3rd Saturday of Lent (March 9). We have sinned

Prepare to Listen.  We have sinned by speaking against the LORD and against you; pray to the LORD.
 
Prayerfully Read Numbers 21:4-9; John 3:14-15
4From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; but the people became impatient on the way.  5The 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.’  6Then the LORD sent poisonous serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many Israelites died.  7The people came to Moses and said, ‘We have sinned by speaking against the LORD and against you; pray to the LORD to take away the serpents from us.’  So Moses prayed for the people.  8And 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.’  9So 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.
John 3:14-15
14And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
 
Prayerfully Wonder and Reflect
What caught your attention in today’s reading?
 
I suspect most of us disregard Numbers as a book to encourage our faith.  Nevertheless, I also suspect most of us are familiar with this story of poisonous serpents because of Jesus’ well-known words, “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.”  We focus on Jesus’ words, and ignore the story of the Hebrews in the wilderness.  Can we learn anything from Numbers that will help us understand Jesus and/or ourselves better?  I believe we can.
 
They complained; so do we, albeit about different stuff.  The newly freed slaves quickly became restless and complained.  “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.”  That “miserable food” was manna, their daily bread from God.  Rejecting the food was rejecting God.  The poisonous serpents got their attention.  Sometimes, when we’re too deaf, too rebellious to hear God, drastic measures are called for.  The question is: How will we respond when God acts to get our attention?
 
The Hebrews repented.  “We have sinned by speaking against the LORD and against you; pray to the LORD to take away the serpents from us.”  God was gracious, providing the means of healing and forgiveness—a bronze serpent on a pole.  Jesus likened this act to his death on the cross and “whoever believes in him may have eternal life,” healing and wholeness now and forever.
 
What do you need to repent of today?  Repent and look to the cross and receive God’s grace of forgiveness.
 
Prayerfully Respond
Lord, we have known your forgiveness and yet we still fall.  Keep us ever looking to you, the one lifted up, and help us lift you up high so that others may look to you as well and believe.  Amen.
 
Live obediently.  Lift high the cross.