Jesus and the Snake

One of the most famous stories in the Bible happened when a man named Nicodemus came to Jesus at night to talk to Him privately. He was a Pharisee, so he most likely wanted to talk to him privately to avoid being seen by others. The first thing Nicodemus said to Jesus was, "Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher, for no one could perform these signs You do unless God were with him." (John 3:2)

After giving Jesus a compliment, he was probably surprised at Jesus’ response: "I assure you," Jesus said, "unless someone is born again he cannot see the Kingdom of God." Since Nicodemus had never heard the phrase “born again,” it wasn’t surprising that he was confused. He replied, "How can anyone be born who is old? Can he enter his mother‘s womb a second time and be born?"

“Jesus answered, "I assure you: Unless someone is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. Whatever is born of the flesh is flesh, and whatever is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be amazed that I told you that you must be born again." (John 3:5-7)

If you don’t understand what Jesus is talking about here, don’t feel bad. Nicodemus’ response was, "How can these things be?" Again, Jesus was very direct in his answer. He said, "You‘re Israel‘s teacher and you don‘t understand these things?" (John 3:10) Perhaps Jesus knew that Nicodemus’s greatest obstacle to understanding the truth of salvation was that he would no longer be able to trust the things he thought he knew. In order to come to Jesus, it requires faith, a life of simple trust in Him, and nothing else. All of the laws that Nicodemus was following (and sometimes failing to follow) could not save him. He needed to be “born again” spiritually.

In order to explain how faith in Him would need to be shown, Jesus pointed to a story about Moses. He said, "Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in Him will have eternal life." (John 3:14-15)

FLASHBACK

Since Nicodemus was a scholar of the Old Testament, he already knew this story about Moses – the man God used to rescue the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. When God delivered them, He performed some incredible miracles that displayed both His power and His faithfulness to His chosen people. Because Pharoah would not let the Israelites (his slaves) leave, God sent ten different disasters on them until Pharoah finally let them go. After the Israelites left Egypt, Pharoah changed his mind and went after them with his army. Just when it looked like they were trapped in between the Red Sea and the Egyptian army, God split the waters apart and let the Israelites cross on dry ground – but when the Egyptian army tried to go after them, God let the waters close back up so that the entire army drowned!

Even after these amazing events, there were many times that God’s people worshipped idols instead of Him and complained about how God wasn’t taking care of them. During one of their journeys, ―they spoke against God and against Moses, and said, "Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the desert? There is no bread! There is no water! And we detest this miserable food!‘" (Numbers 21:5) Can you imagine that? Even after all God had done to show His love and care for them, they accused Him of leading them to the desert to die!

So what was God’s response? He sent poisonous snakes. All of the sudden, they were constantly coming across dangerous serpents and many people were bitten and died. It must have made them paranoid! Everywhere they stepped, every time they laid down to sleep, and every time they sat down to rest, they were on the lookout for them. Finally, they came to their senses and confessed their sinful attitude to Moses and begged him to ask God to take the snakes away.

God listened to their prayer, but He didn’t take the snakes away. Instead, He chose to come up with His own solution – as He often does. His directions were confusing, but simple. God told Moses to tell the people to make a snake out of bronze and put it on a pole. Then, if anyone is bitten, they can simply look at the bronze snake and they would not die.

We can guess that the Israelites would have rather had God simply get rid of the snakes. Wouldn’t you? After all, they were still poisonous snakes all around them! They could still be bitten and there were probably many who were still very scared of them. The only way they could have any peace at all was if they genuinely believed that God would actually heal them if they were bitten. All they had to do was to have faith that God would do what He said and look to the snake on the pole.

BACK TO JESUS

When Jesus said that He would be “lifted up” like the bronze snake, He was talking about the cross on which He would die. When He was crucified, He was taking the deserved punishment for the sins of the world on Himself. It’s as if we were in a courtroom judged guilty of a major crime and about to receive our sentence of spending our entire lives in prison and all of the sudden Jesus showed up and offered to take the punishment for us so that we can go free.

It’s only when we know the story about Moses and the bronze snake that we can truly understand the most famous words in the Bible. In John 3:16, Jesus said, "For God so loved the world that he gave His one and only Son so that whoever believes in Him will not perish (go to Hell), but have eternal life."

Our response to what Jesus did, however, is very important. If you believe that you are basically a good person who doesn’t have many sins to be forgiven, you probably won’t look to Him for forgiveness. Instead, you will be like an Israelite who, after being injected with poison, refuses to look at the bronze snake on the pole.

But if you realize that we have "all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23) and have been injected with a poison called “sin”, then you may react as the Israelites who were bitten and had faith in God. Believing His words, they simply looked to the bronze snake and lived. In a similar way, we can look to Jesus on the cross and avoid the worst death of all – eternal separation from God (Hell).

Your life on earth will change as well. You can experience what Jesus called being “born again.” For those who place their faith in Jesus as both their Savior and Lord, they have the peace that death is not final. . In the same way that the Israelites no longer had to fear the snakes, we have the assurance that death will only lead us to Heaven. We also have the joy of knowing that our lives have purpose and that doing God’s will and loving others gives us meaning in life.

Discussion Questions:

1. Who was Nicodemus? Why do you think he wanted to talk to Jesus alone?

2. What did Jesus say that confused Nicodemus so much? (“born again”) What do you think Jesus meant when He said, “You must be born again?”

3. Who was Moses? What are the main things that Moses is known for?

4. Even after God delivered the people of Israel from Egypt by sending ten disasters and the miracle of walking across the Red Sea, they still had times of disobeying God. How do you think could they possibly do that?

5. Imagine that you were an Israelite during this time. After the bronze snake had been made and put on a pole, would you still be afraid of the snakes? Why or why not?

6. What does it mean to trust in Jesus to be forgiven instead of trusting in your own goodness?