Snake in the Tree, Not in the Grass

Just trying to capture the thought from our discussion last night. I heard this idea from Rabbi Thomson, the guy whose picture is hanging in the Sukkah, and expanded the thought.

Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. (John 3:14-15)

This passage in scripture, written by John, has always been a bit puzzling to me. I understand that JESUS was lifted up, but why did John choose to depict JESUS as a snake? If the picture was simply "lifted up," then John could have said, "Just as Moses lifted up his hands" or "Just as Moses ascended the Mountain." As in all biblical pictures, the meaning is much deeper than seen at the initial glance.

In scripture, the "snake or serpent" is frequently used to depict Satan and those associated with him. It was the serpent in the Garden who deceived Eve (Gen 3:1) and was condemned to craw in the dust, evil men are said to have the "poison of vipers on their lips" (Psa 140:3), John called some who were coming to him "you brood of vipers (Luke 3:7), a term also used by JESUS in reference to the teachers of the law and Pharisees (Matt 23:33), and in Revelations, John refers to Satan as "that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray." (Rev 12:9). I see the picture of believers who can "will pick up snakes with their hands…it will not hurt them at all" (Mark 16:18) as a testimony of the power of GOD in the believer over Satan, rather than a commandment to pick up snakes. So given the frequent comparison of snakes to Satan, why is this image used to depict JESUS?

Peter tells us "He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed" (1 Peter 2:24). I cannot comprehend how one man could carry the sins of the entire world both past and future. But at the moment in time when JESUS "bore our sins," John implies, through his reference to the snake, that JESUS took on the appearance of the author of all sin, that is Satan. In that condition and for that instant, the LORD was distant from HIS SON, which led to the exclamation from the cross, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Matt 27:46).

Through that sacrifice, "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God" (2 Cor 5:21). Or stated another way, "GOD made him who had no sin to become a snake so that we who were snakes might become righteous before GOD."