Meghan, Harry, and a Snake on a Stick (Reflections on Lent 4, Year B)

“And 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.” (John 3:14) 

So last week the American media went bizzaco as the celebrated Oprah Winfrey aired her tell-every-embarrassing-detail interview with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. This begs the oft-asked question: Why should anyone in America actually give a crap about an excessively privileged young couple and their progeny who have no government function and no real impact on any of our lives? 

I really had to think about this one for a moment. Of course, we all love the idea that there are real, live princes and princesses in this world. As I thought about it, however, I started to conclude there might be something of real significance here. These kids were chased out of the land where they had planned to live because intrusive scrutiny, judgmental badgering, racist innuendo, and voracious fault-finding of the tabloid press made their lives unbearable. This, in turn, begs the question: Why would so-called “journalists” indulge in such a feeding frenzy of criticism and gossip mongering? Answer: Because people will pay to read it. 

This is all just one more petty example of our collective sin. We see a flaw in someone, and then we start looking for more flaws so we can feel smugly superior and indulge in a sense of self-righteousness without seeing either the hurt or the humanity. We as human beings have been doing it for centuries. We did it to Jesus when he hung helpless on the cross.[i]

 We see it also in the First Lesson appointed for Lent 4, Year B (Numbers 21:4-9). God’s Chosen People are throwing a bust-out “Dump on Moses” party, whining and complaining and taking a bath in self-righteous indignation. In a way, you can’t blame them for being frustrated. They’ve been wandering a long time in a totally lousy environment, and arriving in a livable homeland isn’t even a blip on their radar. They have to fight the hostiles constantly. Even the non-belligerent locals won’t let them drink from their wells or pass through their lands, forcing the Israelites to make boring and sweaty detours to avoid getting their butts whooped by stronger tribes. Their high priest just dropped dead on Mt. Hor, and they might be wondering if they’ll live long enough to see God make good on the promise to bring them back home. To top it all off, the food really stinks. 

So what do they do? They find someone to blame. In this case, it’s God and their prophet, Moses. You can bet that one Israelite really got his shorts in a knot over something, and then complained to another. “Yeah, Bro,” his friend would reply. “You’re right. This whole situation really sucks, and it’s all Moses’ fault! If he was a better prophet, we wouldn’t be stuck out here. And God sucks, too. A really first-class God wouldn’t treat Chosen People like this.” Of course, these guys forget that they’ve been delivered from slavery and they’ve been provided food and water every day of their lives. No, they just want to find someone they can look down on. So let the grumbling begin. The people can now massage their own frustration by gossiping, judging, and fault-finding at someone else’s expense. I’ll bet they enjoyed it, too.[ii] 

So what does God do? God give s them a punishment that fits their sin. If they want to poison their community with their mouths, God will send them some real poisoned mouths in the form of venomous snakes. This may seem rather vindictive on the Almighty’s part, but I see it as a reminder that sin has consequences and God never protects us from the fallout of our own stupidity and disobedience. If we indulge a desire to judge and denigrate others—whether racially, politically, socially, or for any other reason—we are going to reap what we sow.

 But there’s also good news here. God is gracious and merciful, and gives Moses a suggestion to fix things. When the crybabies figure out God’s not happy with them, Moses makes a bronze snake and puts it in a stick so they can see the thing that frightens them. They can also see a mirror of their own behavior. No real repentance can come until we’re able to see and know ourselves as sinners. 

Perhaps you’ve found yourself getting frustrated while wandering in this COVID-19 wilderness and you’ve begun unloading on someone else. I don’t have a snake on a stick to show you, but I can point to Jesus on the cross—the ultimate “celebrity” victim of a critical and thoughtless humanity—and remind you that he’s there for you. When we see him lifted up on the cross, we are reminded of his great love for us, but we should also reminded of our own tendency toward mockery and cruelty. When we see Jesus crucified we need to remember this is our pain because this is our sin.

 The purpose of God’s Law is always to bring us back, by the knowledge of sin, to our need for grace. In times when we let our frustrations turn us into poisonous serpents, we might do well to review Luther’s explanation to the Eighth Commandment:

 We are to fear and love God, so that we do not tell lies about our neighbors, betray or slander them, or destroy their reputations. Instead we are to come to their defense, speak well of them, and interpret everything they do in the best possible light.[iii]

 Or. Maybe we should just take a breath and recall that our walk with God will never be about what happens to us, but truly about how we embrace it. I hope I can embrace any frustrations I might have by obeying the dictum Rabbi Ariel Burger learned from the great Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel: Never allow anyone to be humiliated in your presence.[iv]

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[i] See Matthew 27:38-40, Mark 15:27-32, Luke 23:35-38

[ii] I know I would.

[iii] See Luther’s Small Catechism.

[iv] See a review of Burger’s book on Wiesel’s teachings by clicking Elie Wiesel.