness of our world. For it is there that God’s holy love has been poured out to save everyone… and to transform us into the kinds of people who reflect God’s goodness and holy love in all that we do.
 
So as we witness, and wade into the messiness and brokenness of our world today, let us continue to look to the cross and see there the rescuing love of Jesus, our world’s only Saviour. And let us draw near to Christ’s table in faith, and receive from Him the remedy of God's love that will not only bring us life, but which will bring life to everyone who will believe. Amen.