Look Up

March 25, 2012

by John Partridge Scripture: Numbers 21:4-9 John 3:14-21 Ephesians 2:1-10

Have you ever watched one of the morning news shows that is broadcast from Times Square in New York? If you havent seen them, maybe you watched the big New Years Eve party in Times Square and watched the ball drop at midnight. Close your eyes. I want you to put that picture in your mind. Imagine that you are standing on the sidewalk in Times Square. Got it? Now there you are, you can hear the honking of car horns and feel the press of the thousands of people that pass through every day. You can smell vendors selling hot dogs, bagels, gyros, falafel and all sorts of wonderful things as well as the hint of yesterdays garbage. As you stand there, amid all the hustle and bustle, you can see hundreds of billboards, electronic billboards, lights and the giant ticker that constantly types out the news of the day as well as the current stock exchange reports. Can you imagine it? Now tell me, where has your eye been drawn? In that place, filled with advertisers and others who are competing for your attention, where are you looking? While none of us wants to trip over our own feet, it is a difficult to pass through that place and only look at your feet or down at the sidewalk. In that place, even the natives have a tendency to look up to see what is going on. Many times in our experience we find that our attention is drawn upward. When we attend a basketball game or a football game or even some of the larger track meets the scoreboard is where? Usually up. At rock concerts the stage seems tiny and so they use giant televisions and projections systems so that the audience can see better and where are they projected? Usually, up. Fireworks on the Fourth of July? Up. Traffic lights? Up. The Goodyear Blimp? Up. At the beach airplanes tow messages that compel you to look up to read them. If someone wants to get attention in a room full of people or if they want to speak, they usually stand up. Our daily lives are filled with all sorts of things that compete for our attention and it seems natural to us that our attention is attracted to the things that are higher than others, the things that make us look up, and that doesnt even include the things we find in the natural world, like the sun and the clouds and the stars. This is the same idea that people had thousands of years ago. Cities and fortresses were built on hills because they were more defensible but palaces and temples were built on hills so that they would be visible to everyone and so that they would attract attention and so that people would have to look up to see them. Not surprisingly, we find this same idea in the Bible, but in doing so we find that there is a very special difference. We begin in Numbers 21:4-9 as the people of Israel are being led out of slavery in Egypt
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They traveled from Mount Hor along the route to the Red Sea, to go around Edom. But the people grew impatient on the way; 5 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! Then the LORD sent venomous snakes among them; they bit the people and many Israelites died. 7 The people came to Moses and said, We sinned when we spoke against the LORD and against you. Pray that the LORD will take the snakes away from us. So Moses prayed for the people. The LORD said to Moses, Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live. So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, he lived.
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The people of Israel escaped from slavery in Egypt and almost as soon as they were free, they began to complain about Moses and about God, about the food, the heat, the water, and about how long their journey was taking. 1

God was so irritated by their complaining that he sent poisonous snakes to get their attention and remind them of what was really important. Anyone who was bitten by a snake, died and the people repented of their sin. They came to Moses, who they had just been complaining about, and they confessed their sin and they asked him to pray that God would save them. Gods answer was for Moses to build a pole with a bronze snake at the top and to raise the pole and snake up so that everyone could look up and see it. Anyone who looked up was healed and did not die. So why is this important? In John 3:14-21, Jesus talks about Moses, the snakes and himself.
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Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of Gods one and only Son. 19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. 21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God. How often have we read or recited John 3:16? For many of us, probably a thousand times. So in those thousand readings and recitations of John 3:16, how many times have we realized that Jesus was comparing himself to a bronze snake on the end of a pole? Probably not many, maybe none. Even if we hadnt thought of it that way before, Jesus says that his life is just like that. He will be raised up, like the bronze snake in the desert so that people might look up and be saved. Jesus would be dragged to the edge of town, stripped naked, nailed to a cross and left to die as an example of what happens to those who oppose Roman authority, but Jesus says that this is all to accomplish a greater purpose. Jesus says that he will be lifted up to attract our attention just as we would look up to see a light that had appeared in the darkness. Whoever looks up to see Jesus, whoever comes into the light by living the truth, will not be condemned but will be saved through their faith in Jesus. In his letter to the church in Ephesus, Paul puts it this way (Ephesians 2:1-10)
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As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. 4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressionsit is by grace you have been saved. 6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faithand this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are Gods workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Paul says that we are just like the people in the desert who had been bitten by snakes. We are already dead. We suffer from a fatal and incurable disease and soon or later, death will find us. We might like to argue that we are not that bad. Most of us are not rapists or murderers. We havent stolen the life savings of any senior citizens. There are all sorts of people who have done far worse things than we have. In fact, we are good people, we are active and involved in our communities, we do good things for other people, we trying to be a part of the solution instead of part of the problem, but Paul reminds us that this is not enough. We have followed the ways of the world. We have believed the messages of our culture and mixed up our priorities. We have gratified the 2

cravings of our sinful nature. We have not made God first in our lives. We get brought up short when we remember that the sin that angered God so much in the desert so many years ago was whining and complaining because from time to time we have all been guilty of complaining. From time to time we have all been guilty of disobedience, and Paul says because of it, we were all dead. But just like the people in the desert, God has provided an escape for us and all we have to do is look up. Jesus Christ was lifted up so that he would be a symbol of suffering and humiliation but God had other plans. In Gods plan, Jesus was lifted up so that we might all see his sacrifice and remember that he was there in our place. Jesus was lifted up so that we could look up and see him and remember what we had done to offend God and what Jesus had done for us. The people in the desert had a choice. They asked Moses to pray so that God would create a way for them to be saved in he did. The bronze snake was lifted up where everyone could see it, but the people had to come out of their tents and they had to look up so that they could see the snake and be healed. Our choice is similar. We have all sinned and committed offenses against God but Jesus Christ has been lifted up so that we can see him and remember his sacrifice. We can keep feeling sorry for ourselves and we can keep our focus on the trash and the graffiti that we find near our feet, or we can look up and see Jesus. We can keep our focus on our everyday lives or we can look up and remember the richness of Gods grace and mercy. We can listen to the lie of the enemy that we are terrible people and we can believe that we are stupid and ugly and useless or we can look up and remember that we are Gods workmanship. We have been created in the image of God and in the image of Jesus Christ so that we could accomplish the work that God has prepared for us to do. You dont have to be in Times Square to notice that the world is competing for our attention but God calls us to remember that the message of John 3:16 is a call to look up. Whenever we feel like were not good enough, all we have to do is look up. Whenever we feel like God couldnt possibly love us, all we have to do is look up. Whenever we feel depressed, sad, lonely, stupid, ugly, useless, attacked, beaten down, or broken all we need to do is look up and see the risen Christ and his sacrifice. All we need to do is remember that he gave himself because of Gods great love for each one of us. Sometimes we mistakenly think of the season of Lent as a time of sadness but that isnt true. Instead, it is a time that we can hear God calling us to repent and put our sadness behind us. Today I hope that each of us will hear God calling us to look up and remember his Son, Jesus.

You have been reading a message presented at Barnesville First United Methodist Church on the date noted at the top of the first page. Rev. John Partridge is the pastor of Barnesville First. Duplication of this message is a part of our Media ministry, if you have received a blessing in this way, we would love to hear from you. Letters and donations in support of the Media ministry or any of our other projects may be sent to Barnesville First UMC at 123 W. Church St., Barnesville, OH 43713. These messages are available to any interested persons regardless of membership. You may subscribe to these messages, in print or electronic formats, by writing to the address noted, or by contacting us at subscribe@barnesvillefirst.com. If you have questions, you can ask them in our discussion forum on Facebook (search for Pastor John Online). These messages can also be found online at http://www.scribd.com/Pastor John Partridge. All Scripture references are from the New International Version unless otherwise noted.