Numbers 21:4-9 Ephesians 2:1-10 John 3:14-21 Psalm 107:1-3, 17-22

Jesus said, “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.”

What do you see when you gaze upon a crucifix, when you gaze upon the bleeding, dying Jesus on the cross?

We are so very blessed at the Church of the Advent to have in our midst the Christus Rex that adorns the wall above the altar.  Christus Rex – Christ the King, victorious over the grave.  His hands and feet bear the wounds of the nails that affixed his body on the cross.  But, upon his head is the crown of victory; his countenance is that of complete satisfaction and welcome.  His gaze draws us into his abundantly welcoming arms.  He is the victor, and as we gaze upon this gift, we glory evermore in the blessings of our salvation through the one perfect and complete sacrifice.

The more reformed Protestant churches, on the other hand, typically place an empty cross as the focal point of their worship spaces.  The empty cross declares that Christ has come down from the cross and been raised from the dead.  Christ has redeemed us from our sins; the cross no longer bears the broken bleeding body of our Lord.

The empty cross remains the symbol of the salvation for all humankind.  The cross we wear tells the world that we are followers of Jesus Christ who has come down from the cross and risen from the dead.  This symbol of degradation and death is our symbol of salvation and life.  We wrap it in purple and lift it up for the world to see.

In contrast, our Roman Catholic brothers and sisters in Christ along with other orthodox traditions of the world feature the Crucifix – the bleeding, dying Christ on the cross.  Every painful wound – the raw gaping slash marks of the whip, the gravel-filled abrasions suffered with each fall under the weight of the cross and the brutality of the guards who pushed and shoved Jesus along the path to the cross, the bleeding wounds of the nails so barbarously hammered through the tendons of his feet and hands – every painful bleeding wound is a remnant of our sins – the sins of our bleeding and broken world, so readily accepted and suffered by our Lord.

What do you see when you gaze upon a crucifix, when you gaze upon the bleeding, dying Jesus on the cross?

In this amazing Old Testament account of the Israelites in the wilderness, Moses is instructed by God to set a bronze serpent upon a pole – the very symbol of the peoples’ death that had been brought about by their sin.  Now, God has overcome this source of death; returning to obedience, the people live.  Looking upon this source of death, now overcome by God, they are saved.

Our Gospel lesson begins with Jesus’ 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.”

As we move day by day through this season of penitence, we are called to gaze upon the bleeding broken body of Jesus Christ upon the cross.  We are called to reflect with great intention on our place in the infliction of each of those wounds, contemplating just how it is that we are healed by those wounds.

So, as we walk through our Lenten wilderness, we focus our gaze on the Crucifix; we walk that journey to the cross; we stand there at Jesus’ feet.  This, we must do before we can begin to grasp the wideness of God’s healing grace and mercy.  This, we must do before we can gaze upon the glory of the Christus Rex with the wounded hands and feet and sing our most sincere and heartfelt hallelujahs.  With the Israelites in the wilderness, we gaze upon the source of impending death in order to embrace the reality of our salvation from death.  “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.”