cross is a healing and a lifting up - 4th Sunday lent B
Two things this Sunday.
First, Jesus compared his death on the cross to the bronze serpent lifted up by Moses on a pole. People in Moses’ time were told to look to the bronze snake lifted high on the pole so that those who were bitten by the snake may be healed. In comparing his cross and the bronze serpent, Jesus is telling us that his cross is not punishment, his cross is not just an expiation or payment for sins, but his cross is healing.
Lent is about healing. It is about restoring to health that which was weakened in us, it is about reviving the good which may have been dead or neglected for years, it is about fixing or patching up that which have needs mending. We are wounded in so many ways, and it is not just physical. Relationships need to be mended, memories need to be healed, emotions such as betrayal, abandonment, an injustice or a rejection, these needs healing especially.
Just as the Israelites look to the bronze serpent in order to be healed, we look on the cross of Jesus so that we too may be restored and cured.
And so we ask: what is in me that needs to be made whole, what is in my relationship that needs to be mended, what painful memories need to be healed, what emotional pains need to be overcome?
Second, in John’s gospel the cross is always a lifting up. It is not a humiliation, it is not defeat, it is not abandonment. The cross is Jesus’ glorification, it is his triumph and his victory. That is why John ended the cross with what we traditionally refer to as the seventh word of Jesus on the cross – it is finished, it is accomplished.
When we are humiliated, when our work is not appreciated, when our achievements are not acknowledged, when we are suffering because of the responsibilities we have to carry, these are our crosses, and for John these are crosses that should not weigh us down but should lift us up. These are our glorification.
This I believe is what make this 4thSunday of Lent a Laetare Sunday, a day of rejoicing.
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