Jesus had been preparing his disciples and followers for his impending separation from them while they were on the road to Jerusalem. Today we find Jesus in Jerusalem speaking hard words to the Pharisees and other leaders. Some think he will go away; others think that he is contemplating suicide, and others seemed to want to go with him. He responds by telling them that they are from below and will die in their sins.
Then he says:
When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will realize that I AM,
and that I do nothing on my own, but I say only what the Father taught me.
The phrase I AM is the name of God. It is the name that God used to present himself to Moses. The “lift up” phrase refers to the incident in today’s first reading and of course to the Cross. The people of Israel received their freedom from slavery from God and everything they needed in the desert to sustain their lives. Yet they complained! They took five steps further away from God’s path. They wanted more and they wanted what they thought would be better. God sends snakes among them. They run to Moses to ask God to destroy the snakes. But God leaves the snakes in their midst: all their doubts, lack of faith, lack of confidence, complaints, quarreling, violence, deceptions, sickness, and sins. I am always amazed by this part of the story. It is a reaction so unexpected. Personally, I would expect God to either save the people by destroying the snakes or just let the unfaithful people die in the desert. But God called them to look at the lifted-up image of a snake to be cured. With a very deep faith and confidence, they had to contemplate and recognize their own sin to be cured. They had to change their viewpoint on life and enter into conversion. They had to live within the providence of God while surrounded by what they considered hard times and difficult experiences.
Many people could not look at Jesus nor hear his words and change. That is why they remain those five steps off the path. As we draw closer to Holy Week, look to the Cross to find the path to abundant life.
Image: What Our Lord Saw from the Cross (Ce que voyait Notre-Seigneur sur la Croix) is a c. 1890 watercolor painting by the French painter James Tissot. The work is unusual for its portrayal of the Crucifixion of Jesus from the perspective of Jesus on the cross, rather than featuring him at the center of the work.
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